April 20, 1937

The train voyage of Arthur Mitchell, an African-American congressman from Illinois, began; when the train crossed into Arkansas, he was asked to move to the section of the train designated for African-American passengers, in accordance with the Arkansas Separate Coach Law of 1891. A lawsuit ensued, eventually becoming the Supreme Court case Mitchell v. United States et al. The Supreme Court had held in earlier cases that it was adequate under the Fourteenth Amendment for separate privileges to be supplied to differing groups of people as long as they were treated similarly well.