Notice: United States Supreme Court
FOWLER vs. LEGACY BASEBALL LEAGUE (1900)
No. 113
Argued: April 16, 1900
On February 20th, 1900, the respondent, Cooper Fowler, filed his bill in the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Virginia against the administration and trustees of The Legacy Baseball League. The case passed to hearing in that court upon pleadings and proofs, and resulted in a decree, on March 15th, 1900, in favor of the defendants, dismissing the bill. From such dismissal the plaintiffs appealed to the circuit court of appeals for the sixth court, which court, on April 1st, 1900, reversed the decree of the dismissal, and entered a decree in favor of the plaintiff. On April 16th, in the current term of this court, after argument and on April 7th, the decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals was affirmed by a divided court. Thereafter, upon petition, a rehearing was ordered, and the case was argued at the present term before a full bench. The facts are that Cooper Fowler, a resident of Richmond, Virginia, was terminated from employment within the Legacy Baseball League within the organization known as the Richmond Rifles, on the predication of his negro heritage, and on December 20th, 1899, the Legacy Baseball League further struck Cooper Fowler’s statistics from their records and outright banned negroes from participation in the baseball league. “The Cooper Fowler Addendum” (LBL 1900-1) was committed to the bylaws of the Legacy Baseball League by a 9-7-1 vote of General Managers in committee.
Attorneys representing Mr. Fowler petitioned for adequate compensation for the slander of his name and illegal treatment by both the Richmond Rifles and the Legacy Baseball League.
Furthermore, the attorneys representing Mr. Fowler petition that under the precedent of Plessy vs. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), the Legacy Baseball League, which is nationally subsidized, cannot illegally discriminate on matters of race without providing equal compensation and opportunity to negroes.
Representatives of Alexander J. Madigan, Commissioner of the Legacy Baseball League, argue that the organization is not a public institution, and therefore not committed to the separate-but-equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson. The league is legally entitled to racial discrimination as a private entity, regardless of public subsidy.