Panel calls for Virginia to purge dozens of old racist laws
Source: Associated Press
Sarah Rankin, Associated Press
Updated 6:11 pm CST, Thursday, December 5, 2019
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The laws are still on the books in Virginia: Blacks and whites must sit in separate rail cars. They cannot use the same playgrounds, schools or mental hospitals. They can’t marry each other either.
The measures have not been enforced for decades, but they remain in the state’s official legal record. A state commission on Thursday recommended that dozens of such discriminatory statutes finally be repealed, in some cases more than a century after they were adopted.
Although “some of these acts were rendered null and void by an amended Virginia Constitution, by landmark civil rights cases or legislation, it’s clear that they are vestiges of Virginia’s segregationist past that still sit on the books. ... We should not afford them the distinction of that official status," said Chief Deputy Attorney General Cynthia Hudson, who led the panel of attorneys, judges, scholars and community leaders assigned to comb through the laws.
The commission, which issued an interim report Thursday and will continue its work, said the laws should be repealed in the legislative session that begins in January. Gov. Ralph Northam pledged to work with fellow Democrats who will control the General Assembly to do so.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Virginia-panel-says-racist-laws-should-be-purged-14884129.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
