''Blyew v. United States'' (1871), was a court case that originated in Lewis County, Kentucky, where the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the states right to forbid

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to testify against white people.

History

On August 29, 1868, two white men by the names of John Blyew and George Kennard entered the house of the Foster family, an African American home in Lewis County, Kentucky. The two white men had a female with them, and they were arguing with the Foster family insisting they needed to house the woman. The two white men attacked the family with an axe; four African-Americans died and many were injured, including children. The was a case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court in April 1872 addressing the civil rights of

, as well as states' rights issues. The case involved the testimony of African-American victims of the attack. Kentucky

state law State law refers to the law of a federated state, as distinguished from the law of the federation of which it is a part. It is used when the constituent components of a federation are themselves called states. Federations made up of provinces, cant ...

prohibited the testimony of a "Negro" against a white man and barred African Americans from serving on juries. The case was eventually moved to Federal court, where the attackers were convicted. The State of Kentucky then appealed the case to the Supreme Court citing states' rights in defense of its laws prohibiting African Americans from testifying against whites. The case was a test of the

Civil Rights Act of 1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 (, enacted April 9, 1866, reenacted 1870) was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended, in the wake of the Amer ...

. The Supreme Court ruled that victims were not entitled to protection from the state law because the word "affected" in the law did not apply to victims of crimes who are not defendants in a case.

Noah Swayne Noah Haynes Swayne (December 7, 1804 – June 8, 1884) was an American jurist and politician. He was the first Republican appointed as a justice to the United States Supreme Court. Birth and early life Swayne was born in Frederick County, Virg ...

(the first Republican appointed to the Supreme Court) and Joseph Bradley dissented. Civil rights legislation was subsequently modified and comments in the dissent are noted for putting forth a group right to the adequate protection of the law. Justice William Strong wrote that any case involving an African American witness could be brought to a Federal Court if the court had ruled for the victims and upheld the right of African Americans to testify in court.

History

References

Further reading