Coined the "paper bag test," this criterion was used for decades to determine the degree of privilege granted to individual African-Americans all over the United States.
The test was once a notable example of a once-common form of prejudice. Access to social events, jobs, clubs, and schools was often determined by a person's complexion. According to Georgetown sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson, "New Orleans invented the brown paper bag party %u2014 usually at a gathering in a home %u2014 where anyone darker than the bag attached to the door was denied entrance.
"This form of prejudice is not merely an abstract historical construct; many individuals, still alive today, remember vividly the effects of what is now called "colorism," or bias against people with darker skin. For a first-hand account, I spoke to my grandmother, Evelyn Porter, about her experiences as a young African-American woman in Savannah, Georgia in the mid-twentieth century. She told me that "one of the restauranst I can remember... not far from the old courthouse... would advertise for waitresses, and they would have 'light-skinned only.'"
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/examining-paper-bag-test-evolved-article-1.2844394