Bowen v. Independent Publishing Co.

E. PI. Henderson, Acting Associate Justice.

Only one question is involved in this case. Is it libelous per se to publish in print of a white person that she is a Negro?

The defendant is the publisher of the Anderson Daily Mail, a newspaper of wide circulation. On March 11, 1954, the paper printed a statement, under the heading “Negro News” and under the picture of a colored soldier, that the son of the appellant had been transferred to a government hospital.

An action for libel was tried before Honorable James M. Brailsford, Jr., and a jury. The appellant testified that she is a white person,…