em.

Setting apart separate places for negroes on public carriers, is just as
repugnant to the spirit and intent of the national Constitution, as would
be a law compelling all Jews or all Roman Catholics to occupy compartments
specially set apart for them on account of their religion. If these
statutes were not especially aimed at the negro, an arrangement of
different fares, such as first, second and third classes, would have been
far more just and preferable, and would have enabled the refined and
exclusive of both races to avoid the presence of the coarse and vicious,
by selecting the more expensive fare. Still these laws have been upheld by
the Federal Supreme Court, and pronounced not in conflict with the
amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

City ordinances providing for separate street cars for white and colored
passengers, are in force in Atlanta, New Orleans, and in nearly all the
cities of the South. In all the principal cities of Alabama, a certain
portion of the street cars is set apart and marked for negroes. The
conductors are clothed with the authority of determining to what race the
passenger belongs, and may arrest persons refusing to obey his orders. It
is often a very difficult task to determine to what race some passengers
belong, there being so many dark-white persons that might be mistaken for
negroes, and persons known as negroes who are as fair as any white person.

In the State of Georgia, a negro cannot purchase a berth in a sleeping
car, under any circumstances, no matter where his destination, owing to
the following statute enacted December 20th, 1899: "Sleeping car
companies, and all railroads operating sleeping cars in this State, shall
separate the white and colored races, and shall not permit them to occupy
the same compartment; provided, that nothing in this act shall be
construed to compel sleeping car companies or railroads operating sleeping
cars, to carry persons of color in sleeping or parlor cars; provided also,
that this act shall not apply to colored nurses or servants travelling
with their employers." The violation of this statute is a misdemeanor.

Article 45, section 639 of the statutes of Georgia, 1895, makes it a
misdemeanor to keep or confine white and colored convicts together, or to
chain them together going to and from work. There is also a statute in
Georgia requiring that a separate tax list be kept in every county, of the
property of white and colore