The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South: In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White RaceCollins, Winfield H. (Winfield Hazlitt)
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The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South: In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race
Collins, Winfield H. (Winfield Hazlitt)
African Americans; Lynching; Southern States -- Race relations
For the Southern States considered, Table I shows that the number of
Negro prisoners around 1910, varied according to the State from five
plus times their proportion in Louisiana to eleven times in Georgia.
While in the North, the number varied from eight times in Connecticut
to seventeen minus times in Kansas. Thus showing that the Negro is
everywhere many times more criminal than the white man, and that his
criminality is more pronounced in the North than in the South.
That he is discriminated against by the court,—and otherwise,—is
sometimes given as a reason for the great criminal showing of the
Negro; that for the same kind of crime the Negro gets a much longer
sentence than a white man, etc. This is hardly to be held as against
the North, and that it is true to any appreciable extent in the South
is doubtful, but hard to determine,—absolutely.
As Table I gives the number of prisoners on hand at a certain time
and Table II the number committed to prison during a period of
time,[77:2] other things being equal, it is clear that if the Negro is
discriminated against through the length of sentence imposed on him by
the court, it should be shown by a smaller number being sent to prison
in proportion to the respective population of the two races in any
State than is to be found on hand at a certain time. For instance,
at the Maryland and the Texan penitentiaries, according to the above
tables, in 1910 the numbers of Negroes on hand were, respectively,
eight-minus times and eight-plus times their proportion, while those
committed for the same year were seven-plus and seven, respectively.
This would seem to indicate that in neither Maryland nor Texas was
there but little, if any discrimination against the Negro. But a
comparison of the statistics for Arkansas and Louisiana seems to show
that the Negro is discriminated against in these States. However, upon
further investigation it is found that ninety-one Negroes were sent to
the Louisiana penitentiary in 1911 for murder and manslaughter, and
thirty-two for shooting with intent to kill, as against thirty white
men during the same year for these crimes. Again, in the Arkansas
penitentiary in November, 1912, there were 213 white and 643 Negro
prisoners. Of the whites but 50 had committed homicide, while 218 of
the Negro prisoners were guilty of the crime.
Moreover, one might naturally expect that the whites, on account of
greater influence, would be much more likely to secure pardons. It is
doubtful if the whites are thus favored to any large extent. Between
November 1, 1910, and October 31, 1912, Arkansas granted pardons to 121
whites and 86 Negroes, while during the year ending November 30, 1911,
Kentucky pardoned nine white men and eighteen Negroes. If statistics
were available from all the States it might be rather conclusively
demonstrated that the Negro is discriminated against but little by the
courts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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