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
County No. 2, 11,000 white people, 12,000 Negroes: “Negroes do not sit
on the jury in this county, and have not since the days of ‘Carpet-Bag
Rule.’ I do not think a county in this State permits a Negro juryman.”
County No. 3, 6,000 white people, 8,000 Negroes: “Negro jurymen or other
officers are a thing of the past in our county and State. The oldest
person can hardly recall the time when we had such in our county, with
the exception of a very few years just after the war.”
County No. 4, 9,000 white people, 15,000 Negroes: “... in the circuit
court of the State it is very seldom that a Negro serves on the jury.
Negroes, as a rule, are not good jurors, for the reason that they are
usually very ignorant and can be easily influenced by others in the
rendering of their verdict. The Negro jurors, so far as the State courts
are concerned, are almost eliminated. In the Federal courts of the
State, a large number of Negroes serve on the juries....”
County No. 5, 2,300 white people, 2,700 Negroes: “The laws of this State
require that the county commissioners select not less than 290 nor more
than 310 ‘persons of approved integrity, fair character, sound judgment
and intelligence’ to serve as jurors. Therefore, because most of the
elder Negroes are illiterate and because most of the younger ones that
remain here are of other than fair character, there are but few Negroes,
about one per cent., whose names are drawn or selected to go into the
jury-box. If one is drawn as juror ... he serves as such juror, and no
one has ever objected to one so far as I know of. My experience covers a
period of ten years, during which time ... we have had only two Negroes
drawn as jurors. No person has ever appealed a case on account of not
having a Negro on the jury, nor has there been anything said outside on
account of the practical elimination of the Negro from jury duty.”
_Georgia._—County No. 1, 5,000 white people, 24,000 Negroes: “No Negroes
serve on our jury. There are no Negro names in the jury-box.”
County No. 2, 5,900 white people, 6,800 Negroes: “No Negroes have ever
been placed in the jury-box in this county. They are not regarded as
competent or reliable as jurors, hence they have not [been] tried as
such in this county.”
County No. 3, 5,000 white people, 12,000 Negroes: “Negroes do not serve
as jurors in this county, for several reasons to wit: Incompetency,
strong prejudices, superstitiousness, and general unfitness in regard to
equity.... It happens frequently they are drawn and serve on juries in
what we term here United States courts....”
County No. 4, 1,500 white people, 8,800 Negroes: “Negroes do not serve
on the juries in this county.... None of the Negroes in this county have
ever been placed in such [jury] boxes.”
County No. 5, 4,000 white people, 9,000 Negroes: “We do not have Negroes
as jurors; we tried them and found them incompetent and otherwise
disqualified.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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