Shelia Washington Dies at 61; Helped Exonerate Scottsboro Boys She fought for decades to get their names cleared from an egregious injustice in the Jim Crow South, and created a museum in their honor. Shelia Washington in an undated photo at the spot where the Scottsboro Boys were arrested. She recognized that their story was an important milestone in the annals of civil rights, and was determined that it be remembered. “The story dies if we don’t tell it,” she said.Credit...William H. Hampton Published Feb. 26, 2021Updated Feb. 27, 2021 Shelia Washington was cleaning her parents’ room at their home in Scottsboro, Ala., in the 1970s when she discovered a paperback book hidden in a pillowcase underneath the bed.