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of a psychological impact for the young
people of this State, those who are impa-
tient and restless, and those who feel that
our ideals are shibboleths, and do not work
because they have not worked for them.
There is no doubt about the fact that in
Baltimore City the executive leadership and
action on the part of the government in
affirming again that discrimination will not
be tolerated, and that we going to work
together to rout it out, prevented us from
having a serious eruption there. And I
think this will have the same effect upon
the whole State.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Delegate
Mitchell, I understand your concern for dis-
crimination and I share your concern. I am
troubled, though, by the phrase "subject
to discrimination by the State." Because
if there is such discrimination today, I am
unaware of it and I am trying to find out
what you mean by that phrase, "discrimi-
nation by the State".
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Well, there
is wide-spread discrimination in the State
in employment. Because of its existence the
state legislature instituted an inter-racial
commission to study and to work with the
agencies of government, to make recom-
mendations for legislation and to eliminate
the impact of it upon the colored citizens.
As far as religious discrimination is con-
cerned, there have been some complaints
of religious discrimination in employment,
so it is a problem.
You have only to look around you to
see where Negroes are not employed: in
the county courthouses of the State, in the
school systems of the State which still re-
main predominantly white or all white. You,
have only to look around you in Baltimore
City where almost 50 percent of the popu-
lation is colored and see where Negroes
are not employed. This is a very serious
problem, the problem of employment.
We have had some of our industries
working with the governor and the mayor
of Baltimore City in the summer of '67
indicate that they were going to employ
on the basis of merit and not on the basis
of race. Yet our young people who are
college students or college graduates who
went to those industries for employment
came back.
The policy at the top had been enunci-
ated, but not acted upon in the personnel
office. The Negro students and graduates
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had been told to come back because there
were no openings, and they waited out-
side. But some of the young white college
students who were sitting with them in the
personnel office did not come out, because
they were hired.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Henderson.
(There was no response.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: Delegate Mitch-
ell, with regard to line six of your amend-
ment, the use of the word "state", do you
mean by the use of the word "state", local
governments and the political subdivisions
of the state such as municipal corpora-
tions?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: That is cor-
rect. I can best read to you the definition
of state action in the language of 1880 in
Virginia v. Read. The Supreme Court said
that a state may act through different
agencies either by its legislative, execu-
tive or its judicial authorities.
In the Civil Rights cases in 1883, while
the Supreme Court voided the application
of that statute to the instant facts be-
cause it said that the federal statute went
to individuals in the State, it did not men-
tion state action. It made it clear, and I
quote,
"State action of every kind, which is
inconsistent with the guarantees therein
contained, and extend to manifestations
of state authority in the shape of laws,
customs or judicial or executive provi-
sion is voided, which denies the equal
protection of the laws/'
Justice Bradley went further, and he
said that denying includes inaction as well
as action, and denying the equal protection
of the laws includes the omission to act as
well as the omission to pass laws for pro-
tection.
State action has been again and again
interpreted by the federal courts and by
the state courts to mean the action of the
State as it manifests itself through its
judicial, executive and legislative branches.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sollins.
DELEGATE SOLLINS: What concerns
me, Delegate Mitchell, is that your defini-
tions that you have just read seem really
to limit themselves to the state actions of
the State of Maryland. I wonder if you do
not mean also actions of the United States
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