Running Head: African American Racism in the Courtroom 1
African American Racism in the Courtroom
Natalia Linda Medina
Wayland Baptist University
Mrs. A. San Pedro: JUAD-2300
AFRICAN AMERICAN RACISM IN THE COURTROOM 2
A sophisticated room with grand wooden benches and furnishings, the gavel placed at the
front of the room, and an American flag at a standstill symbolizing justice for all mankind, or
better stated, justice for all un-colored mankind. Racism in the courtroom is and has been the
factor in major cases that have occurred over the past decades and it has proven not much
change. Isn’t justice stated in the United States’ pledge of allegiance to be served for all? Then is
the courtroom truly serving justice to all including colored people? Race in America, where we
the people state that this, The United States of America, is the land of the free and the home of
the brave, has proven its loopholes in the courtroom and its sentencing where in recent and
previous incidents proven to be a negative factor for colored citizens.
A vast majority of individuals question where African Americans are descended from.
The answer simply lies in the name, Africa. These individuals have descended from the African
continent, whether it would be the south or north parts of the continent is where one will
specifically correct and define from the other. Now, what defines an African American? Is it the
color of their skin or is it their first or last name. According to F. James Davis, all it takes is one
drop of black blood to be considered an African American. “In the South it became known as the
“one-drop rule,” meaning that a single drop of “black blood” makes a person a black.” (Davis,
n.d.). He further explains what happens when you are descendent from two different races in
which he referenced to the “one black ancestor rule”. In the article Davis stated that “some courts
have called it the “traceable amount rule,” and anthropologists call it the “hypo-descent rule,”
meaning that racially mixed persons are assigned the status of the subordinate group” which
most if not all will argue. For example, what if you have a female whose mother is white and
father is African American; she will be classified as an African American Female.
AFRICAN AMERICAN RACISM IN THE COURTROOM 3
When people think of the African Americans they most likely think of the most common
word that they are associated with, slave. Just about everyone knows about their unfortunate
slavery history which occurred in the North American colonies at the start of what we know
today as the United States. According to History.com, these slaves were brought to the Americas
to “aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco” (History.com Staff,
2009). Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, these slaves aided in the economic growth of what
has made the United States of America great. Slowly all of these wonderful productions moved
across the first American colonies as did the African Americans and their offspring. At this point
in time there were not constitutional amendments that justified their rights as an immigrant as we
see today. Instead they were treated as dirt, rags that were tossed here and there as these primary
white collared men saw them as nothing more than a servant that was sold and belonged to them.
