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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 24. Inequality of Justice - 2. Relative Equality in the North - 3. The Southern Heritage
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Chapter 24. Inequality of Justice 529
grants from the South.® In a comparable way, the Upper South is consid-
erably more like the North in this respect than is the Lower South.
Part of the explanation of why the Negro gets more legal justice in the
North is the fact that Negroes can vote in the North and, consequently,
have a share in the ultimate control of the legal system. Nevertheless, the
importance of political participation as a cause of equality before the law
should not be exaggerated. The lack of discrimination in both respects has
a common cause in a general inclination of white people in the North to
regard Negroes as full citizens in their formal relations with public
authority, even if not in economic competition or social intercourse. This
is one point where the ordinary Northerner is unfailingly faithful to the
American Creed. He wants justice to be impartial, regardless of race,
creed or color.
The North is further removed from the memories of slavery, and its
equalitarian philosophy became more rigorously formulated in the pro-
longed conflict with the South during and after the Civil War. Also,
Northern Negroes are concentrated in big cities, where human relations
are formalized and where Negroes are a small minority of the total popu-
lation. The legal machinery in those cities might sometimes be tainted by
the corruption of the city administration, but its size alone tends to objectify
its operations and prevent its being influenced by the narrowest type of
local prejudice. Other reasons would seem to be that Northern Negroes
are better educated and have a higher economic status on the average, that
Northern Negroes can be and are more inclined to stand up for their
rights, and that most organizations fighting for the Negro have their
headquarters in the North. Whatever the reasons, it seems to be a fact that
there is a sharp division between North and South in the granting of legal
justice to Negroes, In the North, for the most part, Negroes enjoy equit-
able justice.
3. The Southern Heritage
Because the main problems of justice for the Negro are found in the
South, this part of the book will deal almost exclusively with the South.
The difference in feeling of personal security between Negroes in the two
regions is most striking to an observer. The Southern Negro seems to
suspect a possible danger to himself or to other Negroes whenever a white
stranger approaches him. When you ask him where somebody lives, he will
be slow and careful in giving information. When you knock at his door,
particularly after dark, you will often see fear in his eyes until he comes to
know your innocent intentions. It is not true, as is often maintained in the
‘ Detroit also seems to have a larger number of Southern-born policemen than most other
Northern cities. In the recent clashes there between the police and the NegroeSy many of
the police were whites from Kentucky and Tennessee,
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