Race Distinctions in American LawStephenson, Gilbert Thomas
History
Race Distinctions in American Law
Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas
African Americans -- Politics and government; Law -- United States -- History; United States -- Race relations
_Alabama._—County No. 1, 10,000 white people, 13,000 Negroes: “Negroes
are not allowed to sit upon juries in this county. It sometimes happens
that names of Negroes are placed in our jury-box by mistake on the part
of the jury commissioners, and are regularly drawn to serve as jurors;
this, however, is a very rare occurrence. Once in the past four years, a
Negro was drawn as a grand juror (by mistake) who appeared and insisted
upon the court’s impaneling him with other jurors, which was done in
accordance with law, the court having no legal right to discharge or
excuse him. My recollection is he served two days, when he was taken out
at night and severely beaten, and was then discharged on his own
petition by the court. This will convey to your mind that Negro jurors
are not very wholesomely regarded and tolerated in this county. The fact
is, Negroes have never been or never will be allowed to sit on juries in
this county.”
County No. 2, 5,000 white people, 21,000 Negroes: “I have lived in this
county for more than sixty-six years, and we have never had a Negro
juror in that time, nor do I ever expect to see one in the jury-box in
this county. Our adjoining counties have all had them, a number of years
ago.”
County No. 3, 5,000 white people, 27,000 Negroes: “Negroes do not serve
on juries in our courts. Such a state of affairs would be considered by
the people of this county as farcical. The Lord defend us from having
jurors of a race of people who are absolutely without regard for an
oath.”
_Arkansas._—County No. 1, 1,800 white people, 12,600 Negroes: “No
Negroes serve in this county on regular juries. Sometimes when hard to
obtain white jurors, a few Negroes may be taken in cases in J. P.
Courts, but not often. Even this habit is smaller than formerly, falling
off every year. Colored jurors [are] not looked upon as intelligent, and
very few as honest and possessing integrity, and they, as a rule, are
also uneducated.”
County No. 2, 14,000 white people, 29,800 Negroes: “No Negroes have
served on juries in the court of this county since 1894. Prior to that
time it was a common thing for them to be in the majority. I believe the
Negroes are fairly well pleased with the verdicts of all white jurors,
as the question is nearly always propounded to the juror, when it is a
Negro defendant: ‘Would you give the defendant the same consideration as
if he was a white man?’”
_Florida._—County No. 1, 17,000 white people, 22,000 Negroes: “It has
been many years since a Negro sat upon a jury in this court, and the
probability is, it will be many more. Negroes are not regarded as good
jurors, and I believe it to be a fact that a Negro would prefer being
tried by a white jury than a mixed jury, or a jury composed wholly of
Negroes; this applies to both civil and criminal matters.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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