Page:Bone v. State (1939).pdf/3

.] It is also alleged that the total population of Pulaski county is 137,727 and that 97,212 are white people and 40,215 are negroes; that of this total, approximately 11,347 are legal electors and of the number of legal electors 1,500 are negroes or of African descent, qualified to serve as grand and petit jurors.

The alleged facts were stated in another form to the effect that the negro population is about one-fifth of the total population of the county and about one-eleventh of the total legal electors of the county are persons of color or of African descent, known as negroes, but were excluded from the petit jury because of their race and color and for no other reason.

There was a further allegation that in the selectionand formation of the present panel of the petit jurors, negroes were excluded for no other purpose or reason except that they are negroes.

There was a further allegation that no negroes have been selected, but that negro electors have been systematically excluded from serving as grand and petit jurors in Pulaski county for more than forty years solely because they are negroes, which is a discrimination against the defendants who are negroes and such discrimination is a denial to them of equal protection of the laws of the United States as guaranteed by § one of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

They alleged that by methods used there is a denial of due process of law by the State of Arkansas, through its administrative officers, and pray that the present venire of petit jurors be quashed.

This motion was signed by their attorney, signed by the two defendants and sworn to before a notary public, and was duly filed. Upon the filing of this motion, the court made the following order: "This day comes the defendants by their attorney, S. A. Jones, and files a motion to quash the present venire of petit jurors, which is by the court denied, for the reason that there has been three colored men placed on the regular panel