The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-09-18
JUSTICE TO THE NEGRO.
There is no Discrimination Between
the Races in the Courts.

The Charlotte Observer makes the
sweeping statement regarding the ne
gro: is not i'll treated nor i'm
properly discriro mated against except
in the courts, and for the injustice
one him there, there seems to be no
remedy
AS the courts are supposed to be the
fina %ecourse for the obtaining Of JUS
tice, wherever else injustice may be
done, this rather astonishing state
ment would mean hat the negro has
no redress for injustice anywhere in
h south. The statement is astonish-
ing for another proposition concealed
within it, namely, that the yer same
men who will treat the negro fairly
and without discrimination elsewhere,
become his oppressors just as soon as
they take their oathS of office as
judges or jurors.
And this statement goes out to those
who do not know the south, to any
northern exchange, for instance, with
this wholesale accusation against our
people n with the note of despair
that there is any remedy.
We suppose that the ignorant and
defenceless class everywhere are some
times the prey of the petty tyrants
who too often get into the i%nsignifi-
cant positions where they can fatten
on the fees which it is to their inter-
est to collect from those that they
fine. Yet it is seldom that any de-
serving negro cannot get some friend
among the white people to see that he
is not imposed upon in the petty
courts.
When the negro is able to hire a
lawyer, it is nonsense to say that his
lawyer is not as able and as willing
to protect his client as though hat
client were white. And as a matter Of
fact, in all the lesser crimes for which
h negro is constantly appearing in
court, there is a very strong feeling
that he should not be judged too
strictly, that he should not be judged
by the white mans standards, ever
though he is condemned by the white
mans laws. There is a sentiment of
pity in the breasts of all decent white
men for the negro in trouble, and the
lawyers know how to appeal to that
sentiment. In fact SO evident is this
that we have sometimes heard the
question mooted, whether the leniency
Of southern jurieS toward the negro,
for theft, drunkenness, and the loose
eXual relations that obtain among
them is not a bad thing for the negro.
Who does not know that a white man
convicted of larceny would not receive
JuSl DIS heavy d SSlllcllCe DIS d lleSIQ,
perhaps heavier, and that the sentence
| would be imposed with a good deal
more Of righteous Indignation than in
the case of a negro.
The only ground at all for this
sweeping Indictment of a whole people
is in the matter of those crimes in
which the negro is involved with a
white man or white 1t cannot
be denied that h a c feeling enters
l here, In the case of crimes against
white Women however, it ought to
enter, for the crime itself is an I'M
natural one, in the crossing Of racial
lines, and is doubtless, in most cases
a product of race hatred. Even here,
however, the punishment of the GRIM
nal is what it should be. 1t is swift
! and sure. But there is no more desire
to punish Unfortunately, to punish
] the wrong man., than in the case Of
| the white man..
In the case of a murder of a white
man by a negro, there is some of the
same feeling that provoked the
murder. Nor do we believe that it
can be proved that the juries or the
courts are any less severe in such a
case than they should be in cases of
murder.
lust the other day, in Mecklenburg,
there was an alteration between
some whites and negroes, and a ne
gro pulled his pistol, the whites being
unarmed, and killed n of them and
wounded others. He was sent to the
penitentiary for ten years. Jersey
justice would probably have decreed
capital punishment, even if all the
parties had been white.
So the only ground at all for 0 u
contemporaries wild statement is the
reluctance of southern juries to punish
a white man for the crime of murder
as that crime should be punished. W.
are getting over this, let us hope. Blu
the reluctance is just as conspicuous
we maintain, where the murdered mar
was a white man as in the case whert
he was a negro. Does anybody sup
pose that if James H. Tillman la
shot down an unarmed negro. in colo
blood. that he Tould not nave beer
just as likely to receive the prope
penalty as he is in the case of tn
murder Of his old enemy, Gonzales.
No. the negro has the same lega
redress that the white man has. Con
sidering the fact that the crimina
I, classes are composed SO largely. in tn
south of negroes. that his characte
for ~truthfulness does not tend to max
him believed on his oath. that hi
| penchant for theft is notorious. W
believe that he does receive justice a
h hands of white jurieS and judges
If there is any error in the lowe