been found either in the statutes or judicial reports of one's admission to or exclusion from the court room being dependent upon his race or color. It is to be noticed, however, in Southern court rooms that the spectators are separated by race, Negroes usually occupying seats on one side of the room and white people on the other. This must be entirely a matter of custom, as no case has been found of such separation being required by law or ordinance. While this point has not been deemed important enough for a special investigation, it is presumed that one will find the races separated in the court room in those States or communities where they are separated in other places—as in public conveyances, schools, and churches.
A Negro in the South, as elsewhere, has, legally and actually, as good an opportunity to observe court proceedings as a white person, though custom may require him to sit in a different part of the court room from that occupied by the latter.
AS JUDGE
Little within the scope of this chapter can be said of the Negro as a judge. There are cases still in the North of Negroes sitting on the bench, mostly in lower courts, and there may be instances, here and there, in the South, of Negroes holding judicial offices. Certainly, the Negro elector is eligible, both under Federal and State Constitutions, to hold a judgeship. Whether or not there are Negroes on the bench in a given State is not determined by the legislatures or the courts, but by the appointing power or by the choice of the people at the polls.
