DEMAND FOR JUSTICE RECALLED BARBER'S CASE FIRST INVOLVING BLACK VOTING-RIGHTS AMENDMENT.

Byline: Ralph Shaffer Local View

TODAY marks the 137th anniversary of congressional action on the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote to African- Americans. As such, it's a good time to remember the all but forgotten Louis Green. His demand for justice led to a Los Angeles courtroom and the nation's first case involving the voting rights amendment.

On Feb. 26, 1869, Congress sent to the states a proposed constitutional change outlawing race, color, or previous condition of servitude as grounds for denying suffrage. This reversed an earlier Republican pledge to leave voting rights to the decision of each pro-Union state.

Had it been left to the people of California, balloting here would have remained a white monopoly. Both the state constitution and the voter registration act prohibited black suffrage. The Democratic-controlled Legislature overwhelmingly rejected ratification, but three-fourths of the other states consented, and so by the end of March, 1870, the right of blacks to vote became law nationwide.

Despite ratification, state Attorney General Jo Hamilton instructed county clerks to refuse black registration until the state's ``whites only'' registry act was changed. Registrars in several counties obeyed, and for over a month African-Americans were denied registration.

The argument that a national amendment transcended any state constitution or law gradually won over reluctant county clerks. After blacks in Santa Clara County registered in early April, other clerks acceded as well. But Los Angeles County Clerk Thomas Mott - one of the state's leading Democrats - stood firm.

Mott's county had only 134 blacks. The most prominent African-American was Biddy Mason, a shrewd investor in Los Angeles real estate. Among the men, only Charles Owens, Mason's son-in-law and a member of the city's leading black family, stood out.

On the other hand, 43-year-old North Carolina native Louis Green was just a barber. What he did before 1870, or after, is not recorded, but in the spring of that year Green made a historic stand for civil rights.

When Green attempted to register on April 15, Mott turned him away. Green promptly sued to compel Mott to place his name on the Great Register. The case was heard by Los Angeles County Court Judge Ignacio Sepulveda, former assemblyman and future superior court judge.

Robert Widney, soon to be a major civic leader but at the time a young attorney with limited experience, represented Green. His ineffective case rested solely on the wording of the Fifteenth Amendment. He even failed to challenge Sepulveda on grounds that the judge was Mott's brother-in-law.

Glassell, Chapman and Smith, one of the city's most prestigious law firms, defended Mott. Counsel argued that state law permitted him to register only persons qualified under the state constitution. That law also threatened clerks with fines and imprisonment for enrolling ineligible people. Neither the Fifteenth Amendment nor any other law required the registration of blacks.

On April 28, Sepulveda upheld Mott's refusal to register Green. As the judge saw it, the Fifteenth Amendment was not self-executing and required additional legislation, including specific penalties for violations, before it could be enforced.

In the face of such hostility by registrars in several northern states, Congress enacted the law Sepulveda said was necessary, forcing offending registrars to place the names of black registrants on voter rolls. On June 21, Mott capitulated. Green became the first registered black voter in Los Angeles County - and an historic footnote.