Negroes, and mulattoes, should be competent in all civil cases to which a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto was a party, and in criminal cases in which the crime charged was alleged to have been committed by a white person upon a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto. But in 1867, Negroes were given the right to testify on the same terms as white people.[18] In 1865, South Carolina[19] declared that Negroes might testify in cases to which a person of color was a party. Tennessee,[20] the same year, provided that Negroes and Indians should be competent as witnesses "in as full measure as such persons are by an act of Congress competent witnesses in all the courts of the United States."
The Constitution[21] of Texas of 1866 contains the following section: "Africans and their descendants shall not be prohibited, on account of their color or race, from testifying orally, as witnesses, in any case, civil or criminal, involving the right of injury to, or crime against, any of them in person or property, under the same rules of evidence that may be applicable to the white race; the credibility of their testimony to be determined by the court or jury hearing the same; and the legislature shall have power to authorize them to testify as witnesses in all other cases, under such regulations that may be prescribed, as to facts hereafter occurring." In pursuance of this authority, the legislature[22] enacted that persons of color should not testify except where a prosecution was against a person of color or where the alleged offence was against the person or property of a person of color. But in 1868, the Supreme Court[23] of Texas held that the first section of the Civil Rights Bill gave Negroes the right to testify,
