after, the impotence of the Nation having been declared by its Supreme Court, the burden of defining and securing civil rights to Negroes devolved upon the States. Moreover, it is well to treat the Southern States and the States outside the South separately, because of the abnormal conditions in the former occasioned by Reconstruction.
In States Outside of South
Between 1865 and 1883 there was comparatively little legislation in the Northern, Eastern, and Western States as to civil rights. This was naturally so because these States were waiting to see what the Federal government meant to do. A brief examination of what little legislation there was will be made.
On May 16, 1865, Massachusetts[15] declared that there should be no distinction, discrimination, or restriction on account of color or race in any licensed inn, public place of amusement, public conveyance, or public meeting, and imposed a fine of fifty dollars for the violation of this law. The next year it included theatres[16] within the prohibition, but weakened the force of the statute by saying that there should be no exclusion or restriction "except for good cause."
The attitude of Delaware[17] toward civil rights is probably the most interesting of any of the Northern States. On April 11, 1873, its legislature passed the following "joint resolution in opposition to making Negroes the equals of white men, politically or socially":
"That the members of this General Assembly, for the people they represent, and for themselves, jointly and individually, do hereby declare uncompromising opposition
