“All persons or corporations, operating street railroads in the city of Mobile or within its police jurisdiction shall provide seats for the white people and Negroes when there are white people and Negroes on the same car by requiring the conductor or other employe in charge of the car or cars to assign to passengers to seats in all the cars, or when the car is divided into two compartments in each compartment, in such manner as to separate the white people from the Negroes, by seating the white people in the front seats and the Negroes in the rear as they enter the car, but in the event such order of seating might cause inconvenience to those who are already properly seated, the conductor or other employee, in charge of the car, may use his discretion in seating passengers, but in such manner that no white person and Negro must be placed, or seated, in the same section, or compartment arranged for two passengers: Provided, That Negro nurses having in charge white children, or sick or infirm white persons, may be assigned to seats among the white people.”[109:3] The conductor is also given the authority of police officer to enforce the law. The form of segregation which is receiving most attention in the South at present, however, is the effort of various cities,—great and small,—to provide by law, for (as nearly as possible) distinct residential sections for the two races. This question was first agitated in Baltimore in 1809. A segregation law was passed but it was soon pronounced invalid by the courts. In 1911, another such ordinance was put in force but it, too, was declared void, first by the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and later by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The latter Court, however, maintained that the city has the right to pass a segregation law. I quote the following words of the court: “This Court is of the opinion that the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may, in the exercise of its police power, validly pass an ordinance for the segregation of the white and colored races without conflicting with the Constitution of the United States or of the State of Maryland.”[110:4] Very soon after this, another ordinance was passed. It has now been in operation about four years (1917). However, the Maryland Court of Appeals is holding a case _sub curia_, awaiting a decision of the United States Supreme Court in a case testing the validity of the segregation law of Louisville.[110:4a] In 1912 the Virginia Legislature enacted a law for the purpose, it seems, of encouraging the cities and towns of that State to segregate the whites and the Negroes. Richmond, however, had already passed a segregation ordinance in 1911. It is as follows: