Fallacy of Justice.
Type of event: Legal Proceedings
Location: Minnesota; United States
Citation:
Northwestern Bulletin, April 8, 1922, page 2.
“Fallacy of Justice”
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FALLACY OF JUSTICE
Out on the north side of Minneapolis last week, a white man assaulted a
little nine year old white girl and in his unsuccessful attempt to harm her, he
seriously scratched and bruised the child who fought furiously to defend
herself. She succeeded until help arrived. Even then–the brute held off
the police, with threats to kill, until more assistance was secured.
Our way
of telling the story does not boil your blood because the man was white or
black. You have simply read the outstanding facts of an incident which actually
occurred–an incident which the daily papers failed to say a word about. If
they did, we have not been able to detect the story yet.
But now, suppose it
had been a black man who assaulted this little nine year old girl out on the
North Side of Minneapolis, the most congested Negro district in the city.
Suppose it had been a black man who defied the police with threats to kill them
when they came to the child’s aid. Suppose it had been a shiny, sweaty
black man the police arrested for brutal assault on this little white girl.
Suppose the facts in the case had been heard by the whites of the north side as
they did through gossip and otherwise. Suppose these were facts, what would have
been the result? What would have been the results in Georgia, Mississippi,
Louisiana and even in Minnesota?
First, it was a little white girl who was
assaulted–the “heighth of all things.” Second the scene of the
incident was near the heart of Minneapolis’ black colony where the least
little mishap maliciously done, might cause high feeling between whites and
blacks. Third, when one policeman was unable to make the arrest and was
threatened with death, what would have he done? Fourth, would the daily
newspaper have told the story? What would the balck citizens of the North Side
had to do if it had been a black who attacked the little white girl? Undoubedly
some unpleasantness would have occureed.
It is undeniable by past
experience. Some commotion may have been the result. However, we are only
dealing with suppositions. A white man committed the atrocious act and a white
man will suffer according to the justice of American made laws.
Now then,
only Wednesday morning did Attorney A. L. Barnett, before the state Supreme
Court, argue for a new trial for a black man charged with assault on a white
woman, 19 years old, in Duluth June 14, 1920, while he was employed as a circus
hand. The evidence in the case is so smattering that eight of his companions
have been acquitted of the same charge. But three paid–three were lunched
by the white mob in the heart of the city of Duluth in the state of Minnesota.
It was at this time Minnesota went on record for its first lynching-bee. Could
there be a repetition of this in Minnesota? Officers of the law say
“No.” But who knows?
But our point is to show how the black man
is singled out, how his shortcomings and bad deeds are put before the public,
how no masks are used to cover up the facts but instead, every effort is made to
play upon the least discreditable act a black man commits, how justice is
distributed, and how the deeds for which a black would be lynched, a white man
may commit and simply be scorned by his friends, modest spoken of by the press,
if at all, and given a fair trial in the courts of justice. Even in Minnesota
there is a difference.
So, it behooves us to fight this distinction and this
kind of democracy in the most intelligent way we know of. We must ask and demand
a fair deal of the propaganda against us will only serve to make the future more
contemptible. Justice must have the same for blacks and whites alike. Public
opinion must be moulded to make ‘color” less obvious, or the
freedom, the rights for which the black man is struggling shall not be what we
ask for, but a branded, distinctive kind.