Attorney general reverses Jim Crow, pro-segregation opinions

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Outgoing Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has reversed more than 50 legal opinions issued by predecessors during the Jim Crow and Massive Resistance eras that justified segregation, interracial marriage bans and other racist laws. As a practical matter, the old legal opinions had been rendered moot by civil rights laws and Supreme Court cases outlawing discrimination. But supporters of Herring’s action said it was still important to formally renounce those opinions. At a news conference Thursday, Herring called the project of reviewing more than 100 years of legal opinions a massive undertaking but a necessary one.