This came to be by a family cousin, who is most knowledgeable is history and Genealogy. He leads the head of my list for respect as a genealogist and can be found at <BEDSOLE-L@ROOTSWEB.COM>. He prints many many historical and family facts. The fact that a HILL and SMITH were named in this has a familiar ring of the HILL and SMITH connection of SE Arkansas. Since JD is in Alabama and alot of our people came from Georgia through Alabama, can there be a connection? Sweet A Case Of Discrimination How about this. A black man is accused of being black ??? .............JD [JBeds@aol.com] JOE H. SMITH, ATTORNEY, AS A COLORED MAN. Perhaps no more laughable incident ever occurred in the courts of this county than the case in which the attorney was charged by the opposite attorney of being a Colored Man and for that reason not allowed to testify in court. This was a case being tried before SAMUEL SHARPNACK of Clay Township, a justice of the peace. CAPTAIN WILLIAM HILL of Magnolia fame, appeared for the defendant and JOE H. SMITH for the plaintiff. When SMITH undertook to testify, himself, concerning a certain account book, he was at once objected to by CAPTAIN HILL on the grounds that section 2388 of the Code of 1851 read: But an Indian, Negro, mulatto or black person shall not be allowed to give evidence in any case wherein a white person is a party. "Now," remarked Captain HILL, "look at SMITH and determine if my objection is not well taken." The Court sustained the objection, whereupon a scene occurred in which books flew in the air and all was not tranquil, for the complexion of Attorney JOE H. SMITH was not unlike that of Gen. JOHN A. LOGAN, dark and swarthy, though he was a full-blooded Caucasian. It should be stated that this was just before the reconstruction acts of the United States, after the Civil War, and the state constitution had not voted and passed upon the rights of the Negro race, by Amendment No. 15, which allows a colored man the same rights as are accorded to his white brother.