Jim Crow in the Southwest: The jury desegregation struggle continues Smith v. State – Texas, 1900-1903 (58 S.W. 97, 69 S.W. 151, 77 S.W. 453); Miera v. Territory – New Mexico, 1906 (81 P. 586); Thomas v. State – Texas, 1906 (95 S.W. 1069), affirmed, 212 U.S. 278 (1909); Groce v. Territory – Arizona, 1908 (94 P. 1108)
Jim Crow in the Southwest: Schools and Public Accommodations Dameron v. Bayless – Arizona, 1912 (126 P. 273); Jones v. Kehrlein – California, 1920 (194 P. 55); Piper v. Big Pine School District – California, 1924 (226 P. 926)
| ![]() Cotton picker, Pinal County, Arizona (1940) - courtesy National Archives and Records Administration and Wikimedia Commons
“It is apparent that there was an endeavor … to avoid the effect of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and of this court ... While we … appreciate their [local courts’] disinclination to place the administration of the law, even in part, in the hands of a people assumed to be inferior to the white race, yet under the law and before the law all are equals, and in its administration no favors can be shown, nor can either the letter or spirit of the law be ignored.” – Justice __, in Smith
“There is a good deal of testimony in the record tending to show that negroes, as a general rule, were not as well qualified to sit on juries as persons of the white race, either lacking in sufficient intelligence or from a want of morals.” - Justice __, in Thomas
“The law will not measure with a yardstick …, but it will and does require that, after children arrive at the school building, it be as good a building and as well equipped and furnished and presided over by as efficient a corps of teachers as the schools provided for the children of other races.” - Justice __, in Dameron
“It is … contended that in purchasing the tickets with the provision permitting the management to assign him a seat Jones did so with his eyes open, and that if he did not like the conditions he need not buy. But … the language of the ticket conferred and could confer no such right upon the mgmt to discriminate against him in violation of the rights guaranteed him … [T]he whole transaction …. was tainted from the beginning with illegality arising out of the intent of the management from the start to … discriminat[e] against him in the matter of seating accommodation solely on acct of his race.” – Justice __, in Jones |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 7. SOUTHWEST LEGAL HISTORY > 7.3 Southwest Legal History: Grappling with Growth (1900-1930) >