The verdict confirmed the worst suspicions of many of the 200 blacks who live in the East Texas town of Hemphill. Last month a jury in that tiny village (pop. 1,350) found three white police officers not guilty of violating the civil rights of Loyal Garner, a black truck driver who had been arrested for drunken driving and died after an alleged jailhouse beating. Lamented Will Smith, a local black minister: "It seems as if there's justice for whites only in this society."
From the beginning, many townspeople doubted that the Garner family could get a fair hearing in Hemphill. Their...
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