''Franklin v. South Carolina'', 218 U.S. 161 (1910) appealed the conviction of Pink Franklin for the murder of South Carolina

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

Henry H. Valentine in 1907. Franklin was a

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

who wished to leave his employer although his employer had advanced Franklin wages under a contract based on the so-called "

peonage Peon (English language, English , from the Spanish language, Spanish ''wikt:peón#Spanish, peón'' ) usually refers to a person subject to peonage: any form of wage labor, financial exploitation, coercive economic practice, or policy in which th ...

laws". A warrant was obtained and when Valentine came to the house, a shootout occurred, killing Valentine and injuring Franklin, his wife Patsy, and another constable who was there. The defense included claims that Franklin acted in self-defense and that the peonage laws were unjust. In appeal, the defense claimed that the make-up of the jury, all white based on the requirement that the jury be based on those who were eligible to vote, was based on unconstitutional racism in election laws stemming from the 1895 South Carolina constitution. Franklin's conviction was upheld in all appeals, including the appeal before the United States Supreme Court heard in April 1910. The case was the second time black South Carolina lawyers had appeared before the Supreme Court,Burke, William Lewis. Matthew J. Perry: The Man, His Times, and His Legacy. Univ of South Carolina Press, 2004, p23 and became famous for the issues involved. After the conviction was upheld, many figures associated both with

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

and with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) pressured and petitioned successive governors of South Carolina for clemency. Franklin's death penalty was commuted in 1910, and in 1919 his prison sentence was commuted and he was paroled. The case was one of the first times the nascent NAACP became involved in legal proceedings. It also was an example of the power of Washington's political influence.

Events of the case

In 1907, African-American Pink Franklin was working as a contract farm laborer on the farm of Jake Thomas.Hine, William C. Pink Franklin: NAACP’s first legal case, The Times and Democrat, Orangeburg, SC, May 18, 2014 Thomas had given Franklin some of his wages in advance, but Franklin was unhappy with his contract and left the farm. Thomas asked the local police to intervene, and on July 29, 1907, at 3:00 AM, Constable Henry H. Valentine and Constable Carter came to Franklin's house.Annual Report of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Issue 10 Front Cover National Association for the Advancement of Colored People N.A.A.C.P., 1920 A neighbor of Franklin's, Charles Spires, sometimes worked with Thomas and was on hand.Franklin v South Carolina 218 US 161 1910 accessed on https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/218/161 Upon the Constables' instruction, Spires asked Franklin to plow his field, possibly through a closed front door. Franklin said that he would not, and that he might later in the day. Valentine broke into the house and was shot and killed by Franklin. Franklin, his wife, Patsy, and Constable Carter were also shot in the melee, all surviving.Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Aug 24, 2011, p 101 Franklin's young son was also home. The Franklins fled, afraid that they might be lynched. They took refuge with ex-state Senator Stanwix Mayfield, and with his help turned themselves in to Orangeburg

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

John H. Dukes. Franklin's initial trial took place on September 9, 1907. P. T. Hildebrand and three other lawyers were the prosecution and Patsy was found not guilty, while Pink was found guilty in the one-day trial heard by judge J. C. Klugh. Franklin's defense lawyers were Jacob Moorer from Orangeburg and John Adams from Columbia. The type of agricultural contract Franklin worked under was then and later called, "peonage laws". Franklin claimed that the constables broke into his house and did not identify themselves, and that he was acting in self-defense. The prosecution claimed that the doors were open and that the constables did announce their presence and identify themselves. Franklin's leaving the Thomas farm was legal, otherwise his contract would have, indeed, been illegal peonage, but the landowner had convinced officials to write a warrant for his arrest. Franklin was sentenced to hang after the initial trial, a sentence that was confirmed in a resentencing in early September 1910, with a date set in December to give chance for further appeal – Moorer and Adams stated they would appeal. The jury was all white and Moorer and Adams stated this was due to unconstitutional discrimination against blacks seeking to register to vote (and thus to be eligible for juries). It was reported that even trial judge Klugh believed that Franklin would not have been convicted if he were white.

Appeal to the Supreme Court

The appeal was unsuccessful in South Carolina, and the case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Ex Attorney General Charles Bonaparte became involved in the case on behalf of the Constitution League and wrote a brief to the court. He refused to appear alongside Pink's black attorneys after his effort to take over the case was denied. Bonaparte had broad popular support for joining the case, but Adams and Moorer were determined to show that black lawyers could argue the case. Adams said that Bonaparte's submission of a brief in Franklin's appeal to the Supreme Court is, "The work of a few hot-headed negroes of Philadelphia, who have absolutely no authority to take such a step in the case". Adams and Moorer may have been willing to include Bonaparte as part of the defense team, but refused his aid when Bonaparte wanted to take charge of the case. Without Bonaparte in the chambers, Moorer and Adams argued their case April 20 and 21, 1910. The appeal was based in part on rules in South Carolina at that time that only people who could vote could serve on a jury. The lawyers argued that racist qualifications for voters in the Constitution of 1895 resulted in a jury of unjust make-up. However, the court found that black men of good moral character were equally eligible to serve on the jury and that there was no denial of rights on this account, issuing their decision on May 31, 1910 with the opinion of the court written by Justice Day and no concurring or dissenting opinion offered.

