IDKMYDE: "NO TRESPASSING" Signs Are Racist AF

On this episode of #IDKMYDE, Ever seen a 'no trespassing' sign and wondered about its origins? Turns out, it's rooted in a dark chapter post-Civil War. From outrageous fines to auctions reminiscent of the enslaved period, discover the history behind these signs. So, the next time you spot a 'no trespassing' sign, you'll know it's more than just a warning – it's a symbol of a painful past. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
I have a question, have you ever seen a no
trespassing sign? Did you know they were rooted in slavery?
Because I didn't.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I didn't know. Maybe you didn't. I didn't know. I
didn't know.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Maybe you didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Maybe you didn't.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I didn't know. All right, so let's talk into a
tom machine.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
We're going to go all the way to the end
of the Civil War. Okay, black people are free technically,
but we still can't vote. So the white people of
the time vote a bunch of white people in office,
and the first laws they make are no trespassing laws.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
And why did they make these laws?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well, it was an effort for white land owners to
disadvantage black workers. See if you go back to season one,
if I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. Right here
on the Black Effect Podcast network, we talked about down
in Charleston, South Carolina, where I was educated, on different plantations,
and the reality is the white landowners, they just owned

(01:03):
the land, but they didn't know how to cultivate anything
on the land.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Black folk, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
We could survive maybe, I mean growing our own fruits
and vegetables, catching rabbits and catching fish. Bo. Wait, if
you don't have any land, Now you're trespassing. And what's
the penalty for trespassing. Well, usually it was astronomical finds
that poor black people just couldn't afford. So what did
the white lawmakers of the time implement, you know what,

(01:30):
new laws and new rules that said that white people
could sell you off to other white people for the
amount of months that it would take for you to
pay off the fine. So there would be auctions at
the courthouse that were very, very identical to the auctions
that were taking place ten to fifteen years earlier Indian
slave periods. But now instead of enslaved individuals being auctioned off,

(01:53):
they were criminals, you know, for trespassing. Simply put, no
trespassing signs were designed to confine negroes. It was a
very easy way for white folks to continue the traditions
of those enslaved periods. But now under the guise of
new laws, they even had black codes where you could
be arrested for not having a job, even if you

(02:15):
didn't need a job. If a black person worked for
a white person, he still had to call him master.
They would have to get written permission in order to
leave these black codeses in Mississippi, South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
That Jim Crow South.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
So yes, once upon a time in America people were
free to roam around as they pleased.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
And then came the Civil War in eighteen sixty five.
And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. No,