Virginia Digs In: Buses Davis v. Commonwealth – Virginia, 1944 (30 S.E.2d 700); New v. Atlantic Greyhound Corp. – Virginia, 1947 (43 S.E.2d 872); Naim v. Naim – Virginia, 1955 (87 S.E. 2d 749, 90 S.E.2d 849); Loving v. Commonwealth – Virginia, 1966 (147 S.E.2d 78), reversed, 388 U.S. 1 (1968)
“[The defendant] placed her own construction upon such provisions, disregarded the instructions of the person in authority and declared her intention to remain where she was regardless of all consequences … [The majority says that] those in charge of such transportation must require a white passenger to move his seat before a Negro passenger is approached or asked to move to some other space in the coach or bus. This is not ‘substantial equality of treatment.” – Justice Henry Holt (dissenting), in Davis “The settled public policy of the State [is] to separate white and colored passengers, in promotion of the comfort of the traveling public, and in the ‘preservation of the public peace and good order.’” – Justice Claude Spratley, in Atlantic Greyhound Virginia Digs In: Miscegenation
| ![]() Greyhound bus trip, 1940s - courtesy Library of Congress
“It is necessary to the validity of segregation statutes that there be no discrimination either in their terms or in their enforcement. There must be ‘substantial equality of treatment’ as well as substantial equality of facilities furnished. … In effect, [the driver] undertook to enforce the statute against … a colored person, without at the same time enforcing it against a white person. And this he had no right to do.” – Justice John Eggleston, in Davis Mildred and Richard Loving “We
are unable to read [in] the Fourteenth Amendment … [anything] which
denies the power of the State to regulate the marriage relation so that
it shall not have a mongrel breed of citizens. We find
there no requirement that the State shall not legislature to prevent the
obliteration of racial pride, but must permit the corruption of blood
even though it weaken or destroy the quality of its citizenship.” – Justice Archibald Buchanan, in Naim
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EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 3. OLD SOUTH LEGAL HISTORY > 3.6. Old South: Depression, War and the Demise of Jim Crow (1920-1965) > 3.6.1 Old South (1920-1965): The Slow Death of Jim Crow > 3.6.2 Old South (1920-1965): Cracks in the Color Line >