Arkansas State press. [volume] (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959, 1949-11-04
+: WORTH REPEATING ::
10 Prohibit Segregation

The Supreme has consented to review that
have great historic signcance-he of Elmer W. Hender
against the United States of America Interstate Commerce
Commission and Southern Railway Co. The will test the
validity of Southern Railway regulation, approved by the ICC
and upheld by divided hreeudge Federal district court re-
qng passengers to be segregated according to their color in
the railways dining
In accordance with the law the United States was
defendant in the suit brought by Henderson Nevertheless the
legal the United States the Solicitor General
and other officers of the Department of Justice filed the SUI
preme Court Wednesday powerful brief arguing that Hender
appeal should be upheld and that the order of the ice
should be declared invalid This support of appellant the
part of the Department of Justice deserves the warmest
mendaton.
The originated when Henderson, Negro. travelling
a field representative for the wartime Fair Employment
Practice Committee denied service Southern Railway
diner in accordance with regulations because the two
end tables euaned from the of the and supposedly
for Negroes being used by white passengers The
Interstate Commerce Act provides that W shall be unlawful for
any common carrier to subject any particular person
Ito any undue unreasonable prejudice disadvantage in
respect whatsoever The company reconced its regulation
with the law on the ground that the furnishing Of separate but
poportionatey equal facilities enaed discrimination The
ICC upheld this justification.
The doctrine segregation is not discrimination rests up
1896 Lewiston of the Supreme Court Pesy Ferguson
perhaps with the single exception of the bred Scott the
worst decision the Supreme Courts entire history The Court
at that time dismissed the contention that he enforced sepa
ration of the two stamps the coored with badge
Of inferiorty and bandy observed that III this be II is
not by Of anything found in the act but solely because
the colored chooses to put that construction upon it,
Judgment
y scored by Justice Harlan Of the Courts great
"Our Constitution color blind he said and neither knows
toerates class among citizens We boast of the free
dom enjoyed by people above all other peoples
difficult TO reconcile that boast with state of law which, pract
cay puts the brand of seude depreciation upon large
class Of fellow citizens equals before the The thin
disguise Of equal accommodations will not mIslead any
one. nor atone for the wrong this day done"
The thin disguise has been used since Justify
CATION In public schools State universities public transporta
tion and other public facilities The whole of dis
elimination by law has been based upon All experience has
shown not only that separate facilities in fact equal
but that enforced separation imposed deliberately hum
ate Negroes and to emphasize their nfeory It that
purpose well 1t creates inequality by imposing status
upon the group at which II is aimed
The Justice Departments brief asks the Supreme Court
nvaldae the lCC ruling the ground that the Southern Rail-
regulation violates the Interstate Commerce Act
10 clearly TO do But says the brief W the Court should
conclude that the issue here cannot be decided without reference
to the separate but equal doctrine the Government submits
that the legal and facua assumptions upon which Pessy
Ferguson decided have been demonstrated to be erroneous
and that the doctrine of that should now be reexamncd
and overred The notion that separate but equal facilities
isfy constitutional and statutory prohibitions against dscrm
nation is obsolete The phrase equal rights means the same
rights" II is high time for the Supreme Court to say So
The Washington 70. CO. Post.