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
“That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives
requested to vote against and use all honorable means to defeat the
passage by Congress of the bill referred to in the foregoing resolution,
known as the ‘Supplemental Civil Rights Bill,’ and all other measures of
a kindred nature, and any and every attempt to make the Negro the peer
of the white man.”
Upon the heels of this resolution, in 1875, Delaware[231] enacted a
statute on March 15, 1875, which provided that no keeper of an inn,
tavern, hotel, or restaurant, or other place of public entertainment or
refreshment of travelers, guests, or customers, should be obliged by law
to furnish entertainment or refreshment to persons whose reception or
entertainment by him would be offensive to the major part of his
customers, or would injure his business. The term “customers” was taken
to include all who sought entertainment or refreshment. The proprietor
of a theatre or other public place of amusement was not obliged to
receive into his show, or admit into the place where he was pursuing his
occupation, any person whose presence there would be offensive to the
major part of his spectators or patrons, and thereby injure his
business. Any carrier of passengers might make such arrangements in his
business as would, if necessary, assign a particular place in his cars,
carriages, or boats, to such of his customers as he might choose to
place there, and whose presence elsewhere would be offensive to the
major part of the traveling public, where his business was conducted;
but the accommodations must be equal if the same price for carriage was
required of all. This is still the law in Delaware. Taken in connection
with the joint resolution above, there is little doubt that the
legislature intended to make possible the drawing of a color line,
though it did not expressly say so. It is noteworthy that, during the
stormy years of Reconstruction, some case testing its constitutionality
did not arise. Only one other State has had a statute anything like the
Delaware law, and that is Tennessee, which statute and, with it,
apparently the only case involving the constitutionality of the law that
has reached the courts will be discussed later.
A Kansas[232] statute of April 25, 1874, which is still law, provided
that there should be no distinction on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude in any State university, college, or
other school of public instruction, or in any licensed inn, hotel,
boarding house, or any place of public entertainment or amusement, or
any steamboat, railroad, stage coach, omnibus, street car, or any other
means of public carriage for persons or freight, under penalty of a fine
of from ten to one thousand dollars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account