THE SUPREME COURT: The Principal's Principle

One summer day in 1948 William C. Chance, an aging Negro high-school principal, got aboard an Atlantic Coast Line railway coach in Philadelphia, bound for his home in Parmele, N.C. When the train crossed into Virginia, the conductor asked Principal Chance to move into a Jim Crow car for the rest of his ride. Chance refused, was taken off the train at Emporia, Va. and arrested for disorderly conduct. He sued for $25,000 damages.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with his principle if not with his estimate of the damages. By refusing to review an appeals court verdict,...

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