“You can’t marry under the Georgia law,” said the judge; “I’ll have to bind you over for trial in the county court.” They were led back to the prisoners’ rooms. A few minutes later the bailiff came out quickly and said to the judge: “The old man has fallen in a faint.” Not long afterward they half led, half carried him out across the court room. One thing impressed me especially, not only in this court but in all others I have visited: a Negro brought in for drunkenness, for example, was punished much more severely than a white man arrested for the same offence. The injustice which the weak everywhere suffer—North and South—is in the South visited upon the Negro. The white man sometimes escaped with a reprimand, he was sometimes fined three dollars and costs, but the Negro, especially if he had no white man to intercede for him, was usually punished with a ten or fifteen dollar fine, which often meant that he must go to the chain-gang. One of the chief causes of complaint by the Negroes of Atlanta has been of the rough treatment of the police and of unjust arrests. After the riot, when the Civic League, composed of the foremost white citizens of Atlanta, was organised, one of the first subjects that came up was that of justice to the Negro. Mr. Hopkins, the leader of the League, said to me: “We complain that the Negroes will not help to bring the criminals of their race to justice. One reason for that is that the Negro has too little confidence in our courts. We must give him that, above all things.” In accordance with this plan, the Civic League, heartily supported by Judge Broyles, employed a young lawyer, Mr.[Pg 50] Underwood, to appear regularly in court and look after the interests of Negroes. [Pg 50] Convicts Making a Profit for Georgia One reason for the very large number of arrests—in Georgia particularly—lies in the fact that the state and the counties make a profit out of their prison system. No attempt is ever made to reform a criminal, either white or coloured. Convicts are hired out to private contractors or worked on the public roads. Last year the net profit to Georgia from its chain-gangs, to which the prison commission refers with pride, reached the great sum of $354,853.55. Of course a very large proportion of the prisoners are Negroes. The demand for convicts by rich sawmill operators, owners of
Prev.
Back
Top