Anniversary Action

Of the 22 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, one of the most disputed is the 14th, which guarantees all persons "equal protection of the laws." A post-Civil War effort by Republicans to assure full civil rights for Negroes, it won no Democratic votes in Congress and only one in all of the state legislatures. It was ratified by Southern states in the Reconstruction period only because the Federal Government controlled them, and its principle has been widely ignored in the South ever since. Three states--Oregon, New Jersey and Ohio--ratified it and then tried to rescind their action, but Congress held that they could not. Three other states --Maryland, Kentucky and California--have never ratified it.*

Last month, fourscore and eight years from the day that the Maryland Legislature considered and rejected the 14th, Baltimore Lawyer Harry A. Cole, 34, the first Negro state senator in Maryland history, introduced a resolution to ratify the amendment. The senate's judicial proceedings committee promptly voted against the resolution, on the ground that it would be a futile gesture. Said the committee: the 14th Amendment, having been approved by three-fourths of the states, is the law of the land, and what the Maryland senate does will make no difference.

When Senator Cole pushed for a vote on the senate floor, there was no debate, but the old prejudices boomed through the silence. In the balloting, the pattern was much the same as it had been in 1867: senators from Eastern Shore and southern counties opposed the resolution, most senators from Baltimore and western Maryland were for it. The final count: 13 for, twelve against, four not voting. Since a constitutional majority (15 votes) was necessary for approval, Maryland had confirmed its 88-year-old dissent to the 14th Amendment.

* Only one constitutional amendment, the 20th (to begin the President's term on Jan. 20 instead of March 4 and to eliminate the Lame-Duck Congress), has ever been ratified by all 48 states.

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