History Minute (099): Who or What is Jim Crow?

Thirty-five states passed a variety of Jim Crow laws — enforcing segregation and discrimination— between the 1870s and 1960. Some of them remained in effect through 1970. These states were mainly in the South, but also included Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. (Michigan had no Jim Crow laws.)

Many Jim Crow laws focused on segregating Blacks from Whites in schools, restaurants, rail cars, libraries, public parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, and businesses — such that they never would come into contact with one another. Others prohibited marriages or intimate relationships between White people and any non-White.

Here are some examples from a variety of states, showing the extremes states went to:

• Restaurants must provide separate rooms and separate entrances.
• Public facilities must provide separate bathrooms and drinking fountains, clearly marked for White or Black patrons.
• Separate schools must be established. Schools for Blacks must be at least a mile away from schools for Whites. If there are not enough Black students to provide a separate school, local officials were left to figure out some solution.
• Marriage between Whites and non-Whites (i.e., Black, Indian, Asian, etc.) were prohibited, and any that existed were declared void. 
• Courtships of mixed races were punishable by heavy fines and jail time. Any person born to a mixed race couple was prohibited from marrying anyone. Blacks and Whites cannot live in the same home. Distribution of any printed matter in support of mixed race relationships was punishable by fine and jail time.
• Building permits for non-Whites in any area primarily inhabited by Whites was prohibited. A home or property that was “covenanted” could never be sold to non-Whites.
• Black medical students (physicians, nurses) could not take classes at public hospitals.
• Universities and colleges could only accept Black students if the state’s own college for Black students had no comparable course and the school’s governing board approved. 
• Voting: 
• Literacy tests: In some cases required only of Blacks; in other cases separate easier tests given to Whites than those for Blacks.
• One state law declared that no Chinese native would ever be allowed to vote. The races of all candidates were to be printed on the ballots.
• Voters must pay a tax at the polls to be allowed to cast a ballot. $1.75 was paid by a Black voter in 1945, equal to over $36 today — money that poor people could ill afford to pay.

Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jim_Crow_law_examples_by_state