[NOTE: This story was originally published in West Virginia History. Volume 44, Number 3, pp. 193-211. 1983. Re-published courtesy West Virginia Archives and History.]
The Case of Taylor Strauder
The Decision in Strauder v. West Virginia, which the United States Supreme Court handed down in March of 1880, was the Court’s first statement upholding black jury rights. Lawyers still cite the case in courts today, and historians of black civil rights discuss the decision in their writings. But completely forgotten is the history of the plaintiff in the case, Taylor Strauder – a former slave, a carpenter by trade, and a citizen of Wheeling, West Virginia. Reconstructing the narrative of a case like Strauder’s depends upon unindexed newspapers of the period, and official documents that are scattered throughout the eastern United States. Since so few full accounts exist of the experience of black criminal defendants in the Gilded Age, the pertinent questions are: Did Strauder receive effective counsel? Did his contact with the American legal system change him in any way? Was Strauder interested in his own case, and knowledgeable, or was he a mere puppet of ambitious attorneys? Read More
