The wording of all the statutes is essentially the same. Each provides that all citizens within the jurisdiction of the State, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude, are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of the various places mentioned. The offending party may be either indicted and fined or imprisoned, or he may be sued by the aggrieved party. In some States, an action by the State is a bar to an action by the party and vice versa. One who aids or abets in a discrimination against a person on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude is punished to the same extent as the one actually committing the act.
Heretofore only legislative enactments, State and Federal, as to the civil rights of Negroes have been considered. It is well now to turn to the courts to see how the laws have been interpreted as regards various public places.
HOTELS
Only six States expressly forbid race distinctions in hotels. But it may be assumed that the sixteen States which mention inns mean to include hotels.
In 1876 a Negro minister applied for a room at a Philadelphia hotel and was refused accommodation, though one of the guests offered to share his room with him. At that time there was no law in Pennsylvania requiring hotel-keepers to receive colored persons; but the Federal court[49] held that the clerk might be liable under the Federal Civil Rights Bill of 1875.
In 1898 one Russ applied for a license to open a hotel
