t for reasons by law
applicable to citizens of every race and color, and regardless of
any previous condition of servitude, the full enjoyment of any of
the accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges in said
section enumerated, or by aiding or inciting such denial, shall
for every such offense forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred
dollars to the person aggrieved thereby, to be recovered in an
action of debt, with full costs; and shall also, for every such
offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction
therefor, shall be fined not less than five hundred nor more than
one thousand dollars, or shall be imprisoned not less than thirty
days nor more than one year. _Provided_, That all persons may
elect to sue for the penalties aforesaid, or to proceed under
their rights at common law and by State statutes; and having so
elected to proceed in the one mode or the other, their right to
proceed in the other jurisdiction shall be barred: But this
provision shall not apply to criminal proceedings, either under
this act or the criminal law of any State: and provided further,
That a judgment for the penalty in favor of the party aggrieved,
or a judgment upon an indictment, shall be a bar to either
prosecution respectively.

Although the Negroes by this measure were guaranteed the rights which
were granted by the Constitution to every citizen of the United
States, the members of the Supreme Court of the United States instead
of upholding the laws of the nation in accordance with their oaths
undertook to hedge around and to explain away the articles of the
Constitution in such a way as to legislate rather than interpret the
laws according to the intent of the framers of the Constitution.
Subjected to all sorts of discriminations at the polls, in the courts,
in inns, in hotels, on street cars, and on railroads, Negroes had sued
for redress of their grievances and the persons thus called upon to
respond in the courts attacked the constitutionality of the Civil
Rights Bill, and the War Amendments, contending that they encroached
upon the police power of the States.

The first of these _Civil Rights Cases_ were: _United States_ v.
_Stanley_, _United States_ v. _Ryan_, _United States_ v. _Nichols_,
_United States_ v. _Singleton_, and _Robinson and wife_ v. _Memphis
and Charleston R. R. Co._ Two of these cases,