Struggle & Resistance Achievement & Excellence

January 1908

Alonzo Bailey, a Black Alabama farm laborer, was arrested for breach of contract after accepting a $15 advance and leaving before his year of labor was complete. Under Alabama law, leaving work after taking an advance was presumptive evidence of intent to defraud — a crime. The NAACP and Department of Justice challenged the statute. In Bailey v. Alabama (1911), the Supreme Court struck down the law as a violation of the 13th Amendment's prohibition on involuntary servitude. The case struck at the legal infrastructure of peonage that trapped hundreds of thousands of Black workers.

Events

1908
Alonzo Bailey's Case Challenges Alabama Peonage Law Criminalizing Quitting Work
Alonzo Bailey, a Black Alabama farm laborer, was arrested for breach of contract after accepting a $15 advance and leaving before his year of labor was complete. Under Alabama law, leaving work after taking an advance was presumptive evidence of intent to defraud — a crime. The NAACP and Department of Justice challenged the statute. In Bailey v. Alabama (1911), the Supreme Court struck down the law as a violation of the 13th Amendment's prohibition on involuntary servitude. The case struck at the legal infrastructure of peonage that trapped hundreds of thousands of Black workers.
1908
Alonzo Bailey's Case Challenges Alabama Peonage Law Criminalizing Quitting Work
Alonzo Bailey, a Black Alabama farm laborer, was arrested for breach of contract after accepting a $15 advance and leaving before his year of labor was complete. Under Alabama law, this was presumptive fraud. The NAACP challenged the statute. In Bailey v. Alabama (1911), the Supreme Court struck down the law as a violation of the 13th Amendment's prohibition on involuntary servitude, striking at the legal infrastructure of peonage.