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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 537
make the Negroes freer in their movement as long as they avoid white
contacts, but, for the same reason, those contacts often become harsher.
The philosophies and traditions of the police have been borrowed, and
a similar status and function have been assumed, by a large number of
other functionaries, for instance, the operators and conductors on public
carriers:
When the Negro boards a street car, bus, or train he meets white operators, and
legally they are quasi-officials; in dealing with Negroes and poorer whites they are
real officials. For in addition to being legally empowered to carry out their duties,
they readily exercise greater authority over the lower status folk.®
The Jim Crow regulations vary from city to city, or from state to state;
they are complicated and technically impractical,® and a constant source of
tension and friction. The operators and conductors—like the police officers
—feel themselves obliged to sanction and enforce rules of racial etiquette
and custom. They also are the watchdogs against “social equality.^’
Under these conditions it is no wonder that these functionaries often
feel themselves—and white authority—challenged. As weak men (their
economic and social status is low) with strong powers, they can seldom
afford to take back a charge or an order. The nearest patrolman will be
at hand to back up any white man having trouble with a Negro by arrestinjs:
the Negro for “disturbing the peace.” The courts will usually feel obliged
to back up these functionaries even when it is apparent that they have
transgressed their legitimate powers. Practically all Southern Negroes
interviewed by the present writer on this question have complained about
the arbitrary and high-handed manner in which the Jim Crow regulations
in transportation are often handled. Incidents of illegal treatment are fre-
quently reported in the Negro press. Such studies as have been made have
largely confirmed these complaints.*^
To the same category belong a great number of other functionaries.
The meter readers for electric and gas subscribers, too, approximate quasi-officials
when dealing with Negroes. They walk into Negro homes, and often make them-
selves obnoxious by refusing to remove their hats and show other civilities.®
The tax collectors and a number of petty officials at what the Negroes
commonly refer to as “the white folks’ courthouse” also belong to this
group. The mass of Negroes in the South seem to be thoroughly convinced
that, in the ordinary case, white solidarity would prevent them from
getting justice even if they took their grievances to the higher-ups—if they
cannot get some white person to intervene for them.
Practices vary a great deal, however, from community to community.
Generally speaking, the Negroes seem to be treated more justly and
* See Chapter 28, Section 4.
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