Peonage laws State v. Norman – North Carolina, 1892 (14 S.E. 968); State v. Griffin – North Carolina, 1911 (70 S.E. 292)
“[It is] an instrument of compulsion peculiarly effective against the poor and the ignorant, its most likely victims. There is no more important concern than to safeguard the freedom of labor, upon which alone can enduring prosperity be based. The
provisions designed to secure it would soon become a barren form if it
were possible to establish a statutory presumption of this sort and to
hold over the heads of laborers the threat of punishment for crime,
under the name of fraud, but merely upon evidence of failure to work out
their debts.” – Justice George Brown, in Griffin
Residential segregation laws State v. Gurry – Maryland, 1913 (88 A. 546); State v. Darnell –North Carolina, 1914 (81 S.E. 338); Hopkins v. City of Richmond – Virginia, 1915 (86 S.E. 139)
“[I]f … segregation of the races … will have a tendency, not only to avoid disorder and violence, but to make a better feeling between the races, everyone having the interests of the colored people as well as of the white people at heart ought to encourage rather than oppose it. … [But] we have not hitherto known of a case which approached the exercise of such power as is contended for under this ordinance – to prohibit one who was the owner of a dwelling when the ordinance was passed from moving into it, simply because he is of a different color from other persons using that block as residences or places of abode, although he might keep his premises in better sanitary condition and in every way more attractive than the others.” - Justice Albert Constable, in Gurry | ![]() "Watching the stage go by," Snickers Gap, Virginia, 1900 - courtesy Library of Congress
“[T]he result of this [residential segregation] policy might well be a large exodus and naturally of the most enterprising and thrifty element of the colored race, leaving the unthrifty and less desirable element in this state on the taxpayers.” – Justice Walter Clark, in Darnell “The central idea of the ordinance … is to prevent too close association of the races, which association results, or tends to result, in breaches of peace, immorality, and danger to the health. … The attainment of the objects in view is one much to be desired.” – Virginia supreme court, in Hopkins |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 3. OLD SOUTH LEGAL HISTORY > 3.5 Old South: Jim Crow and Southern Progressivism (1877-1920) > 3.5.1 Old South (1877-1920): The Rise of Jim Crow >