JIM CROW
"[People of color] were inferior because segregation—the separation of people based on skin color—was based on the idea, expressed in the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision of 1857, that blacks were "an inferior and subordinate class of beings." Despite the Civil War and emancipation, this remained the attitude of most whites and, hence, of governments. Jim Crow, taking its name from a fictional minstrel character, was the name given to America's own system of racial apartheid."
-The World of Jim Crow, Virginia Historical Society
Jim Crow was the era of racial segregation, primarily in the U.S. South. Laws oppressed people of color, separating them and whites into two unequal groups. In the name of segregation, blacks were treated as inferior.
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“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.” |
"To drive a wedge between white and black workers, certain jobs were reserved “for whites only.”"
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Public places were split into two sections: Whites and Colored.
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"Blacks could wash the clothes of whites – but the clothing of blacks would not be washed with the clothing of whites."
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“I can clearly recall the white line on the floor of the bus. It was just to the front of the rear door – and I understood that I was required to stay behind it. I don’t remember ever discussing it; it was just understood.”
-Arthur Ashe
Source: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era, Eric Allen Hall
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