“[T]he Constitution of the United States knows no distinction between citizens on account of color.”

1860s, Reconstruction (1866)

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Do you have more details about the quote "[T]he Constitution of the United States knows no distinction between citizens on account of color." by Frederick Douglass?
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Frederick Douglass 274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895

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“[T]he United States is not “much of the world.””

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“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”

John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911) United States Union Army officer and Supreme Court Associate Justice

1890s, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Context: In view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

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“[T]he United States could not simply turn itself into another Finland.”

Robert G. Kaiser (1943) American journalist

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