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). 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.
Alabama
| Arizona
| Florida
| Georgia
| Kentucky
Louisiana
| Maryland
| Mississippi
| Missouri
New
Mexico | North
Carolina | Oklahoma
South
Carolina | Texas
| Virginia
| Wyoming
Alabama
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
Arizona
Intermarriage: The
marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro,
Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. Arizona
Florida
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
Georgia
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
Kentucky
Reform Schools: The
children of white and colored races committed to the houses of
reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other.
Kentucky
Louisiana
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
Maryland
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
Mississippi
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
Missouri
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
New
Mexico
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
North
Carolina
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
Oklahoma
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
South
Carolina
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
Texas
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
Virginia
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
Wyoming
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
