any
person who would entice, persuade or influence any laborer or other
person to leave the city of Montgomery for the purpose of being
employed at any other place as a laborer must on conviction be
fined not less than one nor more than one hundred dollars, or may be
sentenced to hard labor for the city, for not more than six months,
one or both in the discretion of the court. The other ordinance
provided that any person, firm or corporation who published, printed
or wrote or delivered or distributed or posted or caused to be
published, printed or written or delivered or distributed or posted,
any advertisement, letter, newspaper, pamphlet, handbill or other
writing, for the purpose of enticing, persuading or influencing
any laborer or other person to leave the city of Montgomery for the
purpose of being employed at any other place as a laborer must on
conviction be fined not less than one hundred dollars, or may be
sentenced to hard labor for the city for not more than six months, one
or both in the discretion of the court. Labor agents and other leaders
both white and black were arrested throughout the State in accordance
with the usual custom of preferring technical charges.[83]

The treatment of the movement in Mississippi was no exception to the
rule. At Jackson, the "pass riders," as they were called, were so
molested by the police that they were finally driven from the town. In
the same town the citizens were reported to have forced the railroads
to discontinue the use of passes on the threat of damaging their
interests and influencing decisions in court cases. Negroes were
secretly enticed away, however, after they had been dispersed from
the railway stations and imprisoned when in the act of boarding
the trains. The police interfered at one time with negroes leaving,
especially when it was suspected that they were leaving on passes. To
circumvent this, negroes would go two or three stations below Jackson
where there were no policemen and board the trains. It was the
unanimous opinion of whites and blacks who observed the almost frantic
efforts to leave the town, that any attempt to hinder by intimidation
or by making it difficult to leave, simply served to make them more
determined to leave.[84]

At Greenville, Mississippi, trains were stopped. Negroes were dragged
therefrom and others were prevented from boarding them. Strangers were
searched for evidence that might convict them as labor agents. It is
also