Frederick Douglass: “We are presumed to be guilty until we are proved to be innocent.”

On the record

We are presumed to be guilty until we are proved to be innocent.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass points out the systemic bias against African Americans, who are presumed guilty without evidence.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

The day we celebrate is preëminently the colored man’s day.

Jan 1, 1881

The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves.

Jan 1, 1881

That the mother was a slave was enough for its deadly purpose.

Jan 1, 1881

The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.