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i whare the Neote Bdge s\ ' 1 t fat Sr om eee ME: Lal in Unanimous. Opinion, \Says Texas* County’ Barred! | L pectal to Tan New Youx ‘Tuves.* e Court ‘spanimously?ruled to- Rnat: ‘exclusion of Negroes from «, ‘Téxan grand jury wes ‘ground for reversing the ‘egnviction:of an. 118. yoareold Negro sentenced: life | im prlappinent for‘rape. 3 "4. 4 “altect “ofy'the decision is to- tyo. prisoner after two "years! ta gait, bacanee of, statute of tatio “Ug 0 APAPE BITE apse (ue o wrote the c opin. Le “Prtkeg qary ly edpa te of*peing admainigtered yout racial “Glscrimination, but, weed, the“ discretion, partaitted i. lecting grandt jurorg- spud ap, ed to exclude Negroes. It was capable,” he akserted, goat this been done-in . oon’ oted i at the- Fourteenth Amend: ment’ prohibits,’ bg stated, “is ra- cis¥{dlserimination in thy selection of; grand juries.” Where jury com- riissio¢ners mit these from whom 4 jurleavare selected :to “their re Pcquaintances, discrimina- oan arise f Fom commissionars j y know ac'iNefroee as well as. tr oomm ioners me knoy y but j Sbrfed Vom ths gusy. 2 Race From Grand ‘Juries 7 Wydegree, ~ DS le Va; verde? leew “kK Is*Negro'’s Advoonte™ ‘Riack hax been"proniineat | £* asserting | the ‘basic: Tights of Negroes. In “February, ’. 1930, he wrote’ an, opinion waving &. Louisiana”, Negro from, ‘the fdeath’ sentence “because his race’ was. : Rast Taken, a a A | i ’ HUOURE Lub ent ener Bi haerad fram the durv. ary, the ‘court, in an’ opinion’ by! him, overturned the convictions of; ‘four Florida Negroes ‘when evidence showed they endured . a hareh: third a “ee = &tat a eo ene me Ao Alabaman, he stood aside. when the Supreme Court acted onthe “) case of the ‘Scottsboro boys’ . be- Ku Klaux Klan at the time of his appointment.” The attitude, of Jus- SHINGTON, Noy. 25—The ‘ cause of the controversy over’ ths tracted wide attention, ~ a | After handing’ down the /Black opinion and four others and fesuing}- the usual formal orders, the court recessed from the bench until Dec. | — One of the orders, refuged «to | grant a teat of the’ “common ‘eon-{ trol" features of the Georgia Un- wiemployment Compensation Law, while another granted a review ‘to, the Fashion” Originators Guild, which has been charged by the Fed.) era] Trade Commission with mo- istic practices. Ml the Edgar Smith case, Justice. Black repeated testimony. lo show that Negroes had long been ox- ded from the grand jury in Har’: ris County, which includes Hous- ton. Negroes, he stated, cons ’ county population and. almoat.. 10, per cent of ‘the poll-tax payers. A minimum of 3,000 to 6,000, he sqded, til qualifications: for, gvand». “JUr¥| variably appeared as No. 16, and Beet at de tt wervice. * ‘ The, court 1091-28, inclusive,” only five of thel were Negroes; of 512 persons for grand jury duty, only eighteen they Negroes; of these eighteen Lise aes ees “Pu Bnet j] ‘Black, tice Black in “these caser ‘has tuted more than 20 per cent of the:for jury service. “ elerk, saids Justice) called for service unless it proved Black: testified, however, that’ in! impossible to obtain the required te ndmant, a0 2b thirteen n Appears of Texas dent ad the INDEXED Zee-O ak ” al 4, &. it tom baing to “ehoos® the et thon ing in the order a mee es trae Heb ed at tha NAMES WEES aie “Tt in part of the established tra- dition in the use of juries aa instru- ‘manta of public justice that the jury “be a body truly representative ot the community,” -said Justice “For racial disctimination ‘to result in the exclusion from jury nervice of otherwise qualified groups not only violates our Con- stitution and the Jaws enacted un- der it but is at war with our basic]. concepts of a democratic society, .~ and @ representative government. No-Biss Law “Not Enough” | ‘We must consider this record in the light of these important prin- ciples, The fact that the written; words of a State's laws hold out a promise that no auch ‘discrimina- it ha tion will ba practiced is not enough. The Fourteenth Amendment re- quires thet equal protection to all must be given—not merely promised, “Here, the Texas statutory scheme ie not in itself unfair; it is capable of being cerried cut with no racial ‘discrimination whatsoever. But by reason of the wide discretion per- missibia in the various steps of the plan. it is equally capable of being applied in such & manner as prac- tically to proscribe any group thought by the law's administrators io be undesirable. And from t ANG from thie lrecord pefore us the conclusion is|* inescapable that it is the latter ap- plication that, has prevailed in Har- ‘vis County, ~ “Chance and accident alone ‘coul: hardly have brought about the ! ding for grand jury services of so few | Negroes from among the thousands ; shown by the undisputed evidence : assess tha legal qualifications Nor could chance and accident have been responsible for the combination of clreum- which a Negro’s ten ta atances $tnder name, when listed at all, almost in- under which, No. 16 was never jurors from the first fifteen names es ee et BH othe sit. | 384 grand jurors in that period| ‘The convicted man pleaded that! calledithe “systematic” exolusion of Ne-: gross denied him the right of equal protection guaranteed by the vour "Lhtentiindar-: YORK TIMES 1/38/40. trary exclusion. “Two of the tpree comlaticee who dywdre” Sep- tem’! grand jury pene] afi- mitted that they did not “pelect any Negross, although the’ subject was discussed, but, they continted, thers Waa n0 arbitrary discrimination. The Black decision reversed the Texas Court of Criminal Apeals. which bad afifrmed the conviction in the trial court, “Both of the Texas courte held that the evidence failed to support the charge of ta- cial discrimination. aan cn: ’,,, Georgia ‘Review Is Refused By The Associated Press. WASHINGTON, Noy. 25—The Su- Preme Court refused today to fe- i view a Georgia Bupreme Court dect- sion which State officials saserted would “seriously endanger” the administration of unemploymert- compensation brogyams of thirty- three States. ~ The decision barred. ‘the State from lumping concerns under the same ownership into a single unil to determine whether there were enough employes to warrani the éollection of assessments under tat unemployment compensation stat ute, A 1837 Georgia law permitted as sezsstnents against such cor ern if, together, they employed slant ol more persons. . Texas Wil Release Smith - By The Associated Press, GUSTON, Texas, Nov. 2-—F. ar Smith, a Negro, ‘whose lif imprisonment conviction on a char; of criminal assault was set asij *today by the United States Supre ‘Court, will be freed from the 24 County jall in a few days. He been held since Aug. 1, 1938, ap now 20 years old, ‘ Court attaches here said ¢ cause the atatute of Hmltat] the. charge is one year in Smith cannot pee reindl therefore wil ba freed Hippeaeionl 4 from, one Court arrives, ” ra