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
In 1905 a Negro was serving on the jury in a civil case in Iowa. The
bailiff had arranged with a boarding-house to serve meals. When the
Negro, along with the other jurors, went for his meals, the
boarding-house keeper refused to allow him to sit at the same table with
the others. It was not questioned that this was in violation of the
Civil Rights Bill of the State if the boarding-house was an
“eating-house” within the terms of the statute. The court[271] charged
the jury that such an eating-house as would come within the statute must
be a place where meals are served to anyone applying at the same prices
charged to all, but that, if meals are served only in pursuance of a
previous arrangement for particular individuals, rather than anyone who
may apply, it is a private boarding-house and not within the statute.
BARBER-SHOPS
Thirteen States provide that barbers must serve all persons without
regard to race or color.
In 1889 a barber in Lincoln, Nebraska, refused to shave a Negro because
he was “colored.” The Civil Rights Bill of that State mentions barbers.
The court[272] held: “A barber, by opening a shop and putting out his
sign, thereby invites every orderly and well-behaved person who may
desire his services to enter his shop during business hours. The statute
will not permit him to say to one, you were a slave or the son of a
slave, therefore I will not shave you. Such prejudices are unworthy of
our better manhood, and are clearly prohibited by the statute.”
Barber-shops were included within the provisions of the Massachusetts
Civil Rights Bill in 1893, but, as a matter of fact, Negroes are not
even now given the same accommodations as whites in barber-shops in
Massachusetts.
The statute of Connecticut requires equality of service in “places of
public accommodation.” A barber refused to serve one Faulkner because he
was a Negro, and the latter brought suit on the ground that a
barber-shop is a place of public accommodation and, hence, within the
Civil Rights Bill of the State. The court[273] held that the barber-shop
is not, in its nature, different from the places of business run for
private gain, and that the common law has never recognized it as
possessing the quality of a place of public accommodation, as a hotel,
public conveyance, etc.
It may be added here that most of the cases have involved the point as
to what are places of public accommodation or amusement or resort. If
the place is mentioned in the Civil Rights Bill, it is, of course,
within the prohibition, and it is a violation of the statute even to
require separate accommodations, although equal in every other respect.
But a vast deal of litigation has arisen out of instances of Negroes
being denied accommodation in places considered public in their nature
but which are not mentioned in the Civil Rights Bill of the State
wherein the case arises.
BOOTBLACK STANDS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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