Thursday, February 22, 2018

BLACK LAWYER CHALLENGES IN MISSOURI

"Incidents of racial violence against black lawyers were reported in Missouri. William A. Cole was beaten by a mob near the Arkansas state line in Pemiscot County, for defending a black client. He was "chased out of the courtroom and...beaten for representing Negro defendants who had formed an organization to improve conditions of Negro sharecroppers." The volatile atmosphere interfered so significantly with Cole's ability to represent his clients that he filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Missouri Supreme Court to bring the violence to the court's attention." p.334, "The Southwestern States," EMANCIPATION: THE MAKING OF THE BLACK LAWYER 1844-1944 by J. Clay Smith, Jr.(1993)