Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598

Sale 2598 - Lot 227

Price Realized: $ 6,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
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, light rust stains from binding staples; minor wear, minor dampstaining to early leaves. Washington: C. P. Farrell, 1883
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Contains an important speech by Douglass. 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.