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[[image - black & white 19th century photograph of a large group of white and black men]]

First Mixed Jury

"We'll hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree," the soldier of the Union Army had sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body." This never happened, but when, for the trial of the ex-President of the Confederacy in Richmond, the first mixed jury ever drawn in the South was impaneled, half of the petit jurors were Negroes. But the trial was postponed.  The second process ended in disagreement.  Released on bail, Jefferson Davis lived for twenty years and was not tried again.  But the fact that Negroes served on juries further increased bitter resentment against them in the South. Such resentment caused many colored people to migrate to the North and West in search of a less hostile environment.

[[image - black & white photograph of an African-American man (possibly the author)]]