The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
One cause of complaint alleged as a reason for this exodus of the
colored people from the South was their mistreatment in the
courts of justice. Directing our attention to this the committee
have ascertained that in many of the districts of the South the
courts were under entire Republican control--judges, prosecuting
attorneys, sheriffs, &c., and that there were generally as many
complaints from districts thus controlled as there were from
districts which were under the control of the Democratic
officials; and that the whole of the complaints taken together
might be said to be such as are generally made by the ignorant
who fail to receive in courts what they think is justice.
Your committee found no State or county in the South, into which
this investigation extended, where colored men were excluded from
juries either in theory or in practice; they found no county or
district in the South where they were excluded, either in theory
or practice, from their share in the management of county affairs
and of the control of county government. On the contrary,
whenever their votes were in a majority we found that the
officers were most generally divided among the black people, or
among white people of their choice. Frequently we found the
schools to be controlled by them, especially that portion of the
school fund which was allotted to their race, and the complaints
which had been so often made of excessive punishment of the
blacks by the courts as compared with the whites upon
investigation in nearly all cases, proved to be either unfounded
in fact or that if there was an apparent excess of punishment of
a black man the cause was ascertained to be in the nature of the
crime with which he was charged, or the attendant circumstances.
The educational advantages in the South, the committee regret to
say, were found to be insufficient, and far inferior to those of
most of the States of the North, but such as they were we found
in every case that the blacks had precisely the same advantages
that the whites enjoyed; that the school fund was divided among
them according to numbers; that their teachers were quite as
good, and chosen with as much care; that their schools existed as
many months in the year; in short, the same facilities were
afforded to the blacks as were to the whites in this respect; and
that these schools were generally supported by the voluntary
taxation imposed by the legislatures composed of white men,
levied upon their own property for the common benefit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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