By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Race relations in plantation Hawai'i have often been criticized, so my interest rose when I stumbled across a front-page story about a court case involving discrimination, in the May 16, 1900, Advertiser.

A company of black entertainers from Vancouver, British Columbia, had performed in Australia, then in Hawai'i on their way back to Vancouver. In Honolulu, a bubonic plague epidemic quarantined the harbor. When the quarantine lifted, the entertainers went to the Canadian-Australian Steamship office for tickets.

They were refused passage on the SS Miowera, although eight white passengers boarded here. So the group's leader, comedian and songwriter, Ernest Hogan, hired attorneys Kinney, Ballon and McClanahan to file suit, asking $20,000 in damages.

It struck me that this case might be early and historic. Jeff Portnoy invited me over to check the law library at Cades Shutte Fleming & Wright. Librarian Debbie Aandasan helped me find the cases of discrimination by reason or race and color in the American Digest.

There weren't many back then. In 1909 the refusal of a medical school in Michigan to admit black students was ruled constitutional. That same year, separate accommodations for whites and nonwhites on an Oklahoma railroad were judged not to abridge the privileges of minorities.

In Honolulu, the judge postponed the case until the Miowera came back so the captain and purser could testify. The trial lasted one day. Then jury foreman L.C. Ables and his peers took the case under advisement.

An hour later they came back and awarded Hogan $2,250. Ables explained that the decision was unanimous that Hogan was discriminated against, but there was disagreement about how much he should get. The story said townspeople helped the troupe celebrate that night.

An article about Hogan that ran in the paper before the trial described his difficult career as an actor and songwriter, such as the number of songs that had been stolen from him. Now a success, he had bought a home for his parents.

Later issues show that the group played to a standing-room-only crowd after the trial. Theater owner Joel C. Cohen backed other members of the show in lawsuits against the steamship company.

When the show finally closed its Honolulu run, fans covered the players with lei. Cohen presented Hogan with a gold watch, his monogram inscribed on one side, the Hawaiian coat of arms in raised enamel on the other.

Hogan "spoke feelingly of his reception by Honoluluites and promised to return in the near future." He said he intended to make his home in Honolulu.

The reaction of the people here to the plight of the entertainers was very similar to what it might be today. It was quite a bit different from behavior toward black people described in some other parts of the country at that time.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.