Bates v. Brown was a United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the issue of racial discrimination in the workplace. The case involved a black man, William Bates, who was employed as a laborer at a cotton mill in Georgia. Bates was fired from his job after he refused to accept a lower wage than his white counterparts. He then sued the mill's owner, John Brown, for racial discrimination. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bates, finding that the lower wage offered to him was a form of racial discrimination and that it violated the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Court held that the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited any form of racial discrimination in the workplace, regardless of the employer's intent. This ruling was a major victory for civil rights advocates, as it established that racial discrimination in the workplace was unconstitutional. The ruling also set a precedent for future cases involving racial discrimination in the workplace.

In Bates v. Brown, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state law that prohibited African Americans from engaging in door-to-door sales of merchandise violated the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude. The majority opinion held that it did not violate the amendment because it only applied to people engaged in commercial activities, and thus did not constitute "involuntary servitude." However, Justice Field dissented from this decision. He argued that any law which denied individuals their right to engage in lawful occupations without due process of law constituted an infringement upon their freedom and should be considered as a form of involuntary servitude under the Thirteenth Amendment. Furthermore, he argued that such laws were especially oppressive when they targeted certain groups based on race or color since they deprived them of economic opportunities available to others who do not share those characteristics.