The Inkwell, Santa Monica, California (1905-1964)

The Inkwell was a popular beach for African Americans in Southern California through the middle decades of the Twentieth Century.  The beach at Bay Street fanning out a block to the north and south was derogatorily called “The Inkwell” by nearby Anglos in reference to … Read MoreThe Inkwell, Santa Monica, California (1905-1964)

Guinn v. United States (1915)

Guinn v. United States (1915) held the “grandfather clause” enacted by the Oklahoma State Legislature invalid because it violated the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment, the last of three post-Civil War Amendments ratified to end slavery, endowed the rights of … Read MoreGuinn v. United States (1915)

Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1922)

The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (hereinafter “Dyer Bill”) refers to a 1922 Congressional effort to pass federal legislation to address and otherwise provide federal prosecution of nationwide lynchings, particularly those in the southern states.  The bill was first introduced by Missouri Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer in … Read MoreDyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1922)

(1896) The Plessy v. Ferguson Decision

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was the seminal post-Reconstruction Supreme Court decision that judicially validated state sponsored segregation in public facilities by its creation and endorsement of the “separate but equal” doctrine as satisfying the Constitutional requirements provided in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States … Read More(1896) The Plessy v. Ferguson Decision

The California Fair Housing Act [The Rumford Act] (1963-1968)

The California Fair Housing Act of 1963, better known as the Rumford Act (AB 1240) because of its sponsor, Assemblyman William Byron Rumford, was one of the most significant and sweeping laws protecting the rights of blacks and other people of color to purchase housing … Read MoreThe California Fair Housing Act [The Rumford Act] (1963-1968)

The Black Laws of Oregon, 1844-1857

Beginning with the Exclusion Law of 1844 enacted by the provisional government of the region, Oregon passed a series of measures designed to ban African American settlement in the territory.  Historian Elizabeth McLagan describes those laws in the article below. Oregon passed exclusion laws against … Read MoreThe Black Laws of Oregon, 1844-1857