e Baptist Church, an ardent worker among his people, a
power as an organizer and an orator of the Frederick
Douglass type.

For a man of color to approach a subject of this kind, first of all,
he must crucify "self." He must not imagine that he is writing to suit
the whims, fancies and caprices of a single individual, but must
confine himself to the pure and unadulterated truth. To discuss this
question from a lawyer's point of view, that is to say, by detailed
cases, would be unintelligible to an ordinary layman's mind.

Therefore, we must confine ourselves to the subject from a layman's
way of understanding legal matters. The Negro occupies to-day a
peculiar position in the body politic. He is not wanted in politics,
because his presence in official positions renders him obnoxious to
his former masters and their descendants. He is not wanted in the
industrial world as a trained handicraftsman, because he would be
brought into competition with his white brother. He is not wanted in
city positions, because positions of that kind are always saved for
the white wardheeling politicians. He is not wanted in State and
Federal offices, because there is an unwritten law that a Negro shall
not hold an office. He is not wanted on the Bench as a judge, because
he would have to pass upon the white man's case also. Nor is he wanted
on public conveyances, because here his presence is obnoxious to white
people.

But let us not lose sight of our subject which is: Is the criminal
Negro justly dealt with in the courts of the South? Permit the author
of this article to say that there is no section in this country where
there is not some prejudice against the Negro.

Whether the Negro be tried for a crime he commits in the North or
South, he will get as fair a verdict upon the law and evidence as
presented in a Southern court as in the courts of any State in this
Union. When we see such awful examples of brutality and inhumanity as
occur in some sections of our common country against the Negro, we do
not wonder that people who live in distant lands say that there can be
no justice for a Negro in the Southern States. This assertion has been
repeated so often, that now it is a common thing for men to say that a
Negro can get no justice in the South. Yet it is important for us to
note that not one of these miscarriages of justice is traceable to the
partiality of the courts. They are the result of men's prejudices, who
are not