LAW

Are Racist Vagrancy Laws Coming Back? Supreme Court Weighs In

A critique of efforts to criminalize homelessness

AI-generated portrait of a concerned Black man walking alone | created by author using CANVA

After chattel slavery, America swiftly enacted a series of anti-vagrancy laws. This legislation, some of the first black codes, sabotaged the hard-fought Black freedom. For instance, Virginia passed the 1866 Anti-Vagrancy Act, criminalizing…