I Will Not Claim That Justice Was Always Equally Applied

 But it is clear that even in the South, the criminal justice system seemed to often believe that Black Lives Mattered:

Ashland City, Tenn. (1938)

01/31/1938: Two men were charged with murder of “four youths, whose charred bodies were found in the ashes of a Negro clubhouse.”

Category: public

Suicide: no

Cause: unknown

Weapon: arson[1]

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[1] "Two Men Face Hearing For 4 Deaths," Nashville Banner, Feb. 4, 1938, 1.

I have read enough news accounts now to say that even in the Black Belt, crimes against black people were often treated as serious crimes to be solved and punished.