Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/369

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  • setts; from saloons, in Minnesota and Ohio; from soda

fountains, in Illinois; from theatres, in Illinois and New York; from skating rinks in New York and Iowa; and the bodies of Negroes have been refused burial with those of white persons in Pennsylvania. It is not meant here that Negroes are always excluded from such places in these States, but that instances of such exclusions are found in the laws. Most of the States have at one time or another made distinctions between the races in schools. California and other States of the Far West are demanding separate schools for Japanese. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, besides other States of the Middle West, clash from time to time with their school boards for attempting to separate the races in schools. Delaware is diligent in providing separate schools for white persons and Negroes. In Massachusetts, until 1857, the school board of Boston provided a separate school for Negroes in that city. As to public conveyances, the term "Jim Crow," applied to a car set apart for Negroes, was first used in Massachusetts, and it was in Pennsylvania that the first leading case involving the right of street car companies to separate their passengers by race arose. Instances of actual discrimination against Negroes by common carriers were found in Illinois, Iowa, and California. How common race distinctions are in the States mentioned the above resumé does not clearly show, because the great majority of grievances caused by race distinctions do not reach the court. But when one finds that the legislature has deemed it advisable to enact a law against race distinctions, it is reasonable to assume that they did in fact exist. For instance, five States, all outside the South, prohibit discriminations by