Traveling with the Mann Act

People connected with Eliot Spitzer's prostitution ring have been some of the most recent to be investigated under the Mann Act. In the beginning of the first of these readings, the narrator is worried about giving the girl a lift because of something called the Mann Act, and she later comments on the unwillingness of a lot of people to drive her across state lines for the same reason. I had never heard of the Mann Act, but from the context I knew it had to do with traveling across state lines in the 1930s and was something that people traveling around the country encountered and thought about, so I decided to do a little research to better understand what it is.

The Mann Act, which was named for the Illinois Congressman who wrote it James Robert Mann, was signed into law in 1910 by William Taft. Its official name was the White Slave Trade Act and made it a federal crime “to transport women across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” While the intended purpose of the law was to prevent the movement of women around the country to rape them or force them into prostitution, the ambiguity of the word “debauchery” resulted in men being prosecuted for other types of consensual sex. So once the courts ruled in cases that dealt with men taking women across state borders for reasons that could be considered “immoral,” they didn’t have to be kidnapping the women or forcing them into prostitution in order to be convicted of a crime. This allowed authorities to use the law as a king of harassment or blackmail against people who they didn’t like. William I. Thomas, an American sociologist famous for his extremely leftist political attitude, was arrested under the Mann Act in what many thought to be a set up by the FBI.

While there were a surprising number of famous people connected with this crime (Charlie Chaplin and Frank Lloyd Wright), many saw its use as an example of white fear of black people. With the Industrial Revolution changing the shape of society, many people concerned for their safety. Industrialization led to immigration and urbanization, and women started moving into these cities that were filled with foreigners and African-Americans by themselves. Without the “protection” that traditional family structures afforded women, white people began to fear that their women would not be able to keep themselves out of prostitution or other immoral situations. Famous black men like the boxer Jack Johnson and actor Rex Ingram (who was also the first black man to graduate from Northwestern) were arrested and spent time in jail because they crossed state lines with white women.

After reading these articles, I don’t think it’s very surprising that people like the characters in this story were worried about picking up girls and giving them rides. It seems to have really affected the way that men traveled, and the things that they thought about while driving around, and the opportunities that women had to get from one place to another.