Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/231

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and Philadelphia Railway Company v. Mills was decided, which case will also be discussed later.

A statute of Delaware[12] of 1875, as has been seen, declared that the carriers of passengers might make such arrangements in their business as would, if necessary, assign a particular place in their cars, carriages, or boats to such of their customers as they might choose to place there, and whose presence elsewhere would be offensive to the major jart of the traveling public, where their business was conducted; but the accommodations must be equal for all if the same price for carriage was required from all.


LEGISLATION BETWEEN 1865 AND 1881

Before considering the "Jim Crow" laws of the Southern States, it will be instructive to look into some of the court decisions between 1865 and 1881, the latter being the date of adoption of the first "Jim Crow" law of the second period, to see what steps the railroad, street car, and steamboat companies had taken to separate the races, in the absence of State legislation upon the subject.

In 1865, a colored woman ejected from a street car in Philadelphia[13] brought action against the conductor, who pleaded that there was a rule established by the road superintendent that Negroes should be excluded from the cars. The court held that the conductor had no right to eject a passenger on account of race or color, and that a regulation of the company would not be a defence to the action.

Just a few days after the Pennsylvania legislature