(click on photographs for larger image)All the preceding photographs are courtesy of Ebony magazine, which retains all rights. The photographs appeared in the September 1953 issue of Ebony ("What Happened to Matt Ingram?").
Caswell County History
So how did the criminal legal proceedings against black James Mack Ingram for "leering" at white Willa Jean Boswell turn out?
1. At his first 1951 trial in Caswell County Recorder's Court (Judge Ralph Ogborne Vernon, a farmer with no legal training) Ingram was found guilty of assault on a female and Vernon sentenced Ingram the maximum: two years in prison. No jury was involved at this level.
Ingram appealed the Recorder's Court judgment to Superior Court, which essentially meant the proceedings would begin anew. He was released on bond pending action at the Superior Court level.
2. Before the Superior Court, Solicitor (prosecutor) William Banks Horton sought and obtained from a grand jury an indictment. In November 1951, a jury of eight white and four black, all men, ended up 10-2 in favor of conviction (assault on a female). The court declared a hung jury and a mistrial, thus allowing the state to try Ingram again, which it did.
3. The next trial in 1952 before an all-white all-male jury resulted in conviction. The court imposed a suspended six-month jail term and five years probation. Ingram appealed.
4. Finally, in 1953 the North Carolina Supreme Court held for Ingram. In resoundingly reversing the lower court conviction, the North Carolina Supreme Court held:
"Even if Ingram had leered (which he denied), there had been no overt act, no threat of violence. We cannot convict him solely for what may have been on his mind. Human law does not reach that far."
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Assault by Leer Ruling Made Today
Raleigh, N.C. -- (U.P.) -- The state Supreme Court overruled the "assault by leer" case of Negro sharecropper Mack Ingram today by deciding he could not be convicted of a criminal offense "solely for what may have been in his mind."
The state high court thus in effect ruled the old statute under which Ingram was convicted of assault by frightening a teenaged white girl is too vague to be valid.
"The facts in evidence in the case at bar are insufficient to make out a case of assault," the unanimous decision said. "It cannot be said that a pedestrian may be assaulted by a look, however frightening, from a person riding in an automobile some distance away."
Ingram, 44-year-old father of nine, was given a six-months suspended sentence and placed on five years probation for simple assault at this third trial at Yanceyville, N.C., last November.
The Supreme Court ruled today the trial judge should have allowed a defense motion for nonsuit dismissal of the case.
In 1951 Ingram was sentenced to two years on the roads in Recorder's Court at Yanceyville on the assault charge although the defense proved Ingram did not approach nearer than 60 feet of the plaintiff [actually the accuser].
Linton Daily Citizen (Linton, Indiana), 25 February 1953, Wednesday, Page 8.
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From the Magazine | National Affairs
Assault at 50 Feet
Posted Monday, Jul. 23, 1951Around Caswell County, N.C., Mack Ingram, 44, was known as a "good" Negro. He had raised nine children, saved enough to buy his own mule and tools, and even a ramshackle jalopy. He was proud that he rented his land instead of sharecropping.
One day last month Ingram stopped at the farm of Aubrey Boswell, a white neighbor. He wanted to borrow a trailer to haul his hay. Ingram saw one of the Boswell children walking toward the tobacco barn carrying a hoe. He walked across the road, he said, and through a field knee-high in corn, looking for Boswell. When he got closer and saw only "three boys," he turned back. He went on down the road and borrowed a trailer from someone else. Later that afternoon, two deputy sheriffs arrested him. One of the "boys," they said, was 17-year-old Willa Jean Boswell, dressed in dungarees and terrapin shell hat. Farmer Ingram was charged with "assault . . . with intent to commit rape" against her.
Last week in the county courthouse, Recorder (roughly comparable to justice of the peace) Ralph Vernon heard Willa Jean's story. "As I got off the road, he came up the highway and he kept watching me," said Willa Jean. "And I ran through those woods because I was afraid . . . and I kept going, walking fast, and he kept coming on, and I got a pretty good ways ahead of him and he stopped and stood and watched me." Then, said Willa Jean, "I looked back and didn't see him any more and I stopped there and was hoeing the ground, and as I was hoeing I asked my two brothers who that was and they told me, and I told them what happened and they went running to tell Daddy." Willa Jean said she burst into tears.
The defense had only one point to make: What did he do? Said Willa Jean: "He kept watching me." Just how close did Ingram get to her? Willa Jean wasn't sure; "within 25 to 50 feet," she thought.
Prosecutor W. Banks Horton argued that Ingram must have been trying to head her off, that young womanhood must be protected from "niggers." But Recorder Vernon, who is a farmer with no formal legal training, could plainly see that there was no ground for a charge of intended rape. If there were, the case would have to go before a superior court—and a jury. Instead, he found Ingram guilty of "assault on a female," and sentenced him to the maximum: two years of hard labor on the roads.
The verdict didn't even make the local papers. But outsiders got wind of it; Caswell County was deluged with inquiries, one even from the U.S. State Department. The Daily Worker seized on it. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, after first making sure that the Communists' legal beagles didn't get in on the case, decided to help Ingram in his appeal.
From the 23 July 1951 issue of Time magazine. Shown here courtesy Time Magazine, which retains all rights.
