Black History Month is an opportunity to be honest about who has shaped the movements we talk about today. In the fight for sex worker rights in the United States, Black people have played a central and often under-recognized role.
Black sex workers have organized on the ground, built national networks, and pushed the broader movement to address racism within criminal legal systems. Leaders like Gloria Lockett have helped shape the modern decriminalization movement, advocating not only for the rights of sex workers but for a broader understanding of how criminalization harms Black communities. Her leadership within national organizing spaces has made clear that you cannot separate sex worker justice from racial justice.
We also owe a great deal to Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman, sex worker, and key figure in the early LGBTQ+ liberation movement. Johnson co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) to support unhoused trans youth and understood firsthand how policing, poverty, and stigma intersect. Her activism reflected a reality that still holds true: laws regulating sex work are enforced most aggressively against those already marginalized, especially Black and trans people.
The Racial Roots of Prostitution Laws
Prostitution laws in the United States were shaped by racial panic and a desire to maintain social hierarchies. The Mann Act, passed in 1910, was promoted as a measure to combat “white slavery.” In practice, it was frequently used to police interracial relationships and target Black men. Its vague prohibition on transporting women across state lines for “immoral purposes” gave authorities wide discretion, and that discretion was often exercised along racial lines.
These laws developed alongside Jim Crow segregation and other systems designed to restrict Black autonomy. Criminal statutes related to morality, mobility, and public order were regularly used to surveil and punish Black communities. Prostitution enforcement became one more tool for controlling who could move freely, form relationships, and exist in public space without suspicion.
These racial disparities did not disappear with time. Today, Black people are still disproportionately arrested and charged with prostitution-related offenses, despite no evidence that they engage in sex work at higher rates than white people. Criminalization gives police broad discretion, and in a society marked by structural racism, that discretion results in predictable disparities.
New York’s now-repealed “Walking While Trans” law is one recent example. The loitering statute allowed police to arrest someone they believed was loitering for the purpose of prostitution based on subjective indicators like clothing or location. In practice, it overwhelmingly targeted Black and Brown trans women.
Although the law was repealed in 2021, similar loitering and public order statutes across the country continue to be enforced in ways that disproportionately impact Black communities. At the same time, federal anti-trafficking laws like SESTA-FOSTA have restricted online advertising platforms, pushing many workers out of digital spaces and into more visible street-based economies. When enforcement shifts back to the street, it does so in neighborhoods already subject to high levels of police surveillance, reinforcing existing racial disparities in prostitution arrests.
Why This History Matters
The history of prostitution law in the United States is inseparable from the history of racial control. From the Mann Act to modern loitering statutes, these laws have consistently been used to regulate Black bodies and reinforce racial hierarchy.
Honoring Black leadership in the sex worker rights movement means acknowledging both contributions and context. Black sex workers have organized for safety, dignity, and decriminalization while facing disproportionate arrest, prosecution, and stigma. Any serious conversation about criminalization and reform has to grapple with that reality.
If we are committed to racial justice, we have to examine how prostitution laws have functioned in practice, not just how they are described on paper. Black history includes the history of resistance to these laws — and the ongoing fight to dismantle them.
