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June 13, 1866 and was ratified by three-
fourths of the states by July 20, 1868, ac-
cording to Secretary of State Seward's
certification, Maryland did not ratify the
amendment until 1959. Between 1868 and
until shortly before the ratification. Mary-
land had exercised rigid segregation in its
state schools, in its intrastate modes of
transportation, in housing, employment, rec-
reation and public accommodations. And as
\ve 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 policy to protect
the civil rights of all.
At the time of the founding of this State,
the question of religious freedom was as
explosive and as controversial as the race
question is today. Yet the writers of that
Constitution and the bylaws enacted there-
to set an example for all the states and for
our nation and for the world in our provi-
sions for religious tolerance.
We have an opportunity here to show in
our day that we possess the same kind of
far-sighted courage and nobility of purpose.
It will keep the path to justice in the
courts free from the obstructions of long
delays and the postponements of the enjoy-
ment by the citizens of their constitutional
rights.
The recent and naturally important case
of Bell v. Maryland is an example in point.
In November of 1960, students from Mor-
gan State College were arrested in Hooper's
restaurant. They were charged with crimi-
nal trespass under the trespass act, section
577 of Article 27 of the Criminal Code, for
seeking service in that public accommoda-
tion. In January, 1962, judgments of guilty
were entered, fines were assessed and the
defendants appealed to the Maryland Court
of Appeals. In 1963, the lower court judg-
ments were affirmed. Petition for certiorari
was sought with the United States Supreme
Court and that petition was granted.
In 1964 the Supreme Court rendered its
decision in the Bell Case and in four other
cases which had reached the court in the
field of discrimination in public accommo-
dations. The court remanded the case to the
Maryland Court of Appeals primarily on
the point that Maryland in 1963 had passed
the state-wide public accommodations law,
which applied to Baltimore City and which
abolished the crime for which the defend-
ants were charged. In the light of that new
act, the Supreme Court suggested that the
Maryland Court of Appeals might want to
reconsider its affirmance of the convictions.
But it was not until April of 1965, five years
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later, that this financially burdensome and
long litigation ended with a reversal of the
lower court conviction.
Now, in 90 percent of the cases that have
reached the Supreme Court, there is the
same story of the tremendous financial
outlays and the long and burdensome strug-
gle through the various procedural delays
and obstructions until the court makes a
determination.
In the school cases, some Negro children
have never enjoyed their constitutional
right to a desegregated education which
was enunciated in 1954 by the Supreme
Court in the Brown case. So in the first
place we feel this language would be a
mandate to the courts and to the General
Assembly. It would also give them guidance
in eliminating the long delays that Negro
citizens in this State have historically suf-
fered when they seek to enjoy and to have
their Constitutional rights enforced.
I find that many of the delegates have no
understanding of this area because they
do not come in contact with it. I would like
to bring to the attention of the delegates
the report just issued in October, 1967, via
a joint survey conducted by the United
States Department of Labor and the United
States Department of Commerce.
They included Maryland in this survey.
The survey showed some progress in in-
creased income, better living conditions and
better educational standards and more inte-
gration in the main stream of American
life for the middle class colored citizens.
While this gives hope that we can solve
these problems, this report gives the g-rim
figures which indicate how far we must go
before we can say that colored citizens are
receiving equal treatment under the law.
For nowhere in the United States is in-
come for colored citizens equal to that of
the white. In north-central regions it is the
highest, but it is only 70 percent. In the
South, which includes the states of the old
Confederacy as well as Maryland, D. C.,
Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia, it
is only 51 percent.
The unemployment rate among colored
citizens is three times the national average
and this survey found that segregation in
the cities has increased. Sixty-two percent
of Negro families live in the central pov-
erty areas of all of the large cities in the
State study. The poverty areas are deter-
mined by a family income below $3,000,
males in unskilled jobs, sub-standard hous-
ing, low educational attainment and inade-
quate health facilities.
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