, and our civilization! Think of it for a
moment; here am I, a member of your honorable body, representing one of
the largest and wealthiest districts in the State of Mississippi, and
possibly in the South; a district composed of persons of different
races, religions, and nationalities and yet, when I leave my home to
come to the capital of the nation, to take part in the deliberations of
the House and to participate with you in making laws for the government
of this great Republic, in coming through the God-forsaken States of
Kentucky and Tennessee, if I come by the way of Louisville or
Chattanooga, I am treated, not as an American citizen, but as a brute.
Forced to occupy a filthy smoking-car both night and day, with
drunkards, gamblers, and criminals; and for what? Not that I am unable
or unwilling to pay my way; not that I am obnoxious in my personal
appearance or disrespectful in my conduct; but simply because I happen
to be of a darker complexion. If this treatment was confined to persons
of our own sex we could possibly afford to endure it. But such is not
the case. Our wives and our daughters, our sisters and our mothers, are
subjected to the same insults and to the same uncivilized treatment. You
may ask why we do not institute civil suits in the State courts. What a
farce! Talk about instituting a civil-rights suit in the State courts of
Kentucky, for instance, where decision of the judge is virtually
rendered before he enters the court-house, and the verdict of the jury
substantially rendered before it is impaneled. The only moments of my
life when I am necessarily compelled to question my loyalty to my
Government or my devotion to the flag of my country is when I read of
outrages having been committed upon innocent colored people and the
perpetrators go unwhipped of justice, and when I leave my home to go
traveling.

Mr. Speaker, if this unjust discrimination is to be longer tolerated by
the American people, which I do not, cannot, and will not believe until
I am forced to do so, then I can only say with sorrow and regret that
our boasted civilization is a fraud; our republican institutions a
failure; our social system a disgrace; and our religion a complete
hypocrisy. But I have an abiding confidence--(though I must confess that
that confidence was seriously shaken a little over two months ago)--but
still I have an abiding confidence in the patriotism of this people, in
their devotion to the cause of human