The Washington bee., 1896-04-04
THE NEGRO IN LAW.
PLEA FOR CLIENTs.-LAWYERS WHO
ARE SAFE FROM THE STANDPOINT
OF OTHERS.-THE ARISTOC-
RAcY CONDEMNED.

ARE SAFE FROM THE STANDPOINT
OF oTHERs.-THE ARISTOC-
RAcY CONDEMNED.
The Second Baptist Churrh, Of which
Rev. w. Bishop Johnson, ID. d., IS
Pastor, was crowded 10 its utmost
capacity on last Sabbath afternoon.
The occasion was the meeting OF the
Lyceum which meets in the lecture
room every Sabbath afternoon.
The exercises are interspersed with
music by a fine orchestra connected
with the Lyceum.
Sunday afternoon the exercises were
more than interesting from the TACT II
was LAWYERS day. Mr.. Fountain Pay
ton, a member of the District bar was
introduced and read a paper entitled
81 he Negro in Law"
Mr.. Payton is a good writer and
while his paper called forth a great
deal of discussion pro and con he DEM
onstrated his ability as a writer.
He condemned IN forcible language
those Afro-Americans in high society
who carried their business to white law.
yers and denied the charge that colored
wyers were shysterS.
He cited several instances where
persons when learning to play on the
piano, at first they are little awkward,
after a while they become prohclent.
So it is with the colored lawyer. How
do you, said Mr.. Payton, expect col
ored LAWYERS to become proficient II
you don't give them the practice!
We might as well say that all OF our
schools teachers are incompetent be-
cause they are colored.
The charges that colored man has
no influence with the courts and that
the courts are prejud.ced to the negro
attorney are false.
There is no prejudice by the courts
against the negro attorney.
We are told that we lose all OF our
cases. Not one colored man has been
hung who has been defended by col
ored attorney.
am told said he, that Lawyer John
A. Moss, was the first colored attorney
to defend white man for murder.
There are other cases where the col
ored attorneys have defended colored
men for murder and the men have
never been hung.
Does that look like we are shyster
lawyers?
A colored lawyer was appointed by
one of the Judges, Examiner, the hrst
in the history of the court, which IS
your humble servant. / he colored
LAWYER has been to the Court OF APP
peals said Lawyer Payton, but he failed
to Say whether he was successful or
not.
The eloquence of Mr.. Payton sored
high, when he appealed TO his auditors
to place their cases in the hands OF such
men as Robert H. Terrell, Milton Nj.
Holland, E. NJ. Hewlett, +. ]. Bundy
and Geo. A. Douglass and they would
be safe.
He said, these old men who never
found any fault in the race were too
Garrow minded to judge right from
wrong.
The daily press of this city and these
Duzzard reporters who garble up Police
Court News are opposed to the col
pred attorney. These carriCns of the
press publish their rot every week and
when you see the name of the lawyer
eft out OF published report, you can
depend upon it that he has won his
case and when his name is published
ne has lost his case.
At the conclusion of his paper, which
took one hour to deliver it, the PreSi-
dent took up a collectIon, after winch
he announced that the paper was open
for discussion.
Mr.. w. Calvin Chase then took the
floor and paid a high compliment 10
The writer and his paper, and said 1t
of III nd q
plea for clients; that lawyers
Messrs. Kicks, Jones and Langston
who had more clients than the combine
mad not been mentioned. | am very
much surprised, said Mr.. Chase to hear
the writer praise the courts of this city
when he, sometime ago declared that
the Judge of the upper Police Court
was inimical to him and every negro
lawyer who praCticed before him.
Indeed, said Mr.. Chase, it is more sur
prising to know that he finds no fault
with the Judges of the upper courts
when he declared that Judge of the
Supreme Court of the District of Col
umbia was iminical, not only to him,
but to negro attorneys.
With the prejudiCes of The courts,
the treachery and deception of some
negro attorneys against one another
and with the combined opposition of
both, the negro attorney has a hard
road to travel. Indeed, said MIR.
Chase, there is more treachery and de-
ceit among certain negro attorneys
than among any other class of citizens.
A Al an who comes here and tells you
one thing and practices another is full of
deception. He comes here and apollo
gizes for the wrongs of the court against
the negro, which he has said, hereto
fore existed, by telling you now, there
is no prejudice against negro attor-
neys.
lime having been called on Mr..
Chase, Mr.. " right. took the floor and
painted out from his standpoint, GER
tain inconsistencies which the essayists
paper contained.
Mr.. Wright thought there was a diff
ference between school teachers and
lawyers.
nat a lawyer must practice before
he gets proficient, like a person who,
as he said, is learning to play on the
piano, is absurd.
MIR. Hershaw thought the paper an
excellent one as did Mr.. r. S. Smith.
Mr.. J. M. Ricks informed the audi