Reply #32: The Mann Act (1910)

[Brewman_Jax]

http://www.pbs.org/unforgivableblackness/knockout /
http://law.jrank.org/pages/8420/Mann-Act.html

The Mann Act (1910) came about during the "white slavery" hysteria of the turn of the 20th Century. During that time, the Industrial Revolution was bringing rapid changes to US society, along with urbanization, immigration, the changing role of women, and evolving social mores. Moral purists decried declining morals (note: as much as things change, they stay the same. ) as young women left home for the city and away from the "time-honored" and family-centered traditions of courtship and marriage. 19th Century muckraking journalist George Kibbe Turner called prostitution "white slavery" and coined the term. Unfettered immigration provided an endless supply of both foreign prostitutes and foreign men who lured American girls into immorality. Muckraking journalists fueled the hysteria with sensationalized stories of innocent girls kidnapped off the streets by foreigners, drugged, smuggled across the country, and forced to work in brothels.

Although no evidence was ever found for "white slavery" rings, it didn't stop Congress from doing something about it. Representative James R. Mann of Illinois, head of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, drafted the Mann Act of 1910 which made it a crime to transport women across state lines "for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." The first application of this law was against boxer Jack Johnson (convicted). Other noted individuals prosecuted under the Mann Act were Chuck Berry (musician, convicted), Charlie Chaplin (actor, charges dropped), Rex Ingram (black actor, convicted), William Thomas (sociologist, acquitted), Frank Lloyd Wright (architect, charges dropped), and Charles Manson (cult leader, charges dropped). Note that only the black men actually went to prison, although the white men had their professional reputations tainted (except Manson, of course). In the case of Thomas, he was targeted by the FBI for his political views. There is no record of any arrest related to the Mann Act with a black woman victm.

This is an excellent illustration of the power of the racial caste system. Congress makes a law that stops a non-existent problem that scares white people (the upper caste), while race riots and lynchings against black people, in addition to land and consumer fraud, are occurring with alarming regularity. All of those crimes did ACTUALLY happen and were (and still are) ACTUALLY illegal, and the halls of government at ALL levels are silent. Black people can't make their pain and fear into government regulations, corporate policies, and front page news.