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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 25. The Police and Other Public Contacts - 1. Local Petty Officials
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CHAPTER 25
THE POLICE AND OTHER PUBLIC CONTACTS
I. Local Petty Officials
Practically all public officials in the South are whites. The principle is
upheld that Negroes should not be given positions of public authority
even on a low level. This situation is, of course, closely related to their
disfranchisement. Even in the South, however, Negroes are sometimes
appointed to minor offices in the localities where they are permitted to
vote.®
The Negroes most important public contact is with the policeman. He is
the personification of white authority in the Negro community.
There he is “the law” with badge and revolver; his word is final; he is the state’s
witness in court, and as defined by the police system and the white community, his
word must be accepted.^
In the policeman^s relation to the Negro population in the South, there
are several singularities to be observed, all of which have to be explained
in the historical setting presented above. One is that he stands not only for
civic order as defined in formal laws and regulations, but also for “white
supremacy” and the whole set of social customs associated with this con-
cept.** In the traditions of the region a break of the caste rules against one
white person is conceived of as an aggression against white society and,
indeed, as a potential threat to every other white individual. It is demanded
that even minor transgressions of caste etiquette should be punished,
and the policeman is delegated to carry out this function. Because of this
sanction from the police, the caste order of the South, and even the local
variations of social custom, become extensions of the law.
To enable the policeman to carry out this function, the courts are sup-
posed to back him even when he proceeds far outside normal police activ-
ity. His word must be taken against Negroes without regard for formal
legal rules of evidence, even when there are additional circumstantial facts
supporting .the contention of the Negro party. That this is so is freely
admitted in conversation with both judges and police officers in the South.
• See Chapter 22, Section 5.
**
See Part VII.
S3 S
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