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Henry McNeal Turner, 1834-1915
Civil Rights. The Outrage of the Supreme Court of the United States upon the Black Man. Reviewed in a Reply to the New York "Voice," the Great Temperance Paper of the United States.
Philadelphia: Publication Department A. M. E. Church, 1889.

Summary

The primary texts of this pamphlet are two letters written by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, both of which criticize the Supreme Court's decision to declare the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. Turner's first letter, to the New York temperance paper The Voice, contains excerpts from the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the Court's majority and dissenting opinions. The second letter, which first appeared in the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church's publication the Christian Recorder, is a polemical attack on the Court's decision. In this second letter, Turner calls on Church members to pray for a reorganized Supreme Court and for the political figures who supported the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He also calls for mass meetings and petitions with the intention of promoting a new civil rights act.

Brent Kinser

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