The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1918-02-15


zens have been congratulating Judge
A. B. Neil of the criminal court for
his mastery utterances few days
ago in charging the grand jury.
Judge Neil, it is understood, came
squarely down on what is often
termed little two by four" deputy
sheriffs and constables who are said
to have made life so miserable to
thousands of people in and about
Nashville, and who primarily are
said to be the cause of hundreds of
Negroes leaving Nashville and the
state Of Tennessee for northern CEN
ters. 1t Is claimed already that the
stand taken by Judge Neil will be
upheld by the leading white citizens
of Nashville, that the life of the citi-
zens who have been made miserable
on 30 many occasions will now be
more secure.
For a number Of years the Negroes
Of Nashville have been compelled to
take all kinds of treatment at the
hands of some of the officers of the
law, who, because they wear badge
and carry big cane, were at times
overbearing. Complaint after COM
plant has already been registered
about people being arrested on fri
volous charges and carried before
some of the courts and fined in or
der that officers who are working
on the fee system might get their
fee. Only little while ago it is
said that officers arrested more than
one hundred and fifty Negroes
against whom there were no specific
charges, and carried them all before
one of the judges. Many of these,
as soon as they were released, left
the South. Hundreds of laborers
were, therefore, driven from the
south to the north. Civic organiza-
tion like the Business and Profess
sional Mems Club in Nashville, Of
which the Rev. Preston Taylor is
President and Mr. Ira T. Bryant is
secretary; the Nashville Negro
Board of Trade, of which Mr.. A. N.
Johnson is president and Mr.. D. Wei
lington Berry is secretary, have been
making careful study of conditions,
and the fact is said to be revealed
that hardly any of the Negroes who
left Nashville did not go because of
their dislike for the city, but it is
claimed that many were forced
away. They are said to have been
bounded, mistreated and carried be-
fore various court officers, tried and
convicted; they not being able to en-
ploy defense we're either compelled
to pay fines or work their time out;
| but from all indications, and espec-
tally from Judge A. B. Neil's manly
charge to the grand jury, 1t would
seem that a new day is dawning and
that the intelligent, law-abiding
white citizens of Nashville have de-
termined to put an end to the whole
sale operations of deputy sheriffs and
constables who, according to Judge
Neils statement, and according to
the persistent rumor that has been
afoat for some time, have made. a
practice of preying upon inoffensive
workmen of both races, as 1t is said
that these actions have not been
confined to Negroes, but that the Ia
boring class of white workmen have
suffered just as badly and that many
of the officers on the fee system have
depended entirely upon their raids,
as they term them, for livelihood
One of the recent actions calling
forth the utterances from Judge
Neil was the reported wholesale raid
on Radnor Yards last Saturday night,
when, it is claimed, chat without
any provocation whatever, these
workmen who had only been paid off
the day before, were arrested,
charges entered against them, but
the asetion of Judge Neil in failing
to prosecute them and his splendid
charge to the grand jury are having
great effect. 1t is said that hundreds
of Negroes would be willing to re-
turn If they could be assured that
they would be allowed to remain un-
molested and given chance to work
for an honest living. In charging
the jury Judge Neil said:
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury:
You are all, aware Of the fact that
at the present time there is great
demand for labor, not only In the
city, but in the immediate vicinity
of the city, due to the establishment
of the great enterprise in Hadley
Bend by the government, the build
ing Of spur tracks from the several
railroads leading into the city and
the completion of the railroad yards
near Radnor college. 1t has come to
my attention that already several of
ficers are beginning to arrest labor
ers at Radnor yards and other places
upon trumped-up and frivolous
charges. On last Friday night,
which was the night after pay day,
a number of officers arrested great
many Negro laborers who were en-
ployed In building and laying spur
tracks at the Radnor college yards.
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