Current protests: racial discrimination (& dining cars)

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riderails

Train Attendant
Joined
Jul 20, 2017
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Detroit Free Press June 5, 2020:
This date (1950):"The U.S. Supreme Court, in Henderson v. United States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining cars."
 
I believe the Henderson case applied only to trains in interstate commerce so that trains which operated entirely within one state such as the Nancy Hanks in Georgia could continue to be segregated. Corrections would welcome.
 
Good memory. Yes, interstate::
U.S. Supreme Court
Henderson v. United States, 339 U.S. 816 (1950)
Henderson v. United States

No. 25
Argued April 3, 1950
Decided June 5, 1950
339 U.S. 816
Syllabus
Under the rules of an interstate railroad, dining cars are divided so as to allot ten tables exclusively to white passengers and one table exclusively to Negro passengers, and a curtain separates the table reserved for Negroes from the others. Under these rules, only four Negro passengers may be served at one time, and then only at the table reserved for Negroes. Other Negroes who present themselves are compelled to await a vacancy at that table, although there may be many vacancies elsewhere in the diner. The rules impose a like deprivation upon white passengers whenever more than 40 of them seek to be served at the same time and the table reserved for Negroes is vacant.

Held: these rules and practices violate § 3(1) of the Interstate Commerce Act, which makes it unlawful for a railroad in interstate commerce "to subject any particular person . . . to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever." Pp. 339 U. S. 818-826.
 
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