At Decatur

All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States . . . nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.--Article XIV, U. S. Constitution.

Two years and two weeks ago two white girls, one Ruby Bates and a Mrs. Victoria

Price, accused nine young Negroes of raping them as they hoboed their way in a freight gondola through Jackson County, Ala. Eight of the Negroes were condemned to death at Scottsboro, county seat, ten days later. The ninth, aged 13, was turned over to a juvenile court, as was subsequently one of the condemned, aged 14. Last November the U. S. Supreme Court overruled (7-to-2) the Alabama Supreme Court which had denied the defendants' plea for retrial. A new trial, with venue changed not to urban Birmingham as the defense requested, but "for reasons of economy" to Decatur in neighboring, rural Morgan County, began last week.

First defendant called was Haywood Patterson. Black, bewildered, a horseshoe in his pocket, he sprawled torpidly on a bench behind his counsel. But he was not tried. On trial were the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and Alabama's "selective jury system."

Counsel. Leader of the defense counsel at the Decatur trial is shrewd, bald-browed Samuel S. Leibowitz of Manhattan. His fee is being paid by the International Labor Defense, Communist organization; but no Red is Counsel Leibowitz. One of his chief concerns last week was to forestall any provocative demonstration by his employers, who filtered into town in increasing numbers.

Accused. It was Lawyer Chamlee who supplied Defendant Patterson with the horseshoe, at his request. The other defendants--Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Olin Montgomery, Andy Wright, Willie Robertson, Ozie Powell--thought rabbits' feet would "make them sleep easier." The two minors, Roy Wright (Andy's brother) and Eugene Williams, held in prison for two years as material witnesses, got rabbits' feet, too.

Last week two cars full of deputies with shotguns escorted the prisoners to Decatur. Sheriff Bud Davis locked them up in a rickety jail which had been condemned for white prisoners two years ago. Thirty young militiamen mounted guard.

Witnesses. When the trial began, Witness Ruby Bates had been missing for three weeks. It was reported that she had sent the police a letter retracting her previous accusation. Next report was that she had sent the police another letter saying she was drunk when she wrote the first. Each side suspected the other of kidnapping Witness Bates.

Very much in evidence was her companion, twice-married Mrs. Victoria Price, with whom (and seven white boys) she bummed her way to Chattanooga and back. Mrs. Price says she supports herself & mother on the $13 a month she makes at a Huntsville cotton mill. In court she appeared the last word in cracker chic. She still sticks to her story that the Negroes threw six of her seven white male companions off the train, stripped her, raped her at knife's point.

Lily White Justice. Counsel Leibowitz first moved that the indictments against his clients be quashed on the grounds that, by banning Negroes from the Jackson County jury roll, the State of Alabama had denied the defendants their constitutional rights at the original trial. Attorney General Thomas E. Knight, whose father wrote the Alabama Supreme Court decision sustaining the prior verdict, put the burden of proof on the defense. What Counsel Leibowitz had to prove, every Southerner knows to be true: Negroes simply are not allowed on juries in Alabama. After two days of bickering, Judge James E. Horton, a Lincolnesque figure in the Circuit Court for 25 years, suddenly ruled: "The Court has decided not to hear further testimony on this question." Attorney Knight looked surprised. Counsel Leibowitz, believing himself armed with cause for another plea to the Supreme Court, looked pleased.

The defense next moved that the present indictment be quashed because of similar "systematic exclusion" of Negroes from the Morgan County venire. When jury board commissioners failed to say whether or not their jury rolls contained Negro names, Counsel Leibowitz threatened to have all 2,000 talesmen subpoenaed "if it takes till doomsday," to see what color they were.

The State claimed that if there were no Negroes on the Morgan County roll it was because none had sufficient education, "integrity, good character and sound judgment" to qualify. Thereupon, Counsel Leibowitz began bringing in dozens of reputable Negroes who were not on the roll. One was a doctor from the University of Illinois, another a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Howard University.

Next day the defense won and lost a point. Judge Horton ruled that prima facie evidence had been established that the Morgan County jury roll was allwhite. Counsel Leibowitz then moved that Negro talesmen be considered for the present jury, a proposal which brought to horrified Southerners visions of carpetbagging days. The courtroom was tense when Judge Horton softly said: "Motion denied."

With his mind's eye again on the Supreme Court, defense counsel replied: "I take exception."

Jurors were then picked, sworn in. The prosecution concentrated on rural talesmen. The defense wanted young white-collar men who might have come in contact with urban liberalism. Attorney Knight got three farmers; others chosen were a draftsman, a mill worker, two bookkeepers, a merchant, a barber, a bank cashier, a motor salesman. One man was unemployed. It appeared that the defense, with two challenges to the State's one, had gotten a shade the better of the selection.

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