An historical look back at Ohio’s 'Black Laws'

4WardEverUK • 6 April 2024

source: Equal Justice Initiative

published: 1 April 2024

Image Credit: Duda/Pexels


Ohio had barely entered statehood in 1803 when thousands of Black Americans began arriving there from the South. Many were escaping to this “free” state from enslavers in Virginia and Kentucky, just across the Ohio River.


Some people even swam across the mile-wide river, or walked across its ice in winter, believing that freedom and opportunity awaited them on the other side. Abolitionism had many supporters in Ohio. Cincinnati, along the river, had a growing Black community. Ohio’s Black population quintupled between 1800 and 1810, from a little over 300 people to nearly 1,900.

But most of the white men who wrote the state’s 1802 constitution and its earliest laws came from Virginia and other “slave” states. Many had been enslavers before moving to the Ohio Territory, where slavery was outlawed. The document they drafted did not change that, but it took away a right Black men had had in the Ohio Territory before statehood—the right to vote. And that was only the beginning.

To stop Black people from moving to the state, the all-white state legislature approved “An Act to Regulate Black and Mulatto Persons” in 1804, and amended it three years later, stripping Black residents of their rights in the courts. Starting April 1, 1807, Black people in Ohio were barred from testifying in any case, civil or criminal, in which one of the parties was white. Ohio’s “Black Laws,” as the measures became known, gave white supremacy priority over justice. 


A system of targeted laws

Ohio’s discriminatory laws restricted all aspects of daily life for Black residents in the state.


Black residents had to register with the county clerk within two years of arriving in Ohio, pay a fee of 12 1/2 cents, and obtain a court order attesting to their being free. They had to be able to produce this proof of freedom at any time.


Read full article >

share this article on social media

Black Lives Matter protest
by 4WardEverUK 31 March 2025
From the US to the Democratic Republic of Congo, women and girls’ rights have suffered serious setbacks. Despite the challenges, there also have been improvements and victories.
Hillsborough disaster campaigners
by 4WardEverUK 29 March 2025
On the anniversary of the 1989 disaster [2024] we remembered those who died, through their families’ personal statements about them, as reported by David Conn from the BBC.
Football stadium
by 4WardEverUK 28 March 2025
The promised new Hillsborough Law appears to be in chaos after a meeting between PM Sir Keir Starmer and the families of those unlawfully killed in the 1989 disaster was cancelled.
Brian Haw in attendance @ UFFC rally
by 4WardEverUK 27 March 2025
A statue of peace campaigner Brian Haw has been unveiled in London. Mr Haw camped out in Parliament Square for nearly 10 years to protest against UK and US foreign policy.
Dark prison cell
by 4WardEverUK 26 March 2025
Four more prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences have taken their own lives, taking the total to 94. Another 37 released IPPs took their own lives up to April 2024.
The People’s Tribunal banner
by 4WardEverUK 15 March 2025
With more than 2000 deaths at the hands of the police over the past 50 years there have only been four successful prosecutions that led to officers being convicted and going to prison.
More Articles
Share by: