Another Infamous Decision.

Kentucky law-makers allow an “extra coach for local travel” for black men since “colored men have no rights which white men are bound to respect.”

There is hardly a citizen of color, uninfluenced by the powers that be, but what will agree with Bishop H. M. Turner in his denunciation of the Supreme Court of the United States.
In a decision rendered in the appeal case of the Chesapeake & Ohio R. R. against the state of Kentucky as to the right of that commonwealth to interfere with trains passing through the state, that august body ignored the constitutional points raised by counsel for the railroad company, sustained the state’s contention and announced that the carrying of an extra coach for local travel would conform to the law.
This is akin to the infamous decision of Chief Justice Taney, that colored men have no rights which white men are bound to respect. It announced that colored men need except no recognision from that quarter, and that money spent, and time employed are thrown away.
For our part, we would not attempt to test the constitutionality of any act before any such tribunal.
We would sooner take the Jim Crow Car law before our own Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia than to carry it to a body from which we expect justice and are awarded injustice.
Justice Harlan of Kentucky keeps to a high standard and does not hesitate to dissent in all cases which are brought before that body, and which involves the sacrifice of human rights.
 

“Another Infamous Decision.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 23, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1336.