Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 204

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
INCLUDES AN IMPORTANT SPEECH BY DOUGLASS FREDERICK DOUGLASS. Proceedings of the Civil Rights Mass-Meeting held at Lincoln Hall. Errata slip tipped in. 53 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, foxing, moderate wear, failing cello tape repair along spine; minor wear and two inked notes to contents. Washington, DC: C. P. Farrell, 1883
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On 15 October 1883, the Supreme Court delivered a decision on what are known as "the Civil Rights Cases," ruling that the 13th and 14th Amendments did not forbid racial discrimination by private individuals or companies, which nullified the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This devastating decision essentially provided legal sanction to Jim Crow practices for decades to come.

A week after the decision, before the opinions were even published, a protest meeting was held in Washington. This pamphlet records the minutes of the meeting, as well as keynote speeches by Frederick Douglass (pages 4-14) and white liberal orator Robert Ingersoll (15-53). The Douglass speech ranks as one of his most stirring. He argues that the Civil Rights Bill did not establish social equality between the races, it merely confirmed what was already clear from the Declaration of Independence, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Golden Rule. In conclusion, he notes that "no where, outside of the United States, is any man denied civil rights on account of his color." Afro-Americana 3236; Blockson 3793.