A historical marker will soon commemorate the precedent-setting 1914 North Carolina Supreme Court decision that overturned a Winston-Salem ordinance aimed at keeping the city’s neighborhoods segregated.

The ruling also invalidated a similar law in Greensboro.

Winston-Salem City Council last week approved a request from the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission to place a sign near where William Darnell, a Black tobacco worker, became a criminal for moving into a house he owned on a block occupied primarily by white residents.

An ordinance passed unanimously by the Winston Board of Alderman in 1912 — a year before Winston and Salem merged to become one city — made it illegal for Blacks and whites to move into blocks where they would be in the minority racially.

Mooresville

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