hotels, and even common schools. An hotel is a legal institution, and so is a common school. As such each must be for the equal benefit of all. Now, can there be any exclusion from either on account of color? It is not enough to provide separate accommodations for colored citizens even if in all respects as good as those of other persons. . . The discrimination is an insult and a hindrance, and a bar, which not only destroys comfort and prevents equality, but weakens all other rights. The right to vote will have new security when your equal rights in public conveyances, hotels, and common schools, is at last established; but here you must insist for yourselves by speech, by petition, and by vote. .

.

Among the cardinal objects in education which must be insisted on must be equality, side by side with the alphabet. It is in vain to teach equality if you do not practise it. It is in vain to recite the great words of the Declaration of Independence if you do not make them a living reality. What is lesson without example? As all are equal at the ballot-box, so must all be equal at the common school. Equality in the common school is the preparation for equality at the ballotbox; therefore do I put this among the essentials of education.

A Southern Definition of Equal Rights

Annual Cyclopedia, 1872, p. 142.

Speech of Senator Hill, of Georgia. [1872]

I NEVER can agree that if there be a hotel for the entertainment of travellers, and two classes stop at it, and there is one dining-room for one class and one for another, served alike in all respects, with the same accommodations, the same attention to the guests, there is anything offensive, or anything that denies the civil rights of one more than the other. Nor do I hold that if you have public schools, and you give all the advantages of education to one class as you do to another, but keep them separate and apart, there is any denial of civil right in that. I also contend that even upon the railways of the country, if cars of equal comfort, convenience, and security, be provided for different classes of persons, no

one has a right to complain if it be a regulation of the companies to separate them. I go further, and I illustrate it by my own observation and experience: in the town in which I live the fact bears me out, that prior to the war the slave and his master worshipped in the same church, and were members of the same congregations; but on the motion of the former slave after the close of the war, and with appeals to his white friends to aid him, separate churches have been built for the special accommodation of the colored people, and today colored ministers in those churches serve colored congregations to the exclusion of white ministers. . . I take it that this is done because the colored people prefer having it so... Now, sir, there is a radical difference between the Senator from Massachusetts [Sumner] and myself; it is irreconcilable. I never can see this as the Senator sees it.

Political Effects of Civil Rights Agitation

Nordhoff, Cotton States, p. 91.

[1875]

THE agitation of the Congressional Civil Rights Bill did more, even, than Republican misrule, to give the State [Alabama] to the Democrats last fall [1874]. Alabama has a large population of whites small farmers collected in the northern counties, where there are but few negroes. These people, who had pretty generally voted the Republican ticket in previous years, became alarmed at the prospect of "negro equality," and last fall, under the representations of adroit and earnest Democratic speakers, they went over in a body to the Democratic party. The passage [1875] of the absurd Civil Rights Bill by Congress has probably allayed their fears, because it is now found to be substantially a dead letter. The blacks do not attempt to have it enforced, and it is probable that its only use will be to annoy the Republicans in the Northern States, and in regions South where there are but few negroes and where the Democrats propose to arouse the race prejudice by hiring negroes to board at hotels, and to otherwise insist on the enforcement of the law during the next year's canvass.

Civil Rights Act, 1875

Statutes at Large, vol. xviii, p. 335.

[March 1, 1875]

WHEREAS, it is essential to just government we recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political; and it being the appropriate object of legislation to enact great fundamental principles into law: Therefore,

Be it enacted, . . That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theatres, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude.

Sec. 2. That any person who shall violate the foregoing section by denying to any citizen, except for reasons by law applicable to citizens of every race and color, and regardless of any previous condition of servitude, the full enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, or privileges in said section enumerated, or by aiding or inciting such denial, shall, for every such offense, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the person aggrieved thereby, to be recovered in an action of debt, with full costs; and shall also, for every such offense, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or shall be imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than one year: Provided, That all persons may elect to sue for the penalty aforesaid or to proceed under their rights at common law and by State statutes; and having so elected to proceed in the onemode or the other, their right to proceed in the other jurisdiction shall be barred. But this proviso shall not apply to criminal proceedings, either under this act or the criminal law of any State: And provided further, That a judgment for the penalty

in favor of the party aggrieved, or a judgment upon an indictment, shall be a bar to either prosecution respectively.

Sec. 3. That the district and circuit courts of the United States shall have, exclusively of the courts of the several States, cognizance of all crimes and offenses against, and violations of, the provisions of this act; and actions for the penalty given by the preceding section may be prosecuted in the territorial, district, or circuit courts of the United States wherever the defendant may be found, without regard to the other party; and the district attorneys, marshals, and deputy marshals of the United States, and commissioners appointed by the circuit and territorial courts of the United States, with powers of arresting and imprisoning or bailing offenders against the laws of the United States, are hereby specially authorized and required to institute proceedings against every person who shall violate the provisions of this act, and cause him to be arrested and imprisoned or bailed, as the case may be, for trial before such court of the United States, or territorial court, as by law has cognizance of the offense, except in respect of the right of action accruing to the person aggrieved; and such district attorney shall cause such proceedings to be prosecuted to their termination as in other cases: Provided, That nothing contained in this section shall be construed to deny or defeat any right of civil action accruing to any person, whether by reason of this act or otherwise; and any district attorney who shall wilfully fail to institute and prosecute the proceedings herein required, shall, for every such offense, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the person aggrieved thereby, to be recovered by an action of debt, with full costs, and shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be fined not less than one thousand nor more than five thousand dollars: And provided further, That a judgment for the penalty in favor of the party aggrieved against any district attorney, or a judgment upon an indictment against any such district attorney, shall be a bar to either prosecution respectively.

Sec. 4. That no citizen possessing all other qualifications which are or may be prescribed by law shall be disqualified

for service as grand or petit juror in any court of the United States, or of any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and any officer or other persons charged with any duty in the selection or summoning of jurors who shall exclude or fail to summon any citizen for the cause aforesaid shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be fined not more than five thousand dollars.

Sec. 5. That all cases arising under the provisions of this act in the courts of the United States shall be reviewable by the Supreme Court of the United States, without regard to the sum in controversy, under the same provisions and regulations as are now provided by law for the review of other causes in said court.