“Emma Coger, a school teacher of mixed race in Quincy, Illinois, was returning on a Mississippi River steamboat from a visit to Keokuk. Though she had a ticket to the first-class dining table, she was forcibly removed by the captain based on a company regulation that restricted first-class dining to whites. Coger filed suit in the Iowa district court, alleging the tort of assault and battery, and won a jury verdict for $250 as damages.

The company argued that it was not excluding the plaintiff from transportation on its boat nor from receiving a meal, but only from the first-class dining area. The Iowa Supreme Court held the steamboat company’s practice was discriminatory, and its unconstitutionality was governed by the Clark holding.

…The court rejected the company’s argument that dining was a “social right” and not protected by the constitution and laws and, in doing so, expressly reinforced the Clark vision of full citizenship equality. The court rejected a minimalist vision of equality, a limited form of protection against discrimination that focuses on inadequacy rather than equality. Coger confirmed that the equality embraced in Clark was not crabbed or limited— it was not second-class citizenship.

The Iowa Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the verdict.”

Source: https://lawreviewdrake.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/clark-reflections-consolidated.pdf

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