|
"Jim Crow" laws

Department
store Birmingham, Alabama, USA 1956
| From
the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced
segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black
character in minstrel shows). The term Jim Crow is believed to have
originated around 1830 when a white, minstrel show performer, Thomas
"Daddy" Rice, blackened his face with charcoal paste or burnt
cork and danced while singing the lyrics to the song,
"Jump Jim Crow." Rice created this character after seeing
(while traveling in the South) a crippled, elderly black man (or some
say a young black boy) dancing and singing a song ending with these
chorus words: "Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time
I weel about I jump Jim Crow."
From Delaware to
California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities,
too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with
members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade
intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to
keep their black and white clientele separated.
Here is a sampling of
laws from various states.
|
Nurses
No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards
or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed. Alabama

Buses
All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation
company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows
for the white and colored races. Alabama
Railroads
The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each
passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a
partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs. Alabama
Restaurants
It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of
food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room,
unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid
partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher,
and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment.
Alabama
Pool and Billiard Rooms
It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company
with each other at any game of pool or billiards. Alabama
Toilet Facilities, Male
Every employer of white or negro males shall provide for such white or negro
males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities. Alabama
Intermarriage
The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or
Hindu shall be null and void. Arizona
Intermarriage
All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and
a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever
prohibited. Florida
Cohabitation
Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not
married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime
the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12)
months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars. Florida
Education
The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be
conducted separately. Florida
Juvenile Delinquents
There shall be separate buildings, not nearer than one fourth mile to each
other, one for white boys and one for negro boys. White boys and negro boys
shall not, in any manner, be associated together or worked together. Florida
Mental Hospitals
The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged
for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be
together. Georgia
Intermarriage
It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white person.
Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void. Georgia
Barbers
No colored barber shall serve as a barber [to] white women or girls. Georgia
Burial
The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons
upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons. Georgia
Restaurants
All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people
exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races
within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license. Georgia
Amateur Baseball
It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any
vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the
Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to
play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any
playground devoted to the white race. Georgia
Parks
It shall be unlawful for colored people to frequent any park owned or maintained
by the city for the benefit, use and enjoyment of white persons...and unlawful
for any white person to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for
the use and benefit of colored persons. Georgia
Wine and Beer
All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine...shall
serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall
not sell to the two races within the same room at any time. Georgia
Reform Schools
The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall
be kept entirely separate from each other. Kentucky
Circus Tickets
All circuses, shows, and tent exhibitions, to which the attendance of...more
than one race is invited or expected to attend shall provide for the convenience
of its patrons not less than two ticket offices with individual ticket sellers,
and not less than two entrances to the said performance, with individual ticket
takers and receivers, and in the case of outside or tent performances, the said
ticket offices shall not be less than twenty-five (25) feet apart. Louisiana
Housing
Any person...who shall rent any part of any such building to a negro person or a
negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a
white person or white family, or vice versa when the building is in occupancy by
a negro person or negro family, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on
conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five
($25.00) nor more than one hundred ($100.00) dollars or be imprisoned not less
than 10, or more than 60 days, or both such fine and imprisonment in the
discretion of the court. Louisiana
The Blind
The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground
for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the
colored or black race. Louisiana
Intermarriage
All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and
a person of negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, or between a
white person and a member of the Malay race; or between the negro a nd a member
of the Malay race; or between a person of Negro descent, to the third
generation, inclusive, and a member of the Malay race, are forever prohibited,
and shall be void. Maryland
Railroads
All railroad companies and corporations, and all persons running or operating
cars or coaches by steam on any railroad line or track in the State of Maryland,
for the transportation of passengers, are hereby required to provide separate
cars or coaches for the travel and transportation of the white and colored
passengers. Maryland
Education
Separate schools shall be maintained for the children of the white and colored
races. Mississippi
Promotion of Equality
Any person...who shall be guilty of printing, publishing or circulating printed,
typewritten or written matter urging or presenting for public acceptance or
general information, arguments or suggestions in favor of social equality or of
intermarriage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and
subject to fine or not exceeding five hundred (500.00) dollars or imprisonment
not exceeding six (6) months or both. Mississippi
Intermarriage
The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have
one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void. Mississippi
Hospital Entrances
There shall be maintained by the governing authorities of every hospital
maintained by the state for treatment of white and colored patients separate
entrances for white and colored patients and visitors, and such entrances shall
be used by the race only for which they are prepared. Mississippi
Prisons
The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for
both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts. Mississippi
Education
Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of
African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any
white school, or any white child to attend a colored school. Missouri
Intermarriage
All marriages between...white persons and negroes or white persons and
Mongolians...are prohibited and declared absolutely void...No person having
one-eighth part or more of negro blood shall be permitted to marry any white
person, nor shall any white person be permitted to marry any negro or person
having one-eighth part or more of negro blood. Missouri
Education
Separate rooms [shall] be provided for the teaching of pupils of African
descent, and [when] said rooms are so provided, such pupils may not be admitted
to the school rooms occupied and used by pupils of Caucasian or other descent. New
Mexico
Textbooks
Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but
shall continue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina
Libraries
The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the
use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading
books or periodicals. North Carolina
Militia
The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be
compelled to serve in the same organization.No organization of colored troops
shall be permitted where white troops are available, and while white permitted
to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of white officers. North
Carolina
Transportation
The...Utilities Commission...is empowered and directed to require the
establishment of separate waiting rooms at all stations for the white and
colored races. North Carolina
Teaching
Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where
members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for
instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more
than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each offense. Oklahoma
Fishing, Boating, and
Bathing The [Conservation]
Commission shall have the right to make segregation of the white and colored
races as to the exercise of rights of fishing, boating and bathing. Oklahoma
Mining
The baths and lockers for the negroes shall be separate from the white race, but
may be in the same building. Oklahoma
Telephone Booths
The Corporation Commission is hereby vested with power and authority to require
telephone companies...to maintain separate booths for white and colored patrons
when there is a demand for such separate booths. That the Corporation Commission
shall determine the necessity for said separate booths only upon complaint of
the people in the town and vicinity to be served after due hearing as now
provided by law in other complaints filed with the Corporation Commission. Oklahoma
Lunch Counters
No persons, firms, or corporations, who or which furnish meals to passengers at
station restaurants or station eating houses, in times limited by common
carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said meals to white and colored
passengers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter. South
Carolina
Child Custody
It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this
State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of
guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or
surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance,
or support, of a negro. South Carolina
Libraries
Any white person of such county may use the county free library under the rules
and regulations prescribed by the commissioners court and may be entitled to all
the privileges thereof. Said court shall make proper provision for the negroes
of said county to be served through a separate branch or branches of the county
free library, which shall be administered by [a] custodian of the negro race
under the supervision of the county librarian. Texas
Education
[The County Board of Education] shall provide schools of two kinds; those for
white children and those for colored children. Texas
Theaters
Every person...operating...any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture
show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended
by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored
race and shall set apart and designate...certain seats therein to be occupied by
white persons and a portion thereof , or certain seats therein, to be occupied
by colored persons. Virginia
Railroads
The conductors or managers on all such railroads shall have power, and are
hereby required, to assign to each white or colored passenger his or her
respective car, coach or compartment. If the passenger fails to disclose his
race, the conductor and managers, acting in good faith, shall be the sole judges
of his race. Virginia
Intermarriage
All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya
hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void. Wyoming
Source: http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm
PBS
|