The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 15, 1933, Page 3

i “The Real Significance of the Decatur JUDGE HORTONS “FAIRNESS” IS EXPOSED BY ATTORNEY BRODSKY IN FIRST, EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW “Judge Horton More Dangerous Than Ranting Prosecutors,” Says LL.D. Lawyer Brodsky Shows Judge Ignored Motions for Mis- trials, Thus Aiding Prosecution In an interview with a representative of the Daily Worker, Joseph R. Brodsky, chief counsel of the International Labor Defense, yesterday gave his views on the Scottsboro trial which closed n Decatur, Ala., on Sunday. Brodsky was singled out for especial attack by the pros- ecution during the trial because Sahiastio! @aihis bes “WAInEa = GOR: o. the courageous and ener-| that the jury list had no Negroes ne i * whi | it, and, two, that they are exclude getic fight whirh he put up | on the question of race or color. We during the past two years as chief are told we must prove both points, counsel for the I. L. D. He argued/1f the Judge did not know it from} the Scottsboro case before the Ala-| Jackson County, he certainly knew it| bama Supreme Court, which upheld | from Morgan County. He heard the| the frame-up. | clerk, Mr. Green, testify that he has| Brodsky’s -views on the Decatur) seen at least 2,500 jurors serve, and| trial and the verdict against Patter- never to his knowledge was there a/| son follow: | Negro. The judge knew that there) DAILY WORKER, NAW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 19338 What I want to specifically squelch once for all is the attempt of a part of the-South, especially the bourgeois South, and the liberals here in the North, to place the Scottsboro issue on this basis: that it was not the inevitable résult of the theory of “white supremacy” in the South, arising out of the class struggle and the exploitation of the Negro as an oppressed national, minority, but that it came as a result of some one par- | never was, and necer could have been @ Negro sitting on the jury. They tell us to prove it.. How are | we going to prove it? If you refuse to concede that everyone on the jury roll is a white, we must subjoene the Negroes. And right here, let me stop for a moment and say, that the real heroes in the Scottsboro case have not yet been recognized and given their due. They are the fifteen Negroes who THE JURY WHICH LAUGH chair, Although the defense had Morgan County. Now in Morgan County it is the proud boast of every white man that there never was a voted that he was “guilty” in 20 minutes, of electrocution, the jury remained out for more than 18 hours, banker, connected with the Tennessee Valley Bank of Decatur, Ala. ED—This is the jury which condemned Haywood Patterson to the electric completely shattered the frame-up case against the Negro boy, the jury Because one of the jurors held out for life imprisonment instead One of the members of the jury was a ‘SCOTTSBORO MEETS THROUGHOUT LAUNCH CAPITOL MARCH IN FIGHT FOR NEGRO BOYS LL.D. Issues Stirring Call to Action (CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE) |the I.L.D. in the Scottsboro case that the attention of the whole coun- try and many parts of the world has been focussed upon the sore spot ist society—the brutal social, poli- tical and economic oppression of the fourteen million American Negroes. Forces of Reaction Gathering Already the forces of reaction are gathering in an attempt to crush | this movement, to stem this mighty upsurge. The Democratic Party, through its Tammany Hall agents among both Negroes and whites, is forming alliances for this purpose |In answer to this etfort all honest | elements who sincerely wish to fight for the freedom of the Scottsboro boys must unite their forces. The ILD. welcomes every moral and material aid from all who wish to support the struggle, but at the same time the masses must be on their guard and fight with every Means at their command against anyone who seeks to hamper and di- vert the clear purpose of the masses —to smash the whole system of | brutal national oppression of the sedis oe million Negroes in the Uni- ted States—a system which breeds | Scottsboro frame-ups, lynchings, and | Jim Crow, n violates thew every fundamental human and de- Trial Ver in the fabric of American capital- | Page Lhree 39 e a U d [Labor Defense Welcomes N.A.A.C.P. Offer to Aid the Scottsboro Boys’ Fight r Gg ea Bid Follows Action of N.A.A.C.P. Branches in Supporting Leadership of the LL.D. |\Invite N.A.A.C.P. Leadership