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Time Magazine
National Affairs
Assault by Leer
Monday, Nov. 24, 1952 For the third time in 17 months, Mack Ingram, North Carolina Negro farmer, went on trial last week, charged with assaulting a 17-year-old tobacco grower's daughter, although he had not been within 50 feet of her at the time. In the first trial in recorder's court, Ingram explained that he had mistaken blue-jeaned Willa Jean Boswell for one of her brothers, had started to follow her across a cornfield to ask if he could borrow the family trailer. When she took fright and ran, he turned back to his car. The judge, acting on the basis of a North Carolina law that says assault can be committed even without physical contact, sentenced Ingram to two years in jail (TIME. July 23, 1951). Last November, Ingram's appeal went before a mixed jury (four Negroes, eight whites) in a state superior court; when two of the Negro jurors held out for acquittal, the court ordered a mistrial. Last week an all-white jury in Yanceyville reviewed the evidence again. The tobacco grower's daughter, now married and the mother of a six-month-old child, insisted that Ingram had "leered" at her. The jury's verdict: guilty. The court's sentence: a suspended six-month jail term and five years' probation. From the 24 November 1952 issue of Time magazine. Shown here courtesy Time magazine, which retains all rights.
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Time Magazine
National Affairs
Assault by Leer, Concluded
Monday, Mar. 09, 1953 "If, by ... looking at a person in a leering manner, or watching and then following, one causes another to become frightened and run, then he is guilty of assault," said the judge to the jury in the superior court in Yanceyville, N.C. last November. The all-white jury promptly found Mack Ingram, a Negro farmer, guilty of "assault" against Willa Jean Boswell, daughter of a neighboring white farmer—even though everybody agreed that Willa Jean had safely run off across a cornfield, and Ingram was never closer than 50 feet to her (TIME, July 23, 1951). Last week, on appeal the North Carolina state supreme court resoundingly reversed the lower-court conviction. Said the supreme court: even if Ingram had leered (which he denied), there had been "no overt act, no threat of violence ... We cannot convict him . . . solely for what may have been on his mind. Human law does not reach that far."
From the 9 March 1953 issue of Time magazine. Shown here courtesy Time magazine, which retains all rights.
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The defense had only one point to make: What did he do? Said Willa Jean: "He kept watching me." Just how close did Ingram get to her? Willa Jean wasn't sure; "within 25 to 50 feet," she thought.
Prosecutor W. Banks Horton argued that Ingram must have been trying to head her off, that young womanhood must be protected from "niggers." But Recorder Vernon, who is a farmer with no formal legal training, could plainly see that there was no ground for a charge of intended rape. If there were, the case would have to go before a superior court—and a jury. Instead, he found Ingram guilty of "assault on a female," and sentenced him to the maximum: two years of hard labor on the roads.
The verdict didn't even make the local papers. But outsiders got wind of it; Caswell County was deluged with inquiries, one even from the U.S. State Department. The Daily Worker seized on it. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, after first making sure that the Communists' legal beagles didn't get in on the case, decided to help Ingram in his appeal.
From the 23 July 1951 issue of Time magazine. Shown here courtesy Time Magazine, which retains all rights.
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Time Magazine
National Affairs
Assault by Leer
Monday, Nov. 24, 1952 For the third time in 17 months, Mack Ingram, North Carolina Negro farmer, went on trial last week, charged with assaulting a 17-year-old tobacco grower's daughter, although he had not been within 50 feet of her at the time. In the first trial in recorder's court, Ingram explained that he had mistaken blue-jeaned Willa Jean Boswell for one of her brothers, had started to follow her across a cornfield to ask if he could borrow the family trailer. When she took fright and ran, he turned back to his car. The judge, acting on the basis of a North Carolina law that says assault can be committed even without physical contact, sentenced Ingram to two years in jail (TIME. July 23, 1951). Last November, Ingram's appeal went before a mixed jury (four Negroes, eight whites) in a state superior court; when two of the Negro jurors held out for acquittal, the court ordered a mistrial. Last week an all-white jury in Yanceyville reviewed the evidence again. The tobacco grower's daughter, now married and the mother of a six-month-old child, insisted that Ingram had "leered" at her. The jury's verdict: guilty. The court's sentence: a suspended six-month jail term and five years' probation. From the 24 November 1952 issue of Time magazine. Shown here courtesy Time magazine, which retains all rights.
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Time Magazine
National Affairs
Assault by Leer, Concluded
Monday, Mar. 09, 1953 "If, by ... looking at a person in a leering manner, or watching and then following, one causes another to become frightened and run, then he is guilty of assault," said the judge to the jury in the superior court in Yanceyville, N.C. last November. The all-white jury promptly found Mack Ingram, a Negro farmer, guilty of "assault" against Willa Jean Boswell, daughter of a neighboring white farmer—even though everybody agreed that Willa Jean had safely run off across a cornfield, and Ingram was never closer than 50 feet to her (TIME, July 23, 1951). Last week, on appeal the North Carolina state supreme court resoundingly reversed the lower-court conviction. Said the supreme court: even if Ingram had leered (which he denied), there had been "no overt act, no threat of violence ... We cannot convict him . . . solely for what may have been on his mind. Human law does not reach that far."
From the 9 March 1953 issue of Time magazine. Shown here courtesy Time magazine, which retains all rights.
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This Mack/Matt naming issue has been around for a while. Mack/Matt Ingram was born June 6, 1910. Thus, he was counted in three US censuses (1920, 1930, and 1940). On all three he was enumerated as Mat or Matt. However, this was the census taker ascribing the name.
The name Mack first shows up in his World War II Draft Registration Card (October 1940), and he signed this card as "Mack."
His Virginia death certificate shows: "James Mack Ingram" and this name is on his grave marker at the Sassafras Grove Baptist Church. The informant on the death certificate is his daughter Mattie.
Several who have researched this matter have arrived at different conclusions:
"Ebony" magazine published extensively on the case, including spending considerable time with the family. That magazine used: "Matt"
However, "Time" magazine called him "Mack"
Mary Frances Berry in her article published in "The Journal of African American History" referred to him as Matt.
The African American Intellectual History Society uses "Mack"
Of course it is possible that he went by both names, with one being a nickname.
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