Attorneys typically argue over who is responsible for someone’s death, not if someone is dead.

Friday night wasn’t typical.

Attorneys debated the death of Jim Crow before Judge John England and a crowd of spectators in a mock trial. The trial, part of Jubilee weekend, forced local attorneys to pose questions to “witnesses” and convince the jury of their argument.

Jim Crow laws were used to legally separate blacks and whites and kept them from patronizing the same restaurants, going to the same schools and marrying.

April England-Albright, attorney for the plaintiff, summed up her argument in one sentence – “Jim Crow still exists,” she said. “Who are your neighbors today? Who goes to your schools? Jim Crow must end, and not with all deliberate speed, but immediately.”

Michael Jackson, attorney for the defense, denied that Jim Crow still existed. “Blacks can do anything they want when they put their minds to it,” he said. “We’re going to lay Jim Crow before you and show that he’s dead.”

Both the prosecution and the defense called several witnesses to the stand. Dorothy Weathers, playing the role of Dr. De Facto, testified for the prosecution. According to Weathers, Jim Crow laws no longer exist on paper; however, they still permeated society. “On a daily basis, I meet Jim Crow coming and going,” she said. “It’s had a definite effect on the black community because of its constant day-to-day oppression. The feeling that no matter how hard you fight, you’ll never be good enough.”

U.S. Rep Maxine Waters also took the stand for the prosecution. Waters said an inequality existed between punishments for those convicted of cocaine possession as opposed to crack possession. “What you have is a law that directs the attention in the black communities,” she said. “If that’s not Jim Crow, I don’t know what is. It’s alive and well.”

Waters didn’t falter under cross-examination by attorney Michele Alexandre. “We see discrimination, racism, exhibited every day,” Waters said. “We don’t have signs anymore. It’s more subtle and sophisticated.”

Attorney J.L. Chestnut, who began practicing law in Selma in 1958, said signs of Jim Crow could be seen everywhere. “In 1958, whites controlled a majority of the economy in the county,” he said. “In March, 2004, they still own it. You can’t erase three centuries of Jim Crow by passing three or four little civil rights bills.”

Chestnut remained adamant under questioning from Jackson. “You fought hard,” Jackson said. “Times were tough, but now I hear you on your own radio show. And once, I rode around in your car. That’s the kind of car that talks to you. You talked to it and it talked right back.”

According to Jackson, if blacks fought and struggled, they could accomplish anything.

Before Chestnut stepped down, Judge John England asked him if Jim Crow were nothing more than poverty. Chestnut disagreed. “Poverty is more widespread because of Jim Crow,” he replied. “If you’ve got a harder time getting a job, poverty goes up. I don’t think you can separate poverty from racism.”