Declared Unconstitutional
February 9, 1895
Summary
The Jim Crow Car laws are declared unconstitutional after a black man brings the case to court.
Transcription
The Jim Crow Car law of Kentucky has been declared unconstitutional and a jury sitting in the United States Circuit Court at Owensboro, Ky., found for the plaintiff, Rev. W. H. Anderson the colored minister, who brought suit against the Louisville and Nashville R. R.
While the amount asked for was $10,000 the amount awarded was one cent and the costs. As this was a test case the result is highly satisfactory, inasmuch as it settles so far as this court is concerned the constitutionality of the act. The railroad company has appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States Rev. Anderson deserves the support of every right thinking man in this country, regardless of race, color, or previous condition.
This attempt to establish special accommodations based upon caste is foreign to our free institutions and should find no lodgment in this republic. The peculiar feature even as it now stands is the act of a state in discriminating against its own citizens.
Inter-state travellers cannot be made legally subject to these conditions. It is only when they board a train in the State for another point in the same state that they are forced to submit to these humiliating conditions.
The decision that separation of passengers is lawful provided the accommodations are equal is legal quibbling, and the enunciation of the doctrine has given rise to needless embarrassments and hardships. The colored race has become so sadly mixed that it is difficult at times to determine the race of the individual and colored people often enjoy the predicament in which officious white men are placed who never tire of prating about their superiority.
While the amount asked for was $10,000 the amount awarded was one cent and the costs. As this was a test case the result is highly satisfactory, inasmuch as it settles so far as this court is concerned the constitutionality of the act. The railroad company has appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States Rev. Anderson deserves the support of every right thinking man in this country, regardless of race, color, or previous condition.
This attempt to establish special accommodations based upon caste is foreign to our free institutions and should find no lodgment in this republic. The peculiar feature even as it now stands is the act of a state in discriminating against its own citizens.
Inter-state travellers cannot be made legally subject to these conditions. It is only when they board a train in the State for another point in the same state that they are forced to submit to these humiliating conditions.
The decision that separation of passengers is lawful provided the accommodations are equal is legal quibbling, and the enunciation of the doctrine has given rise to needless embarrassments and hardships. The colored race has become so sadly mixed that it is difficult at times to determine the race of the individual and colored people often enjoy the predicament in which officious white men are placed who never tire of prating about their superiority.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Cord Fox
Citation
“Declared Unconstitutional,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 23, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/214.