Democrats also proposed a bill to punish “fornication and adultery between the negros and whites,” punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years. The proposal was mocked mercilessly by Republicans. A white legislator from western North Carolina pointed out a fatal flaw: if the law passed, he said, almost every man in the state house would have to plead guilty. A white Republican judge joked that “nine times out of ten, if you will chase down the fellows who are trying to stir up race prejudice, you will find that the most vigorous one is sleeping with a negro woman.”
