"Passing was so common between the 1920s through the 1940s that the National Theater in Washington employed a black doorman whose job was to identify other blacks. These so-called spotters, who enforced a “passing test” against members of their own communities, had their names printed in black papers (notable the Afro-American News), which resulted in some community alienation. In truth, and to varying degrees, this suggested that the black majority, who were unable to pass, supported—although passively—the right of lighter blacks to “infiltrate” white establishments."

Audrey Elisa Kerr - The Paper Bag Principle: Class, Colorism, and Rumor and the Case of Black Washington, DC, 2006