CHAPTER 32

An Act to promote interracial harmony and tranquility and to that end
to declare it to be the public policy of the State that the right of all
people to be secure from interracial tension and unrest is vital to the
health, safety and welfare of the State; to require registration of
persons and organizations engaged in promoting or opposing legis-
lation in behalf of a race or color, or advocating racial integration
or segregation, or whose activities tend to cause racial conflicts or
violence, or engaged in raising or expending funds for certain pur-
poses in connection with litigation; to require the furnishing of
certain information in connection therewith; to impose penalties for
violations; to permit injunction in certain cases. H 60]

[

Approved September 29, 1956

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. Thecontinued harmonious relations between the races are hereby
declared essential to the welfare, health and safety of the people of Vir-
ginia. It is contrary to the public policy of the State to permit those con-
ditions to arise between the races which impede the peaceful coexistence
of all peoples in the State and it is the duty of the government of the State
to exercise all available means and every power at its command to prevent
the same so as to protect its citizens from any dangers, perils and violence
which would result from interracial tension and unrest and possible viola-
tions of Article 2 of Chapter 4 of Title 18 of the Code of Virginia. It is
therefore further declared that it is vital to the public interest that infor-
mation to the extent and in the manner hereinafter provided be obtained
with respect to persons, firms, partnerships, corporations and associations
whose activities are causing or may cause interracial tension and unrest.

§ 2. Every person, firm, partnership, corporation or association,
whether by or through its agents, servants, employees, officers, or volun-
tary workers or associates, who or which engages as one of its principal
functions or activities in the promoting or opposing in any manner the
passage of legislation by the General Assembly in behalf of any race or
color, or who or which has as one of its principal functions or activities the
advocating of racial integration or segregation or whose activities cause or
tend to cause racial conflicts or violence, or who or which is engaged or
engages in raising or expending funds for the employment of counsel or
payment of costs in connection with litigation in behalf of any race or
color, in this State, shall, within sixty days after the effective date of this
act and annually within sixty days following the first of each year there-
after, cause his or its name to be registered with the clerk of the State
Corporation Commission, as hereinafter provided; provided that in the case
of any person, firm, partnership, corporation, association or organization,
whose activities have not been of such nature as to require it to register
under this act, such person, firm, partnership, corporation, association or
organization, within sixty days following the date on which he or it engages
in any activity making registration under this act applicable, shall cause
his or its name to be registered with the clerk of the State Corporation
Commission, as hereinafter provided; and provided, further, that nothing
herein shall apply to the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to
petition the government for a redress of grievances, or to an individual
freely speaking or publishing on his own behalf in the expression of his
opinion and engaging in no other activity subject to the provisions hereof
and not acting in concert with other persons.

§ 3. At the time of such registration, the following information as
to the preceding twelve month period shall be furnished under oath and
filed in such clerk’s office:

If the registrant is an individual, firm or partnership, the home and
each business address of such individual or member of the firm or partner-
ship, the source or sources of any funds received or expended for the pur-
poses set forth in § 2 of this act, including the name and address of each
person, firm, partnership, association or corporation making any contribu-
tion, donation or gift for such purposes; and an itemized statement of
expenditures for such purposes in detail.

If the registrant is a firm, partnership, corporation, association or
organization, the business addresses of the principal and all branch offices
of the registrant; the purpose or purposes for which such firm, partnership,
corporation, association or organization was formed; if not already filed, a
certified copy of the charter, articles of agreement or association, by-laws
or other documents governing or regulating the operations of such firm,
partnership, corporation or association; the names of the principal officers,
the names and addresses of its agents, servants, employees, officers or
voluntary workers or associates by or through which it carries on or in-
tends to carry on the activities described in § 2 of this act in this State; a
list of its stockholders or members in this State and their addresses; a
financial statement showing the assets and liabilities of the registrant and
the source or sources of its income, itemizing in detail any contributions,
donations, gifts or other income, and from what source or sources received
during the calendar year preceding such initial registration and each year
thereafter; and a list of its expenditures in detail for the same period.

§ 4. The clerk of the State Corporation Commission shall prepare and
keep in his office the files containing the information required by §§ 2 and 3.
Such records shall be public records and shall be open to the inspection of
any citizen at any time during the regular business hours of such office.

§ 5. (a) Any person, firm or partnership who or which engages in
the activities described in § 2 of this act without first causing his or its
name to be registered and information to be filed as herein required shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished accordingly.
; (b) Any corporation, association or organization which shall engage
in any activity described in § 2 of this act without first causing its name to
be registered and information to be filed as herein required shall upon
conviction be fined not exceeding ten thousand dollars.

(c) Any person, acting for himself or as agent or employee of any
firm, partnership, corporation or association, who shall file any statement,
certificate or report required by this act, knowing the same to be false or
fraudulent, shall be guilty of a felony and punished as provided in §§ 18-238
and 18-239 of the Code.

_ (d) When any corporation or association, upon conviction of viola-
tion of the provisions of this act, has been sentenced to payment of a fine,
and has failed to promptly pay the same, both the corporation or associa-
tion and each officer and director and those persons responsible for the
management or control of the affairs of such corporation or association
may be held liable jointly and severally for such fine.

(e) Each day’s failure to register and file the information required
by § 2 shall constitute a separate offense and be punished as such. :

§ 6. Any person, firm, partnership, corporation or association engag-
ing in any activity described in § 2 of this act without complying with this
act may be enjoined from continuing in any such activity by any court of
competent jurisdiction.

§ 7. In any case in which a citizen files a statement with the At-
torney General alleging on information and belief that a violation of this
act has occurred and the particulars thereof are set forth, the Attorney
General after investigation and a finding that the complaint is well founded
shall institute proceedings in the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond for
an injunction to restrain the violation complained of, and such court i
hereby vested with jurisdiction to grant the same. ;

§ 8. If any one or more sections, clauses, sentences or parts of this
act shall be adjudged invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or
invalidate the remaining provisions thereof, but shall be confined in its
operation to the specific provisions held invalid, and the inapplicability or
invalidity of any section, clause or provision of this act in one or more
instances or circumstances shall not be taken to affect or prejudice in any
way its applicability or validity in any other instance.

§ 9. This act shall not apply to persons, firms, partnerships, corpora-
tions or associations who or which carry on such activity or business
solely through the medium of newspapers, periodicals, magazines or other
like means which are or may be admitted under United States postal
regulations as second-class mail matter in the United States mails as de-
fined in Title 39, § 224, United States Code Annotated, and/or through
radio, television or facsimile broadcast or wire service operations. This
act shall also not apply to any person, firm, partnership, corporation,
association, organization or candidate in any political election campaign,
or to any committee, association, organization or group of persons acting
together because of activities connected with any political campaign.