Memorial of “Colored Citizens”, 1874

that the Fourteenth Amendment be so “enforced by appropriate legislation that any law rule or regulation emanating from any State Municipality Corporation or legalized Body, making any discrimination against any person by the use of any word having reference to Color or blood descent; be declared null and void.

Memorial of “Colored Citizens” 1874

In 1883 the Supreme Court decided that the 14th Amendment only restricted state action and could not grant the appeal of this petition—that any law making reference to color be declared null and void.

National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate