The 1875 Civil Rights Act cases arose from denied hotels, theaters, and railcars

Evidence

The Supreme Court found its opportunity in the Civil Rights Cases, a group of five cases, consolidated into one, that each challenged the constitutionality of the first two sections of the 1875 Civil Rights Act. Two cases arose out of incidents in which black Americans were denied access to hotel accommodations. Two additional cases dealt with black people being denied admission to theaters. And a fifth case involved a train conductor who refused to allow a black woman to ride in “the ladies’ car” because “she was a person of African descent,” for which he was fined a penalty of $500. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 375