Viewing page 161 of 243

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Bureau of R.F. & A. Lands.
Sub Dist "B." 6th Dist Va.
Staunton, Va. April 16th 1866.

Maj. W.S. How, A.Q.M.
Supt. 6th Dist, Va,

Major,

I have the honor to call your attention to what I conceive to be an act of gross injustice practised upon a colored man by one of the Magistrates of this town, under the new order for the trial of criminal cases, and in regard to which I wish to know if an appeal can not be made, in accordance with the wishes of the plaintiff, to the Courts having jurisdiction under the Civil Rights bill.

The facts, as brought out upon the trial this morning, are these:— on Sunday, April 15th, two ladies called at the house of a colored man named Rafe Willis, who lived in the upper part of a house, leading to which, a flight of stairs on the outside is the common thoroughfare for the family of Willis, and also of two others; when these ladies were about to leave, they found the passage obstructed by the defendant, Charles Frayer, (W.) who was upon the stairs in a state of intoxication; they went back to the plaintiff, Willis, and requested him to have the steps cleaned as that they could get down; he then went partly down to where the defendant was standing and requested them to get off the steps, telling them that if they did not, he would call some one to take them off; Frayer then rushed up the stairs after him, saying that he would have no d——d nigger insulting him, and made a violent attack upon him, driving him up the stairs and into his own, Willis' apartment, where the as-

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-25 00:49:39