Race Distinctions in American LawStephenson, Gilbert Thomas
History
Race Distinctions in American Law
Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas
African Americans -- Politics and government; Law -- United States -- History; United States -- Race relations
“Resolved, that the Governor be requested to transmit copies of this
resolution to the Secretary of State of the United States and to the
Senators and Representatives from the State of Oregon in the Congress of
the United States.”
The probable explanation of this opposition of Oregon to the Fifteenth
Amendment lies in its unwillingness to give the ballot to the Japanese,
Chinese, and Indians in the State.
The feeling of New York[695] toward Negro suffrage in 1870 appears to be
different from that of Oregon. A statute was passed prohibiting any
registrar or inspector of elections to demand any oath or ask any
questions of a Negro different from what was demanded of white persons,
or to reject the name of any colored person from registry except for the
same causes as would make it his duty to reject the name of a white
person. The violation of this statute was a misdemeanor, punishable by a
fine of five hundred dollars and imprisonment for six months.
In order to make the prohibitions of the Fifteenth Amendment effective,
on May 31, 1870, two months after the ratification of the Amendment,
Congress passed an Act,[696] the first section of which reads: “All
citizens of the United States, who are or shall be otherwise qualified
by law to vote at any election by the people in any State, Territory,
district, county, city, parish, township, school district, municipality,
or other territorial division, shall be entitled and allowed to vote at
all such elections without distinction of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude, any constitution, law, custom, usage, or
regulation in any State, Territory, or by or under its authority, to the
contrary notwithstanding.”
The fourth section of the “Enforcement Act,” as the Act of 1870 was
called, provided for the punishment of any person who should, by force,
bribery, threats, intimidation, or other unlawful means, hinder, delay,
or combine with others to hinder, delay, prevent, or obstruct any
citizen from doing any act required to be done to qualify him to vote,
or from voting at any election.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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