Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/30

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its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Though the word "Negro" is not mentioned in this Amendment nor in any of the subsequent Federal enactments, it is not open to dispute that the legislators had in mind primarily the protection of the Negro.

Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was reënacted[6] in 1870, with the addition that it extended to all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States, and that it provided that all persons should be subject to like taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind.

The same year, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, which declared that the right of citizens of the United States to vote should not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any States on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The Civil Rights Bill[7] of 1875, the most sweeping of all such legislation by Congress, declared that all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States should 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. It also provided that jurors should not be excluded on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

An enumeration of these Federal statutes and constitutional amendments has been made in order to show the efforts of Congress to secure to the Negro every civil