The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-08-04
BLACK MEMS RIGHTS.
The Negro a Citizen and Wants
White Treatment.
WASHINGTON IN THE LEAD.
One of the First TO Pass an equal
Rights Bill = The Others New
York and Massachusetts.

York and Massachusetts.
The trainers of the constitution OF this
country in the Declaration of Indepead-
ence vocalized the principle that AL men
are created equal" Abraham Lincoln
recognized the principle when he issued
his proclamation abolshing slavery, ana
the outcome OF the rebellion clinched the
| upholding of that principle by these
United States. And ever since the close
of the rebellion the ''coiored friend and
brother" has made intermittent attempts
TO claim his guaranteed rights" The de-
sire TO have the privilege OF bending MS
ribs against the same bar over which the
white mans cocktails are passed and to
put his feet under the table of a hotel
and touch the patent feathers of one Of
the untitled aristocrats of this so-called
free country is close TO the heart OF the
negro. He wants to be treated lust like
a white man." and laws have been pass
ed to guarantee him that treatment.
At the last session of the Legislature of
this state 'civil rights bill was passed
and signed by the governor. under the
provisions of which hotels. restaurants.
etc, are compelled to give colored people
exactly the same treatment accorded
white people. This act has now been in
force for several months, but SO far no
tests nave DceD IidQc VI IL. AGSl,
there Is little occasion for any test. There
are not many instances IN the West of
inequality Of treatment or service on ae-
count of color. Colored people have as
free entrance TO the Seattle theaters as
other people. and so have they generally
in restaurants, hotels. churches, AMI
street cars. And they exercise their priv
ileges at their pleasure.
Also in the New York legislature last
winter an equal rights" bill was passed.
and IL seems to have created more OF a
stir In New York city than IN Seattle.
Several prominent representatives of the
negroes AIDE business for few days
of going to the various high-ciass hotels
and restaurants TO test the "Malby'' law.
1t gave the comic papers an opportunity
TO display the negroes of the cartoonistS
sitting at the exclusive tables of Delmon-
ico's, giving orders to the pompous French
walters. But the testers Of the law
found no occasion for criticism: they
were treated as other people are treated.
But these tests are, OF course, spasmodic.
We imagine that the colored population
will continue to patroniZe the same hotels
and restaurants as they did before. All
the equal rights laws ever passed can
not force commingling of the races.
Thirty years from servitude TO an equal
ity as broad as the land is not a far cry.
Laws do not abolish prejudces, and pre-
judice against social communion between
whites and blacks does not exist only in
the South, and the thinkers and most of
the sincere leaders of the colored peo-
pie recognize this, and appreciate its
cause. Thirty years Is but month in the
history of peoples. and when one consid-
ers the distance already covered by the
black-skinned, but warm-hearted and gen.
erous people in their race for the goal of
equal citizenship, one can almost see the
dawning of the Negroes brightest day.
1t was while emancipation was still a
new experience, and when the negroes
had scarcely begun to realize the obliga-
tons as well as the privileges of freedom,
that the first efforts were made by repre-
sentatiyes OF the black race to secure the
privileges enjoyed by white persons and
in the society of white persons. Some of
the earliest demonstrations against the
evident aversion of the whites for indis-
criminate association with blacks were
made by negroes who insisted that they
were vested by law with right TO buy and
occupy seats in theaters, In any part of
the theaters they chose to select Then
they manifested disinclination to accept
rule of separation on railroads and
steamboats,. They also evinced a deter
mination to patronize hotels, notwith-
standing the unwillingness of the proprie-
tors to assign them rooms, or to allow
them to occupy seats at tables with white
people.
After the adoption Of the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments to the consul
tuition, a group of cases were collected
in the supreme court of the United States.
Two of them reached there as the result
of prosecutions by negroes who were re-
fused admission to theaters. A negro
in San Francisco purchased an orchestra
seat for Maguire's opera house. and was
not permitted TO occupy IT; another was
rejected by the Grand opera
| house in New York city. Two
cases represented the efforts of
negroes TO obtain hotel accommoda-
. tons. One was the outcome Of n dispute
between negroes and white men as to
the lawfulnesS of requiring negroes TO
ride in separate cars.
These five cases were decided in 1883.
They had all been brought under the civil
rights act of March. 1875. passed for the
| purpose OF making effective the thirteenth
and fourteenth amendments 10 the con-
stitution. The object was not so much
to obtain awards or damages, if they had
been made. as IL was to test the sound
| ness OF the act. The supreme court, one
Justice alone dissentinA declared uncon-
| stitutSonal the sections of the civil rights
! bin assuring to negroes substantially the
| advantages. privileges and facilities
| sought to be obtained by the Malby law.
II was decided, in the opinion. that the
| first and second sections Of the civil rights
/ act of March /. IS75. were unconstitutional,
not being authorized either by the thir-
/ teenth or fourteenth amendment OF the
: constitution. The fourteenth amendment
/ was prohibtOry upon the states only.
/ and the legislation authorized TO be adopt
| ed by congress for enforcing il is not d.
/ rect legislation in the matters respecting
which the states are prohibited from
| making or enforcing certain laws. or do
| ing certain acts, but is corrective legis-
/ lation. such a may he necessary or prop
/ er for counteracting and redressing the
| effect OF such laws or acts.
TIE thirteenth amendment related only
/ to slavery and involuntary servitude,
/ which Il abolishes; and, although by IT'S
| reflex action IL establishes universal free
| dom in the United States. and congress
| may probably pass laws directly enforc-
| ing It's provisions. yet such legislative
! power extends only 20 the subject OF
the Sacrifice.