to Back Specific Actions “In Token of Good Faith” NEW YORK tance of the offer of the national leaders of the National / ation for the Advancement of Colored People to raise funds for the Scottsboro defense, and to cooperate in other ways with the defense which is being conducted by the Interr or Defense was announced in a statement made publi Fy | Asso rents, and against the 1 terdayterday by William L. vamos ob teed Patterson, national secre Barred: Boye Mothers lof the IL.D whe ie to the question The N.A.A.CP. offer was mai @ statement to the pres Thursday, and a dec to accept it at a m the mothers of the s to vppear before the the leaders would of them to speak. tionl Executive C: ional Labor Defens¢ the Welcomes Cooperation The ILD. sta that, while the N.AA.C.P. has cons: attacked and sabo of the Scott: its most rec published in , Mother of Roy and ce refused per- CP meetings, er 22 in New 's. Janie Pat- ‘ood Patterson the NAACP Pittsburgh, in e same year. consistently de- y, that the Scottsboro olved the whole policy came from Scottsboro, after being Negro on the jury. We brought Negro} mocratic right. rican ruling class to the subpoenaed by the sheriff (which! are, Negro who was born and raised means that every last one of them) was threatened before he came). The) fifteen Negroes wo came into Court) and for the first time in the South took the stand and said, “Here we! are, listen to us; we will prove to you} that we are qualified.” After Std set the pace, immediately, in Decatur, when we attacked the petty jury, 400! Negroes volunteered to come. | first 15 were the trail blazers. We! offered to produce every last one of the 400 from Decatur. Negroes Qualified | We had these fifteen Negroes on| the stand. We asked them, “What! is your name, where were you born?| What are your educational qualifica-| tions?-Do—you—read_and_write?- Are | you afflicted with a disease? Are you # householdler? Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” All these questions were answered favorably.| Then we had Negro witnesses that! were highly esteemed in the commu-! nity for good character and sound judgment, as required - by statute. ! “were duly” elected school JOSEPH R. BRODSKY | kis with: “You don’t mean that you were elected by white people? You were elected only by colored peoplpe, isn’t ticular individual who either lost head or who happens to be as an there, who was 50 to 60 years old, and they said, “No Negro in Jackson County had ever served on a jury.” They knew this from their own knowledge. Now the Judge could have avoided this huge farce. We produced wit- ness after witness to prove this. We brought doctors, professionals, minis- ters, workers. Their answers were in- telligent, Many of them were college graduates. Some of them are quali- fied to vote, and anybody who knows what it means for a Negro to be qualified to vote knows just what that means. Negroes are expected to recite from memory the Constitution of the U. 8. in order to qualify as voters. » Now what does the judge do? We prove our point up to the hilt. Then he says, “Alright, you have proved your point, that there has been ex- clusion of juries, you have made out ® prima facie case.” Yet, Judge Horton would not give us an opportunity to prove that. the men on theh jury panel were all white. What does the District At-| He asks, “Have you con- sidered any of these Negroes in pre- CITY AS WORKERS’ ANGER GROWS NEW YORK.—A number of meetings and events in connection with the Scottsboro case will take place throughout the city the next few days. Eye witness reports of the Scottsboro trial by Daily Worker correspon- dents who were at the trial will be given at the Rockland Palace, 155th St. and 8th Ave., tomorrow, S y, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. The correspondents who will speak are John L. Spivak,« - 5 eit James §. Allen, and Jacob Burck Other speakers will be Joseph R. ye Brodsky, chief attorney of the Inter: national Labor Defense, W. Jones, editor of Afro-American, Joshua R. | Kunitz, Secretary of National Com- mittee for the Defense of Political Prisoners and Sam Don, acting editor of the Daily Worker. Sender Garlin will be chairman. The Workers Lab- oratory Theatre wil put on a “Scotts- boro Play.” An Inaugural Ball to greet the ap- pearance of the Harlem Liberator, or. gan of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights will be held t Alhambra Ballroom, 126th Seventh Ave. Mass Meet A mass meeting called by the Scottsboro Unity Committee held Monday night at the A Witness Report of Scottsboro St. and John L. Spivak individual actuated by prejudice ” paring the jury rolls?” “Sure, we Saptist Church, 138th St. against the North, against the Jew, | (nat so” Then he asked one of) nave considered some of these, Seventh and Eighth Aves. | James S. Allen egainst the Negroes. | A |mames.” “And you excluded them.