Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 14

4. Frederick Douglass and Robert G. Ingersoll, Proceedings of the Civil Rights Mass-Meeting Held at Lincoln Hall, October 22, 1883. Speeches of Hon. Frederick Douglass, and Robert G. Ingersoll (Washington, DC: C. P. Farrell, 1883). (53 p.)

Two speeches criticizing the U. S. Supreme Court for declaring that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional. Douglass’s speech is the shorter of the two and concludes with making a distinction between “civil rights” and “social rights.” Ingersoll argues that the court’s recent decision in regard to the Civil Rights Bill undermines the rights guaranteed to African Americans by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.