Washington’s 1862 emancipation law gave Black testimony equal weight in court

Evidence

By necessity, the Supplemental Act allowed black Americans to testify as both petitioners and witnesses in a formal judicial proceeding—an extraordinary occurrence. The Compensated Emancipation Act set a precedent that would ultimately become the law of the land in federal court. But in 1862, allowing black Americans to testify against white Americans was something truly remarkable. For the duration of the commission’s proceedings, the testimonies of whites and blacks, free or otherwise, were given equal weight. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 106