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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Arkansas. General Assembly. House of Representatives ["AN ACT: To Protect all Persons in Their Civil Rights, in the State of Arkansas and to Furnish Means for Their Vindication" with endorsements by Charles Sumner and John H. Johnson]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07202.01 Author/Creator: Arkansas. General Assembly. House of Representatives Place Written: Little Rock, Arkansas Type: Printed document Date: circa February 1873 Pagination: 6 p. ; 31.4 x 18.9 cm. Order a Copy

Back page contains an undated autograph note signed by John H. Johnson, an Arkansas state congressmen. Johnson's note states "Sir, happy am I to inform you that this bill pass [sic] both house [sic] by a handsome majority and I now submit the same to you for your opinion of the bill." Followed by an undated autograph endorsement from Sumner stating "I shall never be satisfied until there is one National Act placing all under one & the same equal safeguard. Why will not [Mass] press for it?" Content of the act establishes equal transportation costs for all persons regardless of race, prevents refusal to sell liquor based on race, and prevents withholding educational opportunities on the basis of race, among other items.

Sumner was an active and prominent supporter of Radical Reconstruction in the South.

Johnson, John H., fl. 1873
Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

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