Know Your Government

South Carolina representative Robert B. Elliott's famous speech in favor of the Civil Rights Act, delivered in the House of Representatives on January 6, 1874, is memorialized here. The Act, which guaranteed equal treatment in all places of public accommodation to all people regardless of their "nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political," was passed on March 1, 1875. The central image shows Congressman Elliott speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives. Hanging from the ceiling is a banner with a quotation from his speech: "What you give to one class you must give to all. What you deny to one class. You deny to all." Above are two Civil War scenes of black troops in action. On the left is a full-length statue of Abraham Lincoln, holding a bundle of arrows and his Emancipation Proclamation, standing before the U.S. Capitol. On the right is another statue, of Civil Rights advocate Charles Sumner holding the "Bill of Civil Rights," in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston. Below Sumner are his words, "Equality of rights is the first of rights." Beneath the central scene is a view of a small farm with its black owner, family, and laborers. The caption below is "American Slave Labour is of the Present--We Toil for our Own Children and Not for Those of Others." At the far left are two black soldiers, and on the right black sailors. Below them are Lincoln's words, "Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full one hundred thousand are now in the U. S. Service" and "So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any." The words "Army," "Navy," "Jury," "Ballot," "Liberty," and "Equality" are inscribed in the borders. Further extracts from Elliott's speech appear throughout. Pub. E. Sachse & Co., 5 N. Liberty St., Baltimore, c1874. (Library of Congress)