Actual Jury Service by Negroes in South
In treating the Negro as a juror, the writer departed from the habit of confining his discussion to the race distinctions manifested in statutes and judicial reports. As he went through the statutes and reports, these questions arose in his mind: Do Negroes actually serve on the juries in those communities where they are numerous? If so, what satisfaction have they given? In order to obtain answers to these questions, he sent out letters to the clerks of court in every county in the Southern States in which Negroes constituted one-half or more of the population in 1900. Over three hundred letters were sent out containing the following inquiry: "I wish to know to what extent Negroes actually serve on juries, how Negro jurors are regarded by the court and the people at large, whether the number of colored jurors has increased or decreased in late years, what has been the experience of your county as to the satisfaction of colored jurors?" Of course, as many replies were not received; but the replies that were received indicate the extent of Negro jury service in the Southern States. These replies will be quoted from freely in each case, the State and the number of Negroes and white people in the particular county will be given, but not the name of the county.
Alabama.—County No. 1, 10,000 white people, 13,000 Negroes: "Negroes are not allowed to sit upon juries in this county. It sometimes happens that names of Negroes are placed in our jury-box by mistake on the part of the jury commissioners, and are regularly drawn to serve as jurors; this, however, is a very rare occurrence. Once in