Sentence commuted

After the trial, Moorer and Adams were joined by many others in seeking other means to save Franklin. Moorer and Adams petitioned June 25, 1910 to commute Franklin's sentence from death to life in prison. Boneparte felt that Adams and Moorer were wrong to remove him from the case. Journalist and early supporter of the NAACP,

Oswald Garrison Villard Oswald Garrison Villard (March 13, 1872 – October 1, 1949) was an American journalist and editor of the ''New York Evening Post.'' He was a civil rights activist, and along with his mother, Fanny Villard, a founding member of the NAACP. I ...

wrote to Booker T. Washington, agreeing with Bonaparte and a similar view stated by

Albert E. Pillsbury Albert Enoch Pillsbury (August 19, 1849 – December 23, 1930) was a Boston lawyer who served in both houses of the Massachusetts legislature, president of the Massachusetts State Senate, and as the Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1891 to ...

that Franklin was not well defended due to the "stupidity and conceit" of his counsel and asked Washington for his help. Washington and another NAACP activist,

Joel Elias Spingarn Joel Elias Spingarn (May 17, 1875 – July 26, 1939) was an American educator, literary critic, civil rights activist, military intelligence officer, and horticulturalist. Biography Spingarn was born in New York City to an upper middle-class ...

, became involved. Washington contacted Taft, black legislator

Thomas E. Miller Thomas Ezekiel Miller (June 17, 1849 – April 8, 1938) was an American educator, lawyer and politician. After being elected as a state legislator in South Carolina, he was one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the Sou ...

, NAACP secretary Francis Blascoer,Sullivan, Patricia. Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement. The New Press, Jul 29, 2009 and others became involved and two white attorneys, Bernard Hagood and Claude Sawyer were hired to convince then South Carolina governor Martin Frederick Ansel to commute the decision. Franklin's death sentence was commuted to life on December 30, 1910 coming into effect January 6, 1911, but Ansel's successor,

Cole Blease Coleman Livingston Blease (October 8, 1868 – January 19, 1942) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 89th governor of South Carolina from 1911 to 1915, and as a United States senator from 1925 to 1931. Blease was ...

, was not considered receptive to calls to repudiate injustice towards blacks. Eventually Franklin's sentence was commuted to 99 years on a

chain gang A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was no ...

and finally he was paroled after nine years. He was released in January 1919 on parole "during good behavior", his sentence commuted by South Carolina Governor Richard I. Manning.

Aftermath

After his release, Franklin changed his name to Mack Rockingham and lived in Blackville, South Carolina with Patsy and two sons. He died in 1949. Pointing to the key role that Washington and his contacts played in the case, some point to the affair as a failure by

W. E. B. DuBois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian Sociology, sociologist, Socialism, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanism, Pan-Africanist Civil and political civil rights activist. Bor ...

and the NAACP. The inability of NAACP leaders to help Franklin has been compared with the case of Steve Greene in 1910 (shortly after the Franklin case). Greene fled with a bullet wound in his shoulder to Chicago after killing an Arkansas farmer who tried to

indenture An indenture is a legal contract that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation. It specifically refers to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, it is an instrument used for commercia ...

or enslave Franklin on his farm. Greene was extradited to Arkansas, and was threatened with lynching.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the Civil rights movement (1896–1954), civil rights movement. She was one of the foun ...

Negro Fellowship League In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can ...

raised money to organize a defense committee and safely bring Greene to Canada. Further, Washington was skeptical of legal solutions for Franklin in favor of political ones, a view that was ultimately validated.James, Joy. Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals. Routledge, Jan 21, 2014, p 51. On the other hand, the NAACP saw Franklin's ultimate release as a success of their organization, and continues to claim that the case was their first case. Peonage laws returned to the Supreme Court in 1911 when Alabama's peonage laws were overturned in ''

Bailey v. Alabama ''Bailey v. Alabama'', 219 U.S. 219 (1911), was a United States Supreme Court case that overturned the peonage laws of Alabama.. The Supreme Court considered the validity of the Alabama state court's ruling that Alabama statute (§ 4730 of the Co ...

''.

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