Mann Act

The United States White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910 prohibited so-called white slavery. It also banned the interstate transport of females for immoral purposes. Its primary stated intent was to address prostitution and immorality. The act is better known as the Mann Act, after James Robert Mann, an American lawmaker.

Related Topics:
1910 - White slavery - James Robert Mann

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The law has come under criticism from civil libertarians who feel the law is an undue federal infringement and violates the states? discretion in setting their own age of consent laws. Some have also charged that enforcement of the law has been racially biased, since many of the more notable people prosecuted have been successful African Americans.

Related Topics:
Civil libertarian - Age of consent - African American

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The first person prosecuted under the act was heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, who encouraged a woman to leave a brothel and travel with him to another state. Though he later married the girl, and took her away from a brothel, he was nevertheless prosecuted and sentenced to a year in prison.

Related Topics:
Heavyweight - Boxing - Jack Johnson

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Pioneering sociologist William I. Thomas's academic career at the University of Chicago was irreversibly damaged after he was arrested under the act when caught in the company of one Mrs Granger, the wife of an army officer with the American forces in France, although he was later acquitted in court.

Related Topics:
Sociologist - William I. Thomas - University of Chicago

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