St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1910-04-30

called, and persons Of mixed blood,
the term 'colored' has invariably been
used"
Continuing. Justice Provosty says
that the word negro has always had
q fixed meaning and that it never was
adopted nto the language for the
purpose Of designating persons of
mixed blood, but vas intended to
designate only persons Of pure Afri-
can a c and to give it any other
meaning would be to distort it from
its true sense. Had the Legislature
so desired it could have given he
word negro" the same sense as the
term 's~colored," but it has failed to
do SO, and the court is yltnout power
to change the meaning Of the word
from it's generally accepted sense.
His honor says that an examination
Lof the dictionaries shows that he
word negro does not include o%ctoroon,
and that the other source of inter,
probation, the literature of the LAM
guage, also shows that the word ne
gro does not include til term octo-
room, and that no literature has been
called to the attention of the court
wherein the term negro is held to in
clude the term octorOon.
I'VE do not think there can be any
serious denial of the fact that in
Louisiana the meaning of the words
m~ulatto, o%ctoroon and qnadroon are
of as definite meaning as the words
man and child, and that, among edu-
Gated people at least, they are as
we'll and as widely known, and that in
Louisiana, and in fact throughout the
country, except on the Pacific slope,
the word colored applied to race has
a definite meaning Of a person having
negro blood in his veins. We think,
also that any candid mind must admit
that the word negro, of itself unquali-
fed, does not necessarily include with
in It's meaning persons possessed Of
only an admixture of negro blood,
notably those whose mixture is SO
slight that even in their case an ex-
pert cannot be positive" are the
words Of the court.
In support of the theory that the
Legislature had differentiated between
the words colored and negro, the
court points out that the jim Grow
law and the antimiseegenation act Of
1894 use the words white and eolored
! races, instead of white and negro
races. In support of this the court
cites Lee vs.. Railroad. 81 Southern
Rep. 1872. The legislatures of other
states use the same terms, says the
court, except where they specially de.
clare that the terms negro and colorec
races shall be convertible terms.
The court then cites the case q
Adele VS.. Beauregard, Martin l84
and quotes numerous decisions tt
show that the courts throughout th,
country have held that the two term
are not convertible, and that while
negro is necessarily a person Of color
j that a person of color is not neces
sarily q negro. If the Legislator
J intended that the two terms shout
be conference.-the, and if it intende'
that the act should prohibit person
Of color from cohabiting with whit
persons, then it has done it in mos
questionable form, when it could hav
avoided ambiguity BY using the prope
j terms, continues the court. That tn
Legislature should have pc mite
/, for many years the Capitalization Q
negroes of the full blood with whit
persons, and then suddenly have fol
/ hidden the Capitalization Of person
/ with only a slight amount of negr
!. blood in their veins, is not a conclr
4 sion to be hastily jumped at, conclude
!, the court.
4 The court then takes up the que'
a ton of the meaning Of the terms
other connections. It is said that
/ notice f~orbidding negroes at 3 soci
8 gathering would mean that colore
persons would not be permitted Their
s and in answer 90 the argument Chi
O if the Legislature intended to sep
IS rate the races strictly in the ears,
b would certainly wish 70 do so in d