Jim Crow Laws Examples

Examples of Jim Crow Laws

These segregation laws spread across the nation after the 1800s. The following examples were compiled by researchers at the National Park Service. Note that the language used is dated and offensive, but the historical language is used to convey the full meaning of these laws.

Barbers

  • In Georgia, a law stated that "No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls."

    • This law illustrates the phobia at the time regarding black men and white women and girls.

Bathroom Facilities

  • In Alabama, facilities for the blind maintained separate buildings on separate grounds for blind persons of the colored or black race.

Burial After Death

  • In Georgia, authorities were prohibited from burying colored persons in grounds set apart for white persons.

Buses

  • In Alabama, all passenger stations operated by motor transportation companies were required to have separate waiting rooms or spaces and separate ticket windows for white and colored races.

Cohabitation

  • In Florida, any Negro man and white woman, or any white man and Negro woman, not married to each other, who habitually lived together in the same room at night, were punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months or by a fine not exceeding 500.

Education

  • Florida: Schools for white and Negro children shall be conducted separately.
  • Mississippi: Separate schools were maintained for white and colored races.
    • Separate free schools were established for the education of children of African descent.
    • It was unlawful for any colored child to attend a white school or any white child to attend a colored school.
  • New Mexico: Separate rooms were provided for pupils of African descent.
    • When such rooms were provided, these pupils could not be admitted to schoolrooms occupied by pupils of Caucasian or other descent.
  • Texas: County Board of Education shall provide schools of two kinds: those for white children and those for colored children.

Fishing, Boating, and Bathing

  • The Conservation Commission had the right to segregate white and colored races in exercising rights of fishing, boating, and bathing.

Hospital Entrances

  • Mississippi: Every state-maintained hospital for white and colored patients had to have separate entrances for each race.

Housing

  • Louisiana: Renting any part of a building to a Negro person or family when the building was already occupied by a white person or family (or vice versa) was a misdemeanor.
    • Punishment included a fine of \$25 to \$100, imprisonment of 10 to 60 days, or both.

Intermarriage

  • Arizona: Marriage between a person of Caucasian blood and a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu was null and void.
  • Florida: All marriages between a white person and a Negro, or in violation of this section, were void.
  • Mississippi: Marriage of a white person with a Negro or mulatto, or a person with one-eighth or more Negro blood, was unlawful and void.
  • Wyoming: All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malays contracted in the state were illegal and void.

Lunch Counters

  • No person or corporation furnishing meals to passengers at station restaurants or eating houses could furnish meals to white and colored passengers in the same room, at the same table, or at the same counter.

Mental Hospitals

  • The Board of Control ensured proper and distinct departments for patients, so that Negroes and whites were never together.

Militia

  • North Carolina: White and colored militia were separately enrolled and never compelled to serve in the same organization.
    • No organization of colored troops was permitted where white troops were available.
    • Colored troops were under the command of white officers.

Parks

  • Georgia: It was unlawful for colored people to frequent parks owned by the city for white persons, and vice versa.

Pool and Billiard Rooms

  • Alabama: It was unlawful for a Negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards.

Prisons

  • Mississippi: Anyone printing, publishing, or circulating matter urging social equality or intermarriage between whites and Negroes was guilty of a misdemeanor.
    • Subject to fine or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.

Voting Rights

  • Between 1890 and 1906, every Southern state enacted laws meant to eliminate the black vote, despite the U.S. Constitution's Fifteenth Amendment.
  • These laws appeared color-blind but prevented African Americans from voting.
  • Popular methods included:
    • Poll tax: A fee residents paid to retain the right to vote.
    • Literacy tests or constitutional understanding tests.
    • Grandfather clauses: Exempted descendants of those eligible to vote from these new requirements; often benefited poor and less educated whites.
  • Whites presented these laws as preventing fraud and manipulation of voting returns.
  • A Charleston paper clarified that Southerners did not desire or intend to include black men among its citizens.
  • Southern Democrats perpetuated fears of Negro domination to control black voting.
  • In Louisiana, black voting numbers decreased from 130,000 in 1894 to 1342 in 1904.
  • As late as 1940, only 3\% of adult black southerners were registered to vote.