HISTORY
Never Forget The First Black Man Found Not Guilty By an All-White Jury
From chains to courage, the forgotten inspiring life of Charles Caldwell.
“Remember, when you kill me, you kill a gentleman and a brave man. Never say you killed a coward. I want you to remember it when I am gone.”
The final departing words of Charles Caldwell.
Charles Caldwell, a blacksmith born in Mississippi during the 1830s, became the first Black person to kill a White person and be found “not guilty” by the courts. When Caldwell was born, slavery was an integral part of the economic and social livelihoods of Southerners, a lucrative trade that enabled them to amass wealth while disregarding the rights of others. Enslaved people had a low standard of living and endured humiliation and degradation.
After the Civil War and the official abolition of slavery, Caldwell began his political career as a free man. Mississippi voters elected him as one of the sixteen Black Republicans and seventy-eight White politicians to participate in the Mississippi Constitutional Convention. Caldwell’s story is one of bravery and resilience.
