Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval

In a club, 17-year-old Harriet Powell is arrested on charges of prostitution and vagrancy for her sexual encounters with Charlie Hudson in a rented room. There is much talk of freedom, especially as Black men serve in World War I. However, this talk does not include women like Harriet practicing their own kind of freedom. Harriet spends her time mostly at work, at the dance hall, or involved with a lover.

Reformers and journalists are alarmed at the growing number of Black people in New York City. There is panic over the possible “sexual dangers” and conspiracies, like Chinese opium dens. Black women’s sexual acts or deviance—such as having children out of wedlock or transgressing gender norms—are treated as indicative of future criminality. The Wayward Minors Act means that many of these young Black women are arrested and sent to a reformatory. Many of these minors face worse punishment than they would experience if convicted of actual crimes as adults. Early 20th-century law targets these young women, predicts that they will engage in criminal behavior, and aims to control them.