| 4 mss protest parade preceded by Judge Quiet, But More Dangerous Take Judge Horton. Judge Horton ‘4s a very kind sort of an individual. He is fair, according to his lights, | but those lights are the lights of a * “Southern gentleman,” which means that he accepts and takes for granted the class position of the Negroes, the | necessity of white supremacy—and every one of his ruling was a ruling in the light of maintaining white supremacy in the South, even though the ruling was made in mild lan- guage, even though the ruling was Kindly made, even though he didn’t} rant whne-he made it, like that blith- ering fool Wright, who more stupidly showed this boiling cauldron of preju- dice. It.needed somebody to stick a spike into it so that it could spout up full like a volcano. Whereas Judge Horton, more decent, but objectively more dangerous, was seeking to keep the lid clamped down. For example, we raised the question of the denial of constitutional rights because Negroes were excluded from the grand. jury and from the petty jury panel from which was to be drawn the jury that actually sat in judgment upon the boys. How were we going to raise this question? We were going to prove first that there never was a Negro sitting upon a jury either in Jackson County, where the boys were indicted, or in Morgan County, where the pres- ent case was tried. We were going to show that there couldn't be a Negro on these juries because on the jury lists from which the respective juries were to be drawn there was not a single Negro. We were going to prove that there were Negroes who were eminently qualified to serv on juries. The first.point we had to prove by calling in witnesses who are well ac- quainted with the practice in the counties involved. We called in the editor of the “Pro- ve Age,” & paper in Jackson ‘We put him on the stand. Q—How long have you visited courts in this county? A.—Thirty- five years. Q—‘Have you ever seen a Negro sit on a jury?” A —*“No, I have not.” —"“Did you ever see a Negro who was qualified to serve? A.—'"No.” Now, let us say, the statute says they must be over 21 and under 65. “Do you know Negroes who are over 21 and under 65?” “Yes.” The statute says they must not be afflicted with any disease that would| make them incompetent. “Do you know Negroes that are not afflicted! with any. disease?” “Yes.” The stat- lute says they must never have been convicted of any crime. “Do you know Negroes that have not been convicted?” “Yes.” The statute says | the Communist Party?” The answer| was “No.” “Of what party are you’ a member?” “I have been a mem- | ber of the Republican Party for forty “Are you a member of the Did you exclide race or color?” “No.” : | Now the point we made was this: | You can’t go inside of a man’s head them because of| section of lily-whites or of the: black- and-tan?” In other words; he was putting the color line right there. Now what does Judge Horton do? ‘When he saw that we were forcing the issue, when. we told him that we would use our legal right to ask a subpoena for every last mon of the 2,000 on the jury panel, that if the that we accepted the challenge; that we would stay here and prove it— then Judge Horton granted our re- quest that subjoenas be issued. Judge Changes His Mind This was the last thing that hap- {pened before lunch period. We go | home, and after the lunch period the first thing the Judge says is, “I have decided to deny this motion.” | “But, your Honor, we want an op- | portunity to prove this. We want to | subjoena all of these witnesses. You | told us before inch that we could do that.” “Motion denied.” Very quiet very politely, very “decently.” . tion denied.” | will give you some idea of the “fair- ness” of the judge. After denying | the motion, Horton follows it with a | Speech as follows: “ | as a Judge in this court, will see to | it that the principles of the South | will be carried out, there will (8nd even-handed justice to Jew | Gentile, black and white alike.” five minutes after he | motion, which means justifying (exclusion of the Negroes! Judge More | He is a man who has been