# What was not legal (or illegal as the whippersnappers call it) 'back in the day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917 "2005-06-04T19:32:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/21 "2005-06-05T03:49:09Z")
The sale of alchohol was once illegal. Until recently in Missouri (and I’m sure many other states), certain methods of sexual congress were illegal, even between married couples. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/22 "2005-06-05T04:15:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Women weren’t allowed to vote. According to the Alabama state constitution women still aren’t allowed to vote! Naturally the section is supperseeded by the 19th amendmant to the US constitution, but it’s still on the books. Witchcraft was illegal in Massachusetts until the early 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/23 "2005-06-05T04:47:23Z")
In Texas at least, there was a poll tax that had to be paid before one would be allowed to vote. It was designed entirely to prevent Blacks voting. I seem to remember that there were also literacy tests imposed; people who couldn’t read were not allowed to vote. I don’t know if it was a law or just policy that forced Blacks to ride in the back of the bus and to give up their seats if a white person demanded it. I believe it was law that public facilities had to provide separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks. Bus and train stations had to provide separate waiting rooms, too. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/24 "2005-06-05T05:06:24Z")
> [@E = mc²](#): > > Bars were closed on (presidential) election days, but no more, I think. That’s what I like, someone that comes out and makes a statement and is willing to stand behind it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/25 "2005-06-05T05:10:12Z")
Wisconsin finally repealed laws restricting the sale of colored margarine in 1967. Was is not illegal at one time for women to work more than 40 hours per week [outside the home, at least]? IIRC the female office manager at the grocery store I worked at back in 1971 had to work off the clock , or somehow make it up the following week rather than punch the time clock for more 40 hours. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/26 "2005-06-05T06:59:35Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > I believe homosexuality between consenting adults in many areas. In Canada, the law against homosexual acts was repealed in 1969 – a few months before Stonewall. > [@](#): > > While many such laws are still on the books, the courts have refused to enforce them. To be precise, in some US states they remain on the books but they have been _annulled_ by the courts – either state or federal (_Lawrence v. Texas_ in the latter case). ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/27 "2005-06-05T07:01:08Z")
> [@5 time champ](#): > > Wisconsin finally repealed laws restricting the sale of colored margarine in 1967. Quebec still hasn’t. And let me tell you, it’s _weird_ to go to Ontario and see their Day-Glo margarine. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/28 "2005-06-05T13:22:04Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Spousal rape is legal now? :smack: :smack: :smack: Make that-spousal rape is an example of something that was legal THEN, illegal NOW. The opposite of what the OP asked for. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/29 "2005-06-05T15:05:31Z")
Another oppositte worth noting is that most guns were perfectly legal. In the 1920’s, nobody batted an eye if you wanted to buy an automatic weapon. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/30 "2005-06-05T17:52:54Z")
It’s not just homosexual acts that were illegal. I remember back in the 60s the vice squad would regularly raid gay bars. If you were caught just touching another guy in any way, or dancing (which didn’t even involve touching), you ran the risk of getting arrested and/or beaten up and/or getting your name and address in the paper. And lesbians always ran the risk of getting roughed up (or raped) by the cops. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/31 "2005-06-05T18:05:03Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > In the 1920’s, nobody batted an eye if you wanted to buy an automatic weapon. My ex-father-in-law once owned a Thompson submachine gun. The original owner got it through the mail from either a catalog or a back-cover advertisement. Also, IIRC a kind of poll tax used to be that you had to own property in oder to vote. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/32 "2005-06-05T18:23:58Z")
> [@](#): > > I seem to remember that there were also literacy tests imposed; people who couldn’t read were not allowed to vote. This was the origin of the “grandfather clause” (often shortened to “grandfathered”). The laws (multiple states had them) declared that a person could not vote if they could not read, but that the rule was waived if they had a grandfather who could vote (not read). So all the whites whose grandfathers could vote prior to the Civil War were thus allowed to vote despite their illiteracy while the blacks (whose grandfathers were never permitted to vote) were bound by the literacy laws. (Side note: in addition, the literacy test was administered at the whim of the local voting clerk, so a black man who managed to get an education (and had the temerity to ignore the Klan) and tried to vote might be asked to read a page of Chinese or to discuss a philosophical treatise to the approval of the clerk (who might have less undersanding of the text than the black man).) ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/33 "2005-06-05T18:56:42Z")
> [@5 time champ](#): > > Wisconsin finally repealed laws restricting the sale of colored margarine in 1967. > … Ahhh. So all the bad things that have happened since 1967 were caused by THAT. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/34 "2005-06-05T19:27:29Z")
> [@E = mc²](#): > > Bars were closed on (presidential) election days, but no more, I think. They were last year in French Lick, IN. Dammit. We Illinoisians didn’t know, and made a special trip into town for beer, only to find out it was (local) election day. Not only no bars, but alcohol in the grocery stores and liquor stores - no sales at all. We were told it was to prevent a candidate buying a round for the whole bar and then sending them to the polling place. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/35 "2005-06-05T19:47:33Z")
In Queensland, fortune telling was only made legal in 1989. The laws against\* male\* homosexuality were only repealed at that time, too. Female homosexuality had never been made legal because, oddly, it was never illegal. mm ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/36 "2005-06-05T23:45:14Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > In Queensland, fortune telling was only made legal in 1989. The laws against\* male\* homosexuality were only repealed at that time, too. Female homosexuality had never been made legal because, oddly, it was never illegal. Interesting—did that have to do with the British “Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885” (which, if the story I’ve heard is true, banned Homosexuality, but Queen Victoria had all references to Lesbianism removed before she assented to it)? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/37 "2005-06-05T23:56:29Z")
adultery and coed cohabitation used to be illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/38 "2005-06-06T00:58:00Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Interesting—did that have to do with the British “Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885” (which, if the story I’ve heard is true, banned Homosexuality, but Queen Victoria had all references to Lesbianism removed before she assented to it)? That story is probably not true. [Lesbian/Gay Historical Walk of Wellington](http://qrd.org.nz/history/devotion.html) > [@](#): > > The famous story that she denied the possibility of lesbianism when the Labouchere Amendment, criminalising all same-sex activity, was introduced in 1885 - resulting in lesbianism’s omission from the Act - is probably false. More likely is that the gentlemen attending her struck it out rather than even mention it, or feared (as the House of Lords did nearly 40 years later when an attempt was made to add it to the statute) that criminalising it would alert women to its possibility. The story was useful, however, when her statue was made the focus of a demonstration in 1977 promoting lesbian visibility on International Women’s Day. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/39 "2005-06-06T01:33:19Z")
Here is a [list](http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/html/acts.html) of all of the Federal laws that were affected by Supreme Court opinions. And here is a [list](http://frwebgate4.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=02221119484+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve) of the state statutes (and municipal ordinances) held unconstitutional. Neither list is current, but both run from 1789 to the early 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917/40 "2005-06-06T01:35:48Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > In Queensland, fortune telling was only made legal in 1989. The laws against\* male\* homosexuality were only repealed at that time, too. Female homosexuality had never been made legal because, oddly, it was never illegal. > > mm I was told that about Russia-Stalin made male homosexuality illegal, but let lesbianism slide because he was convinced to by a woman (a lesbian) he had his eye on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-not-legal-or-illegal-as-the-whippersnappers-call-it-back-in-the-day/306917.md?page=3)