A negro boy was brought to the bar for trial before a police magistrate,
in a Southern capital city, charged with assault and battery on a white
boy about the same age, but a little larger. The testimony showed that the
white boy had beat the negro on several previous occasions as he passed on
his way to school, and each time the negro showed no disposition to fight.
On the morning of the charge he attacked the negro and attempted to cut
him with a knife, because the negro's mother had reported to the white
boy's mother the previous assaults, and asked her to chastise him. The
colored boy in trying to keep from being cut was compelled to fight, and
got the advantage and threw the white boy down and blacked his eyes. The
magistrate on this evidence fined the negro twenty-five dollars. The
mother of the negro having once been a servant for the magistrate, found
courage to rise, and said: "Jedge, yo Honer, can I speak?" The magistrate
replied, "Yes, go on." She said, "Well, Jedge, my boy is ben tellin' me
about dis white boy meddlin' him on his way to school, but I would not let
my boy fight, 'cause I 'tole him he couldn't git no jestice in law. But he
had no other way to go to school 'ceptin' gwine dat way; and den jedge,
dis white chile is bigger an my chile and jumped on him fust with a knife
for nothin', befo' my boy tetched him. Jedge I am a po' woman, and washes
fur a livin', and ain't got nobody to help me, and can't raise all dat
money. I think dat white boy's mammy ought to pay half of dis fine." By
this time her voice had become stifled by her tears. The judge turned to
the mother of the white boy and said, "Madam, are you willing to pay half
of this fine?" She answered, "Yes, Your Honor." And the judge changed the
order to a fine of $12.50 each, against both boys.

A celebrated case in point reported in the books is, George Maury vs. The
State of Miss., 68 Miss. 605. I reproduce the court's statement of the
case:--"This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Kemper County.