Vagrancy Charges Used to Clear Neighborhood
Two women are jailed and ordered out of town following complaints from the garrison neighborhood.
Because they could not show that they had any visible means of support, May Rodgers and Fanny Gregg pleaded guilty to a charge of vagrancy in Justice Huffman's court today. The women had been conducting a resort near the garrison where colored soldiers congregated, which residents claimed was a disturbance at all hours of the night. May Rodgers was sentenced to 30 days in jail, while Fanny Gregg was given the choice to leave the city immediately or serve 60 days in jail.
“The women have been conducting a resort near the garrison where colored soldiers could congregate and have been disturbing the neighborhood at all hours of the night.”
The use of 'vagrancy' laws to displace people deemed undesirable by neighbors reflects a common tactic in early 20th-century civic control. Similar tensions regarding housing, public nuisance, and the policing of marginalized populations continue to influence Walla Walla’s municipal policy debates today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.