migration. Negroes largely distrust the courts and have to depend on
the influence of their aristocratic white friends. When a white man
assaults a negro he is not punished. When a white man kills a negro he
is usually freed without extended legal proceedings, but the rule as
laid down by the southern judge is usually that when a negro kills a
white man, whether or not in self-defense, the negro must die. Negro
witnesses count for nothing except when testifying against members of
their own race. The testimony of a white man is conclusive in every
instance. In no State of the South can a negro woman get a verdict for
seduction, nor in most cases enter a suit against a white man; nor,
where a white man is concerned, is the law of consent made to apply to
a negro girl.

It will be said, however, that such drastic action is not general
in the South; but throughout the Black Belt, the negroes suffer from
arrests and impositions for petty offenses which make their lives
sometimes miserable. The large number of negroes owning automobiles is
a source of many conflicts. Many collisions, possibly avoidable, have
resulted in wresting from the negroes concerned excessive damages
which go to increase the returns of the courts. For example, the
chauffeur of one of the most influential negroes in Mississippi
collided with a white man's car. Although there was sufficient
evidence to exonerate the chauffeur concerned, the owner of the
vehicle was forced to pay damages and sell his car.

In the Birmingham district of Alabama a striking discrimination is
made in the arrests for failure to pay the street tax. Mr. Henry L.
Badham, President of the Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land Company, said in
commenting on the causes of the migration: I do not blame the negroes for going away from Birmingham. The
treatment that these unfortunate negroes are receiving from
the police is enough to make them desire to depart. The
newspapers have printed articles about the departure of the
laborers from Birmingham. On one page there is a story to the
effect that something should be done to prevent the exodus of
the negroes to other cities. And then on the same page there
appears a little paragraph stating that negroes were arrested
for failure to pay $2.50 street tax. The injustice of
arresting these negroes for the inability to have $2.50 ready
to turn over into the coffers of the city is obvious. While
they have been taken into custody, despite their protests that

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