The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1927-03-12
SPECIALS extras
N. A. A. c. p. Wins White Primary
Case by Unanimous Decision Of
Supreme Court

New .York.-The United States Su-
preme Court this week by unanimous
decision sustained the National Assoc
citation for the Advancement Of Col
ored People in its contention that the
State of Texas had exceeded its rights
in barring colored voters from the
Democratic primaries in that state. In
sensational decision, read by Mr..
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the
Supreme Court declared the Texas law
Of 1928 unconstitutional, thereby
GROWING the fight carried through all
the lower courts by the ~ A. A. c. p.
The Supreme Court in its decision
declared that st seems to us hard to
imagine a more direct and obvious in
fringement Of the Fourteenth Amend
ment" than is contained in the Texas
law. The Supreme Court in its de-
cision also quoted from the Louisiana
Segregation Case won by the N. A. A.
c. p. in 1917, the quotation being as
follows:
THAT amendment (the fourteenth
not only gave citizenship and the
privilege of citizenship to persons Of
color, but it denied to any State the
power to withhold from them the equal
protection Of the laws What is
this but declaring that the law in the
States shall be the same for the blacks
as for the whites; that all persons
whether colored or white shall stand
equal before the laws of the States,
and, in regard to the colored race, for
whose protection the amendment was
primarily designed, that no discrimina-
ton shall be made against them by
law because of their color
That statute of Texas in the teeth
Of the prohibitions referred to assumed
to forbid Negroes to take part in
primary election the Importance Of
which we have indicated, discriminate.
ing against them by the distinction Of
color alone. States may do a good
deal Of classifying that it is difficult to
believe rational, but there are limits,
and it is too clear for extended argu-
ment that color cannot be made the
basis of a statutory classification af-
fecting the right set up in this case"
James Weldon Johnson, secretary of
the N A. A. C. p, hailed the deci-
sion and victory as one of the most
important won for the Negro since
the adoption of the Civil War amend
ments.
This decision will have far
reaching effect on the petrihed South, "
declared Mr.. Johnson. 1T justihes the
energy and the money that has been
expended in carrying this case through
the court of Texas and the lower fed
eral court to the highest tribunal in
the land. 1t is furthermore justihca-
ton Of the generosity and sacrifice Of
those who backed up the appeal Of
the N. A. A. G. P. for an adequate
legal defense fund.
"The Supreme Courts decision is a
rebuke to the persistent violation of
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
ments in the Southern States. Fur
thermore, it establishes that the pri
maries are part of the general election
system and, as such subject to federal
control. This is a case profoundly af-
fecting not only the political and civic
status Of the Negro, but many other
great political issues as well. Negroes
may we'll be proud to have been in
strumental in obtaining a definite de-
cision on this issue which lawyers have
been vainly putting up TO the Supreme
Court for decades.
Especially ought the membership
and friends Of the N. "A. A. c. P. be
grateful for the magnificent work done
by the national president, Mr.. Moor
field Storey, as well as by Mr.. Louis
Marshall, member Of the legal commit
tee and of the board Of directors, and
by Mr.. Arthur B. Spingarn, vice-presi-
dent Of the association and chairman Of
the legal committee. These gentlemen
have given Of their time without stint
and without any compensation what
ever, and the reply brief they framed
to the contentious put forth by the
State of Texas, is masterpiece o.
close reasoning and clear exposition