County No. 4, 9,000 white people, 15,000 Negroes: “... in the circuit court of the State it is very seldom that a Negro serves on the jury. Negroes, as a rule, are not good jurors, for the reason that they are usually very ignorant and can be easily influenced by others in the rendering of their verdict. The Negro jurors, so far as the State courts are concerned, are almost eliminated. In the Federal courts of the State, a large number of Negroes serve on the juries....”
County No. 5, 2,300 white people, 2,700 Negroes: “The laws of this State require that the county commissioners select not less than 290 nor more than 310 ‘persons of approved integrity, fair character, sound judgment and intelligence’ to serve as jurors. Therefore, because most of the elder Negroes are illiterate and because most of the younger ones that remain here are of other than fair character, there are but few Negroes, about one per cent., whose names are drawn or selected to go into the jury-box. If one is drawn as juror ... he serves as such juror, and no one has ever objected to one so far as I know of. My experience covers a period of ten years, during which time ... we have had only two Negroes drawn as jurors. No person has ever appealed a case on account of not having a Negro on the jury, nor has there been anything said outside on account of the practical elimination of the Negro from jury duty.”
_Georgia._—County No. 1, 5,000 white people, 24,000 Negroes: “No Negroes serve on our jury. There are no Negro names in the jury-box.”
County No. 2, 5,900 white people, 6,800 Negroes: “No Negroes have ever been placed in the jury-box in this county. They are not regarded as competent or reliable as jurors, hence they have not [been] tried as such in this county.”
County No. 3, 5,000 white people, 12,000 Negroes: “Negroes do not serve as jurors in this county, for several reasons to wit: Incompetency, strong prejudices, superstitiousness, and general unfitness in regard to equity.... It happens frequently they are drawn and serve on juries in what we term here United States courts....”
County No. 4, 1,500 white people, 8,800 Negroes: “Negroes do not serve on the juries in this county.... None of the Negroes in this county have ever been placed in such [jury] boxes.”