The Daily Alaska Empire

High Defender for the Negro
(New York Times)

For many years the Supreme Court of the United
States has consistently upheld the right of the Negro
in Southern communities to a fair trial free from the
influence of bias or race prejudice. The latest opin-
ion of the court, reversing the conviction of a Negro
on a charge of murder, extends this right to a state
where this issue had not been previously tested in the
Federal courts--Mississippi, until recently the strong-
hold of "white supremacy."

It was as long ago as 1879 that the Supreme Court
invalidated a West Virginia statute of 1870 prohibiting
Negroes from serving on juries. Since then the area
of the South to which the court specifically applied
this basic principle has gradually been expanded
until it now includes eight States. The famous Scotts-
boro decision of 1925 did much to establish fairer
rules of court procedure. Yet, by one subterfuge or
another, the doctrine of the court has often been
frustrated. In many Southern communities it is still
impossible for a Negro charged with rape or killing
a white man to obtain a fair trial by a mixed jury.

The Mississippi case was a particularly flagrant
one. The defendant was convicted a year ago on
what he claims was an extorted confession. The
population of the county in which he was tried is
almost half Negro. Yet for thirty years there no
Negro has ever been called to serve on a grand or petit
jury. Justice Black, reading a unanimous decision,
held this to be "purposeful and systematic discrimi-
nation" by which no man's life should be placed in
jeopardy. Forward-looking elements throughout the
South will welcome the court's ringing affirmation of
incontestible human rights.