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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 26. Courts, Sentences and Prisons - 4. Trends and Outlook
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55^ An American Dilemma
society for so doing is decidedly diminishing. A first class counsel has great
influence upon the morals of lower courts. The difficulty of the matter
now is that most Negroes cannot afford good lawyers, even when they are
available for a price. Probably the most effective means of bringing the
Southern courts more rapidly to acquire a fixed pattern of carefulness and
equity would be the setting wp of legal aid agencies everywhere in the
South which, manned by high class professional lawyers, would be in-
structed not to work for any new legislation, but to assist poor whites and
Negroes to enforce their rights under existing laws in civil and criminal
cases They should, to be effective, be kept entirely outside local politics
and should be instructed to work not only upon application of clients but
also to take the initiative, particularly in following the procedures at police
courts and in prisons. Even one such agency, placed in a strategic city in
the Black Belt—as, for instance, Atlanta, Georgia—^would, without ever
leaving purely professional routine work, and merely by the examples
being set, change considerably the whole judicial atmosphere of the region.
The growth of the educated class of Negroes in the South®^ and the rising
educational level of whites; the decreasing provincialism of the region,
consequent to this and to industrialization, urbanization and migration;
the increasing importance of Southern liberalism and generally the reflec-
tion of the humane spirit of the New Deal, the activity of such organiza-
tions as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
and the Interracial Commission are all factors working in the same
direction. The continuous influence of public opinion and the press of the
North is also a major factor in reform. I have been told repeatedly, some-
times even by liberals in the South, that Northern criticism docs more
harm than good and is likely to drive Southern public opinion into sullen
reaction. This might occasionally be the short-range effect, but I have also
seen how, behind this defensive attitude in resenting Northern criticism,
the average Southerner feels most embarrassed because of it, and how
reform activity in the South is often spurred by considerations of national
opinions. Another factor which is bound to have great influence in the
future is the developing Negro vote. Already Negroes get more legal
justice in those cities where they vote—even when that vote is bought.
It is the author’s observation that, in principle, the average white South-
erner is no longer prepared to defend racial inequality of justice. Much
of the judicial discrimination against Negroes in the South seems to be
backed or tolerated by public opinion because of carelessness and ignorance
in regard to the Negro, rather than by an intentional and considered aim
to discriminate. As far as public opinion is part of the problem, the task
is, therefore, mainly one of adult education. White people must be taught
to understand the damaging effects upon the whole society of a system of
justice which is not equitable. Means must be found to bring the pressing
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