Petit Jury Pool for the May 1867 session of the United States Circuit Court, District of Virginia

Petit Jury Pool for the May 1867 session of the United States Circuit Court, District of Virginia

African Americans, civil rights

These two photographs show some of Virginia's first interracial jury members. In May 1867, the United States Circuit Court for the District of Virginia appointed a grand jury composed of African American and white men. The court also named African American and white men to the venire (jury pool) from which petit juries were named for trials held during the court's term. The twenty-four men in these photographs were members of the petit jury pool and many or all of them sat on trial juries between May and September 1867. These men have been sometimes mistakenly identified as either the grand jury or the petit jury for the trial of Jefferson Davis, but he was indicted by an jury composed of white men in 1866 and was released on bond in May 1867 and never tried.

David H. Anderson

Cook Photograph Collection, The Valentine, Richmond, Virginia

1867

Courtesy of The Valentine

CC BY-SA

JPG

Salt print

Cook 4114_VRHC 150, Cook 1171 VRHC 150

Virginia