Evening star., 1951-02-16
JimCrow Repeal
Awaits Signing
By Mcke|din
22-to-7 Senate Vote
Climuxes 24-Yeur
Legislative Fight
By q Star Sioff Correspondent

SsSs0ANNS tSuk
By Star Sioff Correspondent
ANNAPOLIS. Feb. 16. Only
Gov. McKeldin's signature is
needed to wipe Marylands "Jim
Crow" segregation law off the
books.
A 24-year legislative fight
against the law, enacted in 1904,
was carried to a successful con-
clusion yesterday when the Senate
passed the repeater by a vote of
% to 7. The House voted 7O-40
for the bill January 80.
Gov. McKeldin, a Republican,
could not be reached for comment,
but a spokesman said he definitely
will sign it,"
Although the law requires segre-
cation of Negroes and white per-
sons on rail and steamboat trans
portation. it has been enforced in
recent years only on the Chesa-
peake Bay ferry system. It would
have become a dead letter with
or without legislation on compile
ton Of the bay bridge next year.
Senate President Against 1t.
Senate action was taken with
out discussing the repeater bill,
which has provided many a bitter
contest in past legislative sessions.
The seven dissenting votes were
cast by Senate President George
w. Della, Democrat, of Baltimore
who explained that my people
want me to vote against it" and
six of the, nine Eastern Shore
Senators. All six also are Dem
ocrats.
The remaining three Eastern
Shore Senators, who voted for
the bill. are John o. Byrd, Dem
ocrat, of Worcester County and
Republicans E. Dale Adkins, jr.,
Wicomico County and Harry T.
Phoebus, Somerset County.
After the vote was announced.
Senator Bernard C. Melnicove,
Democrat of the 4th Baltimore
district, whose delegation spon-
sored the repeater in the House,
said:
THE General Assembly has
certainly conducted itself admira-
bly, in finally Wiping from the
law books. hope forever, such a
discriminatory law as Jim Crow
ism. 1t is something we can be
extremely proud Of. I hope we
never again will see on the statute
books any law of intolerance
such as the law we have finally
repealed"
Acclaimed by Dippel.
And, from Senator Francis X.
Dippel, Democrat. of the Sd
Baltimore district, came the state
ment that "the General Assembly
has earned the capital F in the
Free State of Maryland.
Minority Leader Robert B.
Kimble. Republican, of Allegany
County recalled he had been vot-
ing for such legislation during the
last 16 years, and added:
Il am happy it will become a
reality under Republican ad-
ministration."
The repeater has been a hardy |
perennial in the General AS
sembly since 1927, when it was
introduced for the first time by
the late Senator A. Leroy Nc
Cardell of Frederick County. It
died in the Senate Judiciary Com
mittee, however.
In 1929 it was introduced again
in the Senate and was reported
out without recommendation by
the Corporations Committee. But
it was killed on the floor of the
Senate.
1949 Repeater Killed in House.
Two years later, it was intro
duced in the House, where it was
passed only to be defeated in the
Senate.
Since that time, the legislation
has had a similar history of be-
ing passed by one house but de-
feated by the other. In 1949, for
example, a Senate-approved re-
pealer survived an unfavorable
House committee report, but was
defeated on the House floor.
According to DR.. Horace Flack,
head of the State Department of
Legislative Reference, the law ap-
piled only to steam railroads when
it first was enacted. Four years
later. it was amended to include
Chesapeake Bay ferry boats and
electric trains or streetcars oper-
ating at least 20 miles beyond any
incorporated town.
Enforcement on railroads, elec-
trio trains and streetcars began
fading out in the middle 1920s,
however.