Too often, when talking about the violence of Reconstruction, we focus on what whites did to Black people.
But what about the white community?
Well on this day, 150 years ago, SC finally addressed a problem that had plagued the state for years.
White on white crime
A thread
It was 1872 in SC and Black people were doing great.
SC was ~ 60% Black. The legislature was majority-Black. The Lt Gov was Black. SC had America’s 1st Black Secretary of State, 1st Black Supreme Court justice & the 1st Black state treasurer.
BUT white people were NOT ok
Plantation owners were broke AF after losing their labor force. the end of the slave economy created a the rise in prices and financial institutions that literally used Black bodies & Confederate money as collateral totally collapsed
They’d never experienced this
The men were busy glorifying Confederate criminals & gangbanging w/the KKK. This is what happens when there are no fathers in the home. We know crime is a socioeconomic problem, so OF COURSE it was rampant in the white community.
Plus, illiteracy was high in the South
SC’s Black delegates tried to help the underrepresented white community by creating the 1st constitutionally mandated statewide publicly funded school system. But, for some reason they didn’t want to attend integrated schools (if only their culture would value education )
But whites weren’t out here just looting and murdering Black people (AND THEY WERE), they were beefing with each other. It was bad y’all. They were out here whining about being marginalized by while they ignored the crime their own community.
And then a peculiar thing started happening. Because Black people were eligible to vote, they could also serve on juries. And in a majority Black state, of course the juries would be majority Black.
Whites said this WHOLE criminal justice system was unfair!
White juries would ALWAYS find white people innocent if they committed an act of racial terrorism. So they thought having Black people on the jury was unfair. According to their logic, whites had committed so many crimes “outrages” against Blacks, they’d OBVIOUSLY want payback
My favorite example of this anti-white reverse racism was when the NY Tribune said white people got away with so many crimes that the only way to convict a white thugs in the South is to have an all-Black jury
And then, it happened.
On July 4, 1873, these Harry West was hanging out at the pool hall watching a game of when James & BL Duffus walked in & slapped Harry so hard he thought he was hosting the Oscars
Apparently they had beef w/Harry & it was “ON SIGHT” bc they shot him dead
West’s father was a prominent lawyer and was determined to end to do something about this white on white crime. He got the ATTY GEN to prosecute the case personally. The Duffus Boys’ were backed by the Ku Klux, so they got a good lawyer
The klan lawyer came up with the most racist trial strategy ever: they were gonna try to get an all-Black jury of ex slaves. They figured the Black jury would be too scared to convict them and too dumb to understand what was going on.
It was the white trial of the century!
On Feb 7, 1874, SC’s first white man to face an all-Black jury was convicted of murder.
Apparently they weren’t scared
The brother got manslaughter
It took the jury 4 hours to convict them
Even the judge was shocked by what happened next:
They sentenced James to death
Their worst white fears had been realized! The justice system was broken! They were going to punish white men just because they MURDERED someone??? People were OUTRAGED by what “black men of the most ignorant class” had decided
By November, the governor commuted the sentences
A few weeks later, he gave the boys a full pardon.
Southern governors did this ALL THE TIME.
They argued that negroes were unqualified or that they black jurors were retaliating again good, godfearing white murderers
Everyone knew the Gov was paid off. Newspapers even said it at the time. But some people believe the pardon was actually a drug deal.
It turns out the governor was on dopethe whole time
No, seriously:
In any case, here’s to white on white violence, street gangs, Caucasian thug life, uneducated criminals, drugs dealers & — most importantly— the jury who convicted James & BL Duffus
The first African Americans to ever commit reverse racism
Happy Black History Month
But what about the white community?
Well on this day, 150 years ago, SC finally addressed a problem that had plagued the state for years.
White on white crime
A thread
It was 1872 in SC and Black people were doing great.
SC was ~ 60% Black. The legislature was majority-Black. The Lt Gov was Black. SC had America’s 1st Black Secretary of State, 1st Black Supreme Court justice & the 1st Black state treasurer.
BUT white people were NOT ok
Plantation owners were broke AF after losing their labor force. the end of the slave economy created a the rise in prices and financial institutions that literally used Black bodies & Confederate money as collateral totally collapsed
They’d never experienced this
The men were busy glorifying Confederate criminals & gangbanging w/the KKK. This is what happens when there are no fathers in the home. We know crime is a socioeconomic problem, so OF COURSE it was rampant in the white community.
Plus, illiteracy was high in the South
SC’s Black delegates tried to help the underrepresented white community by creating the 1st constitutionally mandated statewide publicly funded school system. But, for some reason they didn’t want to attend integrated schools (if only their culture would value education )
But whites weren’t out here just looting and murdering Black people (AND THEY WERE), they were beefing with each other. It was bad y’all. They were out here whining about being marginalized by while they ignored the crime their own community.
And then a peculiar thing started happening. Because Black people were eligible to vote, they could also serve on juries. And in a majority Black state, of course the juries would be majority Black.
Whites said this WHOLE criminal justice system was unfair!
White juries would ALWAYS find white people innocent if they committed an act of racial terrorism. So they thought having Black people on the jury was unfair. According to their logic, whites had committed so many crimes “outrages” against Blacks, they’d OBVIOUSLY want payback
My favorite example of this anti-white reverse racism was when the NY Tribune said white people got away with so many crimes that the only way to convict a white thugs in the South is to have an all-Black jury
And then, it happened.
On July 4, 1873, these Harry West was hanging out at the pool hall watching a game of when James & BL Duffus walked in & slapped Harry so hard he thought he was hosting the Oscars
Apparently they had beef w/Harry & it was “ON SIGHT” bc they shot him dead
West’s father was a prominent lawyer and was determined to end to do something about this white on white crime. He got the ATTY GEN to prosecute the case personally. The Duffus Boys’ were backed by the Ku Klux, so they got a good lawyer
The klan lawyer came up with the most racist trial strategy ever: they were gonna try to get an all-Black jury of ex slaves. They figured the Black jury would be too scared to convict them and too dumb to understand what was going on.
It was the white trial of the century!
On Feb 7, 1874, SC’s first white man to face an all-Black jury was convicted of murder.
Apparently they weren’t scared
The brother got manslaughter
It took the jury 4 hours to convict them
Even the judge was shocked by what happened next:
They sentenced James to death
Their worst white fears had been realized! The justice system was broken! They were going to punish white men just because they MURDERED someone??? People were OUTRAGED by what “black men of the most ignorant class” had decided
By November, the governor commuted the sentences
A few weeks later, he gave the boys a full pardon.
Southern governors did this ALL THE TIME.
They argued that negroes were unqualified or that they black jurors were retaliating again good, godfearing white murderers
Everyone knew the Gov was paid off. Newspapers even said it at the time. But some people believe the pardon was actually a drug deal.
It turns out the governor was on dopethe whole time
No, seriously:
In any case, here’s to white on white violence, street gangs, Caucasian thug life, uneducated criminals, drugs dealers & — most importantly— the jury who convicted James & BL Duffus
The first African Americans to ever commit reverse racism
Happy Black History Month
