Breaking 'the Backbone of Segregation'

Back in 1915, a man named William Warley put in a bid on a property in Louisville, Kentucky. The owner, Charles Buchanan, accepted the bid. But the sale wasn’t squarely legal. Warley, the buyer, was black. Buchanan was white. Buchanan’s property was located in a white neighborhood, and a Louisville ordinance forbid black residents from moving into predominantly white areas (and vice-versa). Warley acknowledged the sale’s dubious legality with a provision he put in the contract:

This way, Warley wouldn’t be held responsible if the city determined that he could not live there. When the sale faltered on predictable grounds, Buchanan, the white owner, took action—against Warley. The prospective buyer argued that he couldn’t complete the sale because the City of Louisville wouldn’t let him. Buchanan argued that the ordinance enforcing racial segregation in Louisville (and keeping him from getting his money) was unconstitutional.