West Virginia may purge Jim Crow laws

Delegates Thursday introduced a bill to remove from state law the few remaining passages of so-called Jim Crow laws that were aimed at separating blacks and whites. Delegate Sharon Spencer, 57, who is white, co-sponsored the measure with the Legislature's only two black members, Democrat delegates Charlene Marshall and Cliff Moore - whose father, Ernest Moore, began the process of purging the law books of racist language during his 12 terms in the House. "I have a feeling that it's going to pass without any trouble at all," the younger Moore said. "They know this is the right thing to do." The bill targets a section of the law governing county school boards that speaks of the ratio of "Negro" assistant superintendents to black teachers. It also targets a reference to the defunct "Negro board of education" in a section addressing the historically black Bluefield State College. Spencer said a Yale professor found the long-forgotten language during a research project, and informed state lawmakers. [more]