The residential segregation ordinances varied considerably from city to city in Virginia. Richmond, for example, had a strict block by block method; Norfolk had a more complicated one involving determining the majority in a given block. Mr. Dixon is certainly correct in pointing out the importance of the 1912 state statute--most of the localities adopted their plans around that time, 1912-1914. I first was acquainted with the existence of these laws when Oliver Hill educated me, in the early 1970s, on the history of Virginia race relations in the 20th century. I found information about them in an early 1960s article by Charles Wynes and in Jack Kirby's book, _Darkness at the Dawning_. Kirby cites a good article by Roger Rice in the 1968 Journal of Southern History, though I think, he doesn't say, that he drew most of his Virginia information from his research for the Governor Davis biography. More recently, the Silver book, already mentioned, on Richmond and Earl Lewis's book on the Norfolk black community, _In Their Interests_ discusses the Richmond and Norfolk experiences. J. Douglas Smith in _Managing White Supremacy_ also discusses them on a state-wide basis. Michael Klarman in _From Jim Crow to Civil Rights_ has a lengthy legal discussion of the Buchanan v. Warley case, with excellent citations of additional works on residential segregation. And yes, the effects of the laws far outlasted the 1917 ruling. Norfolk continued to enforce its law, contending it differed from the Buchanan case, for almost a decade. By the 1920s, of course, restrictive covenants, the practices of lenders and realtors, and white community mores (backed, at times, by intimidation, cross-burnings, etc.) served the purpose of enforcing segregation in all new developments. Cities that grew up in the first half of the 20th century, like Newport News, had an almost complete apartheid--a separate city, one white, one black, one on Washington Ave., one on Jefferson Ave., separated by twenty tracks of the C&O Railroad. Virginia' s still pretty segregated residentially, though its not all coming from the white side now. The past, as William Faulkner famously said, isn't gone, it's isn't even past. All Best, Jim Hershman To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html