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View Full Version : What are Civil Rights?



Libhater
08-15-2013, 10:44 AM
Does it mean that in all things, civil, social, political, all citizens, without distinction of race or color, shall be equal? By no means can they be so construed....Nor do they mean that all citizens shall sit on juries, or that their children shall attend the same schools. These are not civil rights and immunities. Well, what is the meaning? What are civil rights? I understand civil rights to be simply the absolute rights of individuals, such as 'The right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right to acquire and enjoy property.'

Rep. James Patterson of New Hampshire, a supporter of the 14th Amendment, said much the same. He was opposed to "any law discriminating against [blacks] in the security of life, liberty, person, property, and the proceeds of their labor. These civil rights all should enjoy. Beyond this I am not prepared to go, and those pretended friends who urge political and social equality....are....the worst enemies of the colored race." Republican Sen. Lyman Trumball of Illinois, who drafted the Civil Rights Bill, concurred. "This bill is applicable exclusively to civil rights. It does not propose to regulate political rights of individuals; it has nothing to do with the right of suffrage, or any other political right."

Essential Writings on Race by Samuel Francis...edited by Jared Taylor