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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 26. Courts, Sentences and Prisons - 2. Discrimination in Court
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552 An American Dilemma
lower courts, too often seem to take for granted the guilt of the accused
Negro.*^ The present author, during his visits to lower courts in the South,
has been amazed to see how carelessly the Negro defendants—and some-
times also defendants belonging to the lower strata of whites—are sen-
tenced upon scanty evidence even when they emphatically deny the
charges. There is an astonishing atmosphere of informality and lack of
dignity in the courtroom, and speed seems to be the main goal. Neither
the judge nor the other court officers seem to see anything irregular in the
drama performed j
the observer is welcomed and usually asked to sit
beside the judge to be better able to watch the interesting scene.
Most of the Negroes seem to realize that their word in this machine-like court-
room is as nothing when weighed against the white officer’s. The judge sometimes
smiles understanding!/ as the arresting officer tells what the defendant did. And most
Negroes simply take it. Now and then, however, one glances around until a sympa-
thetic eye is caught and with a wordless stare says eloquently, “Oh, what’s the use.”^®
It should be emphasized, however, that there are great differences
between different courts, due partly to differences in the personality of
the judge. A humane judge, whose mental horizon is not bound by the
limits of his local community, will maintain a dignified court and admin-
ister impartial justice. As between rural and urban areas, it is difficult to
say which is more prejudiced: urban courts have a greater familiarity with,
and respect for, iawj but rural courts retain some of the old aristocratic
patriarchal traditions. According to Raper, in the rural courts, some Negro
witnesses may also be used as character witnesses and there is, on the whole,
less browbeating, derogatory joking, and open carelessness in the hearing
of Negro witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants.^® The higher state courts and
the federal courts observe much more of judicial decorum and are, for
this reason, less likely to discriminate against Negroes. The judges in these
courts are usually also of a higher grade and are relatively independent of
local opinion.
The jury, for the most part, is more guilty of obvious partiality than
the judge and the public prosecutor. When the offender is a white man and
the victim a Negro, a grand jury will often refuse to indict. Even the
federal courts find difficulty in getting indictments in peonage suits,“^ and
state courts receive indictments for physical violence against Negroes in
an infinitesimally small proportion of the cases. It is notorious that prac-
*A white lawyer from a city in the Black Belt writes:
“On the criminal side of the court I think that a great many Negroes are convicted on
testimony which would have resulted in the acquittal of a white defendant. A white
defendant is presumed to be innocent until the contrary is proven j
I am afraid that a
Negro is presumed to be guilty until the contrary is proven. A jury which would find a
white defendant guilty of a lesser grade of the offense involved will frequently find the
Negro guilty of the highest grade.” (Letter of July z, 1940.)
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