THE SOUTH: One Law

One day, two months ago, a terrified young Negro woman, Mrs. Odessa Booker, found refuge in a farmhouse near Tampa, Fla., and told a story which is as old as the South. A 34-year-old white man named Irving F. Brown had called on her, asked her to come to his house as a baby sitter. Instead, he drove her to a lonely lane, beat and attempted to rape her.

Brown was arrested. Last week an all-white jury found him guilty of assault with intent to rape. Tampa’s Judge Roy Amidon commented: “This is the most reprehensible case that ever came before me. It is much worse than if the races of the participants were reversed.” He sentenced Brown to 20 years in the state penitentiary.

It was the third such decision by a Southern court in eight days. Fortnight ago, in Wetumpka, Ala., two white men got 45-year prison sentences (TIME, Dec. 13) for raping Negro women.