jury. My predecessors never placed many of the Negroes' names in the wheel as I understand from them." This letter was from the jury commissioner, not the clerk of the court.
North Carolina.—County No. 1, 6,800 white people, 8,000 Negroes: ". . . of late years very few Negroes serve on the juries in this county for the reasons that they are an illiterate race and moral character not what it should be. Further, he is easily influenced, deciding with a juror whom he may like instead of weighing the evidence and deciding accordingly. The number of Negro jurors has decreased for the past few years on account of the Negro of to-day [being] morally not as good as the Negro of several years ago."
County No. 2, 11,000 white people, 19,000 Negroes: "I will say that Negroes do not serve on the jury in this county and have not since we, the white people, got the government in our hands. When the Republican party was in power Negroes were drawn, both regular and talis jurors, and not one out of one hundred was a competent juror, but, strange to say, when a Negro was on trial, he would always prefer the white men to try his case."
County No. 3, 5,800 white people, 8,300 Negroes: "Negroes occasionally serve on juries in . . . county, but not to as great extent as they did before the passage of the Amendment [the suffrage amendment in 1900]. The County Commissioners have been more particular about the names that are left in the box from which jurors are drawn. Only the best, most reliable and most intelligent Negroes are left in the box. Sometimes it happens that a few are called as talismen, but not then until the
