and to keep … This question is not met by the suggestion thatsocial equality cannot exist between the white and black races in this country. … is scarcely worthy of consideration, forso … a city or town, or when they are in the same room for the purpose of having their names placed on the registry of voters...a race so different from our own that we do not permit thoselonging … to the Chinese race. But, by the statute in question, a Chinaman can ride in the sameassenger … of whom, perhaps, risked their lives for the preservation ofthe … Union... bylaw, to … is scarcely just to say that a colored citizen should not object to occupying a public coach assigned to his own...But he objecting, and ought never to cease objecting, to the proposition that citizens of the white and black racecanbe … because they sit, orclaim the … highway. Page 163 U. S. 562 The arbitraryseparation of citizens on the basis of race … ...isa badge of … whollyconsistent withthe civil … and theequality … basis of race. We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples. But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and ...The thin disguise of "equal" accommodations … railroad coacheswill not mislead anyone, … whole matter is that, while this courtas … white and black citizens, having the required qualifications for jury service, from sitting in the same jury box,it is … white and black jurors to be separated in the jury box by a "partition," and that, upon retiring from the courtroom to consult as to their verdict, such partition, if it be a moveable one, shall be taken to their consultation...I cannot see but that, according to the principles this day announced, such state legislation, althoughconceived in hostility to, and enacted for the purpose of humiliating, citizens of … most important, of them are wholly inapplicable because rendered prior to the adoption of the last amendments of the Constitution, whencolored people had … were concerned, race prejudice was, practically, the supreme law of the land. Those decisions cannot be guides in the era introduced by the recent amendments of
