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. 6, 7,000 white people, 11,000 Negroes: “No Negroes serve on
the jury in this county.”
County No. 7, 4,800 white people, 5,000 Negroes: “Not a blooming one
[Negro juror], and not likely to be.”
County No. 8, 2,000 white people, 5,800 Negroes: “There are no Negro
jurors in this county.”
County No. 9, 6,000 white people, 7,000 Negroes: “I have lived here all
my life and do not know that there has been any Negro who has served on
the jury in this county. I am quite sure there has been none for the
past 20 or 30 years.”
County No. 10, 2,500 white people, 4,000 Negroes: “... There has never
been a Negro juror to serve in this county nor any other county
surrounding this to my knowledge. We revise our jury-boxes biennially,
and never have yet put a Negro’s name on the list of jurors. And I think
this is the practice all over the State. I am satisfied if one should be
put on any jury that the white men on would flatly refuse to serve at
all....”
County No. 11, 5,000 white people, 6,000 Negroes: “... There is no
record of Negroes ever serving as jurors in this county.”
_Kentucky._—No replies have come from the seven counties of Kentucky in
which Negroes constitute a large percentage of the population. But the
following is quoted from a letter from the Assistant Attorney General of
the State: “Negro jurors are sometimes selected in various parts of the
State, and I presume all over the State. Twenty years ago the custom was
more prevalent than at present of putting Negroes on the juries. They
were the best class of Negroes, and I am reliably informed that in
various parts of the State the Negroes themselves requested to be left
off the juries, which may account for the fact that the practice seems
to have fallen into disuse.”
_Louisiana._—Parish No. 1, 3,900 white people, 12,700 Negroes: “... we
now have no Negroes to serve on the jury here at all. Some years ago we
had Negro jurors, but they proved so unsatisfactory that they were
gradually dropped out and for several years [we] have had no Negroes at
all.”
Parish No. 2, 8,800 white people, 11,300 Negroes: “... Negroes serve as
jurors in this parish to a limited extent. The jury commissioners, when
they know of an exceptionally good, honest, sober and industrious Negro,
have no objections to placing his name in the jury-box. It is true,
however, that the number is very limited, owing to the fact that very
few Negroes will come to the standard as far as the above qualifications
are concerned. Out of the 300 names in the jury-box from which we draw
our juries, there are about a dozen Negroes. The Negroes as jurors do
not give any trouble; they always follow the suggestions and advice of
the white jurors.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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