Freedmen's Bureau Records: Frederick S. Tukey to W.
Storer How, April 16, 1866
Summary:
This letter from Frederick Tukey asks for intervention in what he perceives to be
a case of injustice against a black plaintiff in a legal case. The attached
wrappers trace the case's progress through the bureaucracy - it was decided not
to intervene.
Bureau of R.
F. & A.
Lands
Sub-Dist "B" 6th Dist.
Va.
Maj. W. S. How, A.Q.M.
Supt. 6th Dist.
Va
April 16th 1866
Staunton, 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, [illeg.] 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, Charlie [unclear: Frayer]
[unclear: (Mo)] 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
so that they could get down, he then went partly down to where the defendant was
standing and requested [unclear: them] to get off the steps, telling
them that if they did not, he would call some one to take them off.
[unclear: Frayer] then [unclear: 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-
[page 2]
sault was renewed and continued until the
parties were separated by the intervention of a man named Gardner, who dragged
the defendant away.
Both parties appeared before the Magistrate this morning: plaintiff, with his face and lips cut and swollen, and the defendant apparently untouched, after hearing of the evidence substantially as above detailed, the Justice dismissed the case, by binding both parties to keep the peace for six months in a bond of $50.00 each.
I am Major,
Very Respy
Your
Obt.
Serv't
F.S. Tukey
Asst Supt.
Sub Dist. "B"