poisoned |at the source. You cannot make a “fair” man out of him. He ts honest according to his lights. But his lights are the lights of the Southern ruling | class, oppressors of the Negro people. | The difference between Judge Hor- ton and Wade Wright is the follow- ing: First, he is more dangerous | and see what his intentions are. We | judge from facts. If over a ‘period of! in years Negroes have been excluded, land it is conceded that 2,000 ont of | | ston does exist! “Motion denied,” says the Judge. One jury commissioner against all other witnesses and the facts them- ; Selves. Did that stand in his way of |following that up with a speech. “I }@m a tender man, I wouldn’t hurt any human thing.” He means it, perhaps, just as “honestly” and “sin- |cerely” as he believes that the Negroes | are inferior beings, that only a white | man can do justice alike to black and | white, but that the black cannot do | justice either to the black or white. | Tt is in that sense, that you must | understand his “fairness.” Now I want to give you the climax to the “fairness” of the judge. Ala- bama had determined that the out- side world should have the illusion of | fairness. They had the militia out to protect us. They knew that crosses were burnt for the first time in three | or four years in Alabama and in the town where Victoria Price came from. They knew that in Decatur a meet- ing of over 200 business men had been held and that a march had actually been started on the jail. They know that Burleson, the captain of the militia, had said, “Tf thére is an acquittal here, hell will break loose.” So Judge Horton made these speeches “recognizing the danger that | fl Ee] az é g8ae 2 e558 iis agree Syl S i i j z 4 E on Objections are made by the de- fense.. Motions are made for a mis- trial. What does the judge do, “Moton deneid.” the 8,000 in Morgan County are qual-| ified to serve on juries, then exclu- | open air meetings along the route of march is cheduled tc take place in the Williamsburgh section of Brook- lyn today. The parade starts at 1 p.m. from Lewis and. Gates Aves. Mass or- ganizations are to assemble at the Progressive Workers Culture Club, 159 Sumner Ave. at i2 noon. Jacob Burck DAILY WORKER Correspondents at Trial Joseph R. Brodsky Chief Attorney, I. L. D. Joshua R. Kunitz Benefit Performance A special Scottsboro benefit per- formance of “Humming Sam” a mu- sical comedy with a Negro cast will be given Sunday night at the New Yorker Theatre, W. 54th St., Allan K. Foster, the producer announced to- day. Mrs. Jennies Patterson, mother of Haywood Patterson, and Joe Brodsky} will speak during intermission. | | Defense of Political Prisoners Sam Don Acting Editor, SCOTTSBORO MEET TODAY IN B'KLYN BROOKLYN.—Mrs. Jennie Patter- son, mother of Haywood Patterson, condemned Scottshoro Boy, will be the main speaker at a mass mect- ing of Negro and white workers to- day at the Brooklyn Palace, 130 | Rockaway Avenue, near Fulton, at | 4:30 p.m. The indoor meeting will be pre-| ceded by 8 parade through working- class. districts started off with an open air meeting at Fulton and Curh- berland Streets at 2 p.m. Workers | are coming from Brownsville, Bast ‘New York and Crown Heights to join in the demonstration. ‘Wm. Patterson, National secretary of the International Labor Defense, Fred Biedenkapp, and Rev. Harton of the Afro-Negro Alliance, will be among the other prominent speak- ers to address the meeting. Daily Worker Sender Garlin. | | Chairman PALACE SUNDAY APRIL 16th 7:30 P.M. ADMISSION 15 CENTS UNEMPLOYED FREE The masses are in motion. They are demanding immediate militant and uncompromising action, not only | for the defense of the Scottsboro ‘boys but also on the whole question of the violation of the elementary | constitutional rights of the Negro | people, dramatically symbolized in | the Séotirboro case. They are de- manding immediate action on the | part of the Roosevelt government the allies of the Southern white rulers, to enforce the rights guaran- teed under the Thirteenth, Fourt- eenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Concrete Aciion The LL.D. therefore proposes to the Emergency Scottsboro Conterente as called by the Scottsboro Unity Defense Committee for this Sunday, | and to all working class and pro- rganization: of every color | and natit ity, of every political and | religious belief, the following: | 1. To organize a Free the Scotts- | boro Boys March upon Washington. | 2. To collect and present to Pres- ident