Race legislation has been one of the major preoccupations of American legislators. The Negro, particularly, has been the subject of more laws than any other group. These laws have ranged from the most galling restrictions to the most comprehensive civil rights statutes. They tell a dramatic story of the amazing contradictions within our system of democracy since the nation's inception, and highlight the continual tug-of-war between two fundamentally opposed concepts of human relations. This conflict between human rights and the rights of property, or "man against the dollar" as Parrington has called it, has permeated American institutions and created the baffling paradoxes which constitute the American dilemma. The record of race legislation, therefore, is one facet of the history of the efforts of the American people to reconcile these opposing principles within the structure of democratic government. It is to our credit that these efforts at reconciliation have been unceasing, and while our progress toward the achievement of greater universal human rights has moved in zig-zag fashion and has often been blocked or delayed, in themain the trend has