Harper Lee Quotes

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury.

I have great faith in the jury system.

When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Black jurors sit on juries every day and convict black people every day.

Our criminal justice system was designed to be fair and is the fairest system known to man.

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

Why is it that no African in the history of this country has ever had the honor of being tried by his own kith and kin, by his own flesh and blood?

I believe in the jury system.

Juries are the constitutional institution designed to protect ordinary citizens against the wealthy and powerful.

Women should not be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud.

The jury system has come to stand for all we mean by English justice. The scrutiny of 12 honest jurors provides defendants and plaintiffs alike a safeguard from arbitrary perversion of the law.

This case is just as racist as the fictional, but unfortunately all too typical case, in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

The patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable. ... We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.

We've got to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system.

It is impossible to find twelve fair men in all the world.

The racist conscience of America is such that murder does not register as murder really, unless the victim is white... blacks knew that white blood is the coin of freedom in a land where for four hundred years black blood has been shed unremarked and with impunity.

There is a good deal of evidence that the United States is moving to the right, and that the main force behind the movement is a resurgence, in a new form, of racial prejudice.

These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.

Let's face it: Many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there - they oppose him not for his polices and political view but for who he is, an African American!

When I say 'Clean water was only served to the fairer skin,' what I'm saying is we're making product with chitlins. T-shirts! That's the most we can make.

If you're getting harassed, it's not helpful to know that racism has generally declined in America, when you're still experiencing it. That is a reality that we're still vulnerable to.

White hate crimes, white hate speech. I still try to claim I wasn't brought up to hate. But hate isn't the half of it. I grew up in the vast encircling presumption of whiteness - that primary quality of being which knows itself, its passions, only against an otherness that has to be dehumanized. I grew up in white silence that was utterly obsessional. Race was the theme whatever the topic.

He was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games.

I'll always remember the phrase of my husband: "Racism is never surprising, but it is always disappointing." Anytime I see it or I feel it, that quote comes back. This is something that has to be constantly talked about in order to be changed.