Created
by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
National Historic
Site Interpretive Staff.

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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:
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
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