Rovsevelt 1,690,000 signatures, | demanding the immediate, uncondi- | tional and sefe release of the nine | Scottsboro boys. 3. To present to Congress a bill Dallas Ramsey, one of the Negro witnesses In the Decatur trial. terson, many of its branches have already cooperated the LL.D. in |the defense, and hundreds of N. A. | A. C. P. members have been involved | in it. The International Labor Defense, ‘the statement said, welcomes this | offer of cooperation from the leaders | of the N.A.A.C.P., coming as it does | to be passed at once, providing for | especially, at the height of such a immediate and strict enforcement of | mass movement as has never before | the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fif- | been achieved behind the issues rais- tcenth Amendments to the Constita- ed by the ILD. in the case, and be- tion. | hind its fight to save the lives of the The ILD. suggests Friday, April boys. Secretary National Committee for | ROCKLAND 28, as the date On which thousands of Negro and white workers are to ‘ arrive in masses from nearest points, in delegations from fayther ones, be- fore the White Housc and Capitol. In_the course of preparation for the Free the Scoitssoro Boys March these shall be the immediate de mands: } 1, A new trial for Haywood Pat- terson. 2. Postponement of the other trials until after the appeal o) been acted upon in Haywood Pat- terson’s case. 3. Negroes and white workers to serve on the jury. 4. Transfer of all trials to Birmingham. 5. Full safeguard for the Scotts- boro boys, all lawyers and defense witnesses in the case. 6. Immediate, unconditional and safe release for the nine Scotis- boro boys, Upon receipt of this Cail let the Scottskoro Emerge Conference and every other organization not yet within this body take up and endorse our propcsals and jointly with us get to work at once on all the details that will place upon an organized basis the tremendous movement of the black and white masses to com- pel the ruling class to let go of their victims, the nine Scottsboro boys, and to grant the Negro masses every con- stitutional right. Long live the unity of the black and white masses, North and South! Only the masses can compel the freedom of the Scottsboro boys, Tom Mooney, Angelo Herndon, and every ether victim of ruling class terror and national oppression! On to Washington! Scottsboro | Mobilizing for Union Sq. Scottsboro Demonstration | | of the boys, retained Stephen Roddy | ‘The text of the statement, which re-' views the previous activities of the | N.A.A.CP. in regard to the Scottsboro case, follows: “With the announcement on Sun- day, April 9, of the monstrous lynch- verdict agi vood Patterson by an all-white jury in Decatur, the defense struggle of the Scottsboro | boys entered a new phase. | leadership of the Intern: Defense, which for tw kept these bo: precedented around the | with complete ence presented at the trial | Had Attacked Defense “The first reaction of the national board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of up of the Scottsboro boys, under the ional Labor ears had s word flas verdict mi of the evid- he: attack upon the Scottsboro defense, in the form of a statement to the press which seid that the Alabama jlynchers would not have returned this verdict had not ‘the Communists’, as the N.AAC.P. statement chose to call the International Labor De- fense, entered the case. ‘The statement of the board of directors put forward the disruptive proposal of forming = ‘new defense committee,’ though the Internation- ginning been the authorized defenders of the boys, and has carried on & consistent and bitter fight to save their lives for two years, a fight which included a struggle against dis- ruptive maneuvers of the NAACP | leadership. Statement Contained Falsehood “The statement contained the as- sertion that the NAACP was the only ization to go to the aid of the ys in their first trial, a deliberate falsehood. The NAACP has nev ‘been legally connected with the caso, | and its first attempts to enter it came jafter the International Labor De- fense had already raised a storm of |mass protest against the original lynch-verdicts, and atter their attor- neys had been authorized to repre- sent them by the Scottsboro boys ant ' by their parents “At that time the NAACP. in an ef- fort to take over control of the at all costs, even that of the a member of the K.K.K., who had appeared at the first trial, but ac cording to the record was not de- |fense attorney regularly employed, who failed to make any of the lega moves which might Isy the basis for an appeal, and who, according to his own statement, considered his very presence in the court room to ‘de fend’ nine Negro boys an ‘ucpleasant duty.’ “From that time on the NAACP ‘defense’ of the boys consisted sole in attacks upon the boys’ auth defenders. and in raising moncy, of which only $1,000 out of an admitted $7,000 raised, has been turnec over The | world-wide protest against the frame- | Colored People to this verdict was an | al Labor Defense has from the be-| people, the issue of the Jim ng of the Negro+s, of the denial ' democratic rights, including, the right on juries. They denied that any issues were involved besides that of the proven innocence | of the Scottsboro boys. What ILD Accomplished ‘Now that the ILD has not only Proved upon the record the innocence of these boys, but has raised also the question of the <iemocratic rights of Negro and white workers, and of the right of Negroes to serve on juries as provided in the Fourteent> Amendment, now that the tide of anger of the masses against the new lynch-verdict has risen to new heights under the leadership of the Interna- tional Labor Defense, the NAACe nas announced that: ‘The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People cannot stand by idle while this momentous struggle goes on.’ “The NAACP leadership has of- fered to raise funds for the Scotts- boro defense, and in the words of it press to ‘cooperate in a! other w Ipful to the defendants.’ In this offer it has followed the lead of hundreds of individual members, and some branches of the NAACP, Welcome Offer of Aid “The International Labor Defens> welcomes this offer of cooperation, especially coming, as it does, at the height of such a mass movement be- hind the Scottsboro defense and the issues of Negro rights raised by the ILD as has never before been achieved. “The International Labor Defense stands ready to accept the offer of the NAACP to cooperate both in the raising of funds, and in support of the mass movement already on foot to force the ruling class of the South et the Scottsboro boys free and guarantee their safety. ‘Funds are badly needed by the de- fense. At least $5,000 1s needed im- mediately to prepare the appeal cf of Haywood Patterson for tion to the Supreme Court of This must be done within from the date of the vere ou ge sums will be es sential for the defense of the other eight boys over whom the shadow of | the electric chair stil hangs also, | “The immediate needs of the de- fense for minimum necessary ex- penses are for $7,500. “The ILD calls on the NAACP, in y d faith in its offer to defense with funds and 3 1. To support the | movement for a march of Negro and white workers to Washington to pre- sent the demand of the millions of Negroes in the United States, and the millions of white worksrs whose interests are also at stake, and who stand behind the ILD in its fight to save the lives of the innocent Ne- 8ro boys, to President Roosevelt, and to assist in obtaining the million sig- | natures for the petition which will | present these demands. | “2. The ILD calls on the NAACP leaders to keep their promise expos- | ing the ‘system of oppression which they (the Scottsboro cases) exemp- lity, of helping put an end to the | Slavery of Negro Americans, and of fighting against anc exposing the protestations of the hypocrites and slaveholders. Concrete Action “3. In view of the lynch-terror | | rampant in Alabama and throughout the South, but especially in the northern rural sections of the state at this moment, and in view of the ‘oved innocence of the Scottsbore s, the ILD calls for concrete tion on these issues by the NAAC | | Pe | that they support im public state+ ments d raise in resolutions ig their es, the demands made to President Roosevelt and Governor Miller of Alabama, for a new trial for Haywood Patterson, a change of ven for the other cases to Bir- their adjournment until ‘son case is Tight of Negroes to serve id the immediate, uncon- safe release of the Scottsboro ries, ani NEED VOLUNTEERS IN BORO DRIVE. W YORK unteers are urg- nection with the oro campaign. Hundreds of meetings must be covered and there is a shortage of speakers. Clerical work- esr are wanted for detail work. Re- SCOTTS- NE’ to the defense. This money was| Port to Harlem Branch of the In= raised without being at any time/| ternational Labor Defense, 97 W. backed by authorization of the boys, !31st Street.