From An Elaborate Exaggeration To A Natural Integration: Arguing Against the Decision of the Plessy Court

From An Elaborate Exaggeration To A Natural Integration
Arguing Against the Decision of the Plessy Court

“It is one thing for railroad carriers to furnish, or to be required by law to furnish, equal accommodations for all whom they are under a legal duty to carry. It is quite another thing for government to forbid citizens of the white and black races from traveling in the same public conveyance, and to punish officers of railroad companies for permitting persons of the two races to occupy the same passenger coach. If a state can prescribe, as a rule of civil conduct, that whites and blacks shall not travel as passengers in the same railroad coach, why may it not so regulate the use of the streets of its cities and towns as to compel white citizens to keep on one side of a street, and black citizens to keep on the other? Why may it not, upon like grounds, punish whites and blacks that ride together in streetcars or in open vehicles on a public road or street? Why may it not ...