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in Article 24 of our present Constitution there is the
commitment of this state that slavery shall not be re-
established and certainly in 1967 in spite of the movement
in the courts and in the Federal Congress, this Convention
must enact a similar commitment for the protection of the
human rights of the Negro citizens of this state.
It must also be remembered, and it already has
been pointed out prior hereto in the debate that the 14th
Amendment was passed by Congress on June 13, 1866 and by
July the 20 of 1868, Secretary of State Seward has certi-
fied that the amendment had been ratified by three-fourths
of the state.
However, Maryland did not ratify the amendment
until 1959 and between 1868 and until shortly before the
ratification, Maryland had exercised rigid segregation in
its state schools, in its intrastate modes of transpor-
tation, in housing, employment, and recreation and public
accomodation.
And as we look at the racial discrimination and
segregation still existing in the state, we must be
challenged to affirm in our new Constitution the new state