Jim Crow

In December 1881, the state of Tennessee establishes segregated railway cars, kicking off what will be known as the Jim Crow laws. (The name Jim Crow comes from a character in a minstrel song.) Other states soon follow suit. By 1907, 14 statesÑall in the SouthÑwill have enacted some sort of segregation laws. The laws' legitimacy is upheld by the federal government, most notably in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, in which segregation is deemed not to violate the 14th Amendment as long as the same facilities are provided to both groups. As it turns out, though, the facilities designated for blacks are substantially inferior.

In essence, Jim Crow segregation stems from white anxiety about interracial contact, especially if it is sexual or not work-related. As the years pass, increasingly absurd measures are taken. Black males cannot be treated by white nurses. Black students cannot be taught by white teachers. Black and white workers in South Carolina cotton mills are forbidden to look out the same windows. Witnesses in Atlanta courtrooms swear oaths on either black or white Bibles. In Oklahoma, pay phones are segregated. In choosing not simply to discourage integration, but to criminalize it, southern states reveal their desire to regulate, control, and punish blacks.

"Six Black Workers in the Alexandria (Va.) Glass Factory." Lewis Hine. 1911 Courtesy Fogg Museum