While they were taking Ernest Brown, colored, 22 years of age, back to jail yesterday after Judge Oliver H. Allen had passed an 18-year sentence on him for second-degree murder, he espied the two negroes, Duke Wagner and Lijah Parker, who were witnesses against him. He gave them a stern look and said in an awful voice: “Niggers, when I gits out I’s comin’ back and all I’s got say is you better be done and leff here. I’s comin’ back to git you!”
Duke and Lijah gave him the horse laugh, “Lord nigger,” said Lijah, “when you through servin’ 18 years you’ll have too many whiskers to git anybody. You’ll be too blamed glad to git out!”
“And anyway,” added Duke. “Us is got a long time to live. Ei-teen years. Whew! Lijay and me’ll have grandchildren before you git through with dem roads. But take care of yourself.”
“Yes, take good care of yourself, Arnest. Us’ll be plum glad to see you when you gits out.”
And Deputy Sheriff Rhodes and Officer Langston carried Earnest on.
From the front page of the Goldsboro News, Aug. 28, 1922. Yes, the N-word is in this story. But it was in the original story, and the purpose of this blog is to show what you would see and hear and have to live with 100 years ago.
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