Racial segregation in the United States

===Sports===
{{further|Negro league baseball|Black players in pro football|Black players in ice hockey|Race and ethnicity in the NBA}}

Segregation in [[sports in the United States]] was also a major national issue.<ref>[http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/geography/sports.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307135546/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/geography/sports.htm|date=March 7, 2011}}</ref> In 1900, just four years after the US Supreme Court separate but equal constitutional ruling, segregation was enforced in [[horse racing]], a sport which had previously seen many African American jockeys win [[United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing|Triple Crown]] and other major races.<ref name=ml;>{{cite web|url=http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_sports.htm|title=Jim Crow and Sports|last=West|first=Jean M.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021019142325/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_sports.htm|archive-date=October 19, 2002|website=The History of Jim Crow}}</ref> Widespread segregation also existed in bicycle and automobile racing.<ref name=ml; /> In 1890, segregation lessened for African-American [[track and field]] athletes after various universities and colleges in the northern states agreed to integrate their track and field teams.<ref name=ml; /> Like track and field, [[soccer]] was another which experienced a low amount of segregation in the early days of segregation.<ref name=ml; /> Many colleges and universities in the northern states allowed African Americans to play on their football teams.<ref name=ml; />

Segregation was also hardly enforced in boxing.<ref name=ml; /> In 1908, [[Jack Johnson (boxer)|Jack Johnson]] became the first African American to win the World Heavyweight Title.<ref name=ml; /> Johnson's personal life (i.e. his publicly acknowledged relationships with white women) made him very unpopular among many Caucasians throughout the world.<ref name=ml; /> In 1937, when [[Joe Louis]] defeated German boxer [[Max Schmeling]], the general American public embraced an African American as the World Heavyweight Champion.<ref name=ml; />

In 1904, [[Charles Follis]] became the first African American to play for a professional football team, the [[Shelby Blues]],<ref name=ml; /> and professional football leagues agreed to allow only a limited number of teams to be integrated.<ref name=ml; /> In 1933, the NFL, now the only major football league in the United States, reversed its limited integration policy and completely segregated the entire league.<ref name=ml; /> The NFL color barrier permanently broke in 1946, when the Los Angeles Rams signed [[Kenny Washington (American football)|Kenny Washington]] and [[Woody Strode]] and the Cleveland Browns hired [[Marion Motley]] and [[Bill Willis]].<ref name=ml; />
[[File:Rex theatre.jpg|thumb|The Rex theater for colored people, [[Leland, Mississippi]], 1937]]

Prior to the 1930s, basketball saw a great deal of discrimination as well.<ref name=ml; /> Blacks and whites played mostly in different leagues and usually were forbidden from playing in inter-racial games.<ref name=ml; /> The popularity of the African American Harlem Globetrotters altered the American public's acceptance of African Americans in basketball.<ref name=ml; /> By the end of the 1930s, many northern colleges and universities allowed African Americans to play on their teams.<ref name=ml; /> In 1942, the color barrier for basketball was removed after [[Bill Jones (basketball, born 1914)|Bill Jones]] and three other African American basketball players joined the Toledo Jim White Chevrolet [[National Basketball League (United States)|NBL]] franchise and five Harlem Globetrotters joined the [[Chicago Studebakers]].<ref name=ml; />

In 1947, the [[baseball color line]] was broken when [[Negro league baseball]] player [[Jackie Robinson]] joined the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] and had a breakthrough season.<ref name=ml; />

By the end of 1949, only fifteen states had no segregation laws in effect.<ref name="d.c">{{cite web|url=http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_jim_crow_laws.htm|title=Jim Crow Legislation Overview|last=Falck|first=Susan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314154825/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_jim_crow_laws.htm|archive-date=March 14, 2012|url-status=dead|access-date=February 18, 2016}}</ref> and only eighteen states had outlawed segregation in public [[lodging|accommodations]].<ref name=d.c /> Of the remaining states, twenty still allowed school segregation to take place,<ref name=d.c /> fourteen still allowed segregation to remain in public transportation<ref name=d.c /> and 30 still enforced laws forbidding [[miscegenation]].<ref name=d.c />

[[NCAA Division I]] has two historically black athletic conferences: [[Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference]] (founded in 1970) and [[Southwestern Athletic Conference]] (founded in 1920). The [[Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association]] (founded in 1912) and [[Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference]] (founded in 1913) are part of the [[NCAA Division II]], whereas the [[Gulf Coast Athletic Conference]] (founded in 1981) is part of the [[National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics]] Division I.

In 1948, the [[National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball]] became the first national organization to open their intercollegiate postseason to black student-athletes. In 1953, it became the first collegiate association to invite [[historically black colleges and universities]] into its membership.

Golf was racially segregated until 1961. The [[Professional Golfers Association of America]] (PGA) had an article in its bylaws stating that it was "for members of the Caucasian race".<ref name="golf barrier">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32234719 |title=The man who defied death threats to play at the Masters |work=BBC News |accessdate=April 10, 2015}}</ref> Once the color restrictions were lifted, the [[United Golf Association]] Tour (UGA), made up of black players, ceased operations.<ref name="golf barrier"/>

Public [[swimming pool]]s proved to be particularly contentious venues for segregation, where "issues of hygiene, class, and gender coalesced to create an environment where segregation was especially pronounced [...]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zaubler |first=William S. |date=Fall 2015 |title=Don't Dive in My Pool: Normalizing Segregated Swimming in Montclair, New Jersey. |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=110800228&site=eds-live&scope=site |journal=New England Journal of History |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=2 |via=Ebscohost}}</ref> As efforts to desegregate pools strengthened throughout the 1940s through to the end of the 1960s, many municipalities chose to close their facilities either temporarily or permanently in an effort to avoid operating integrated facilities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirk |first=John A. |date=2014 |title=Going Off the Deep End: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Desegregation of Little Rock's Public Swimming Pools |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24477573 |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=148, 151 |jstor=24477573 |issn=0004-1823}}</ref> One of the effects of this is demarcated by a clear divide between the prevalence of swimming ability demonstrated by people of color when compared against their white counterparts who had greater access to both swimming facilities and the programs they offered.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Waller |first1=Steven |last2=Bemiller |first2=Jim |date=2018-08-15 |title=Navigating Rough Waters: Public Swimming Pools, Discrimination, and the Law |url=https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/ijare/vol11/iss1/10 |journal=International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education |volume=11 |issue=1 |doi=10.25035/ijare.11.01.10 |issn=1932-9253|doi-access=free }}</ref> This disparate access to swimming facilities also contributed to the development of a racial [[stereotype]] which suggests people of color cannot swim for reasons related to physicality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wiltse |first=Jeff |date=February 4, 2014 |title=The Black–White Swimming Disparity in America: A Deadly Legacy of Swimming Pool Discrimination |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193723513520553 |journal=Journal of Sport and Social Issues |language=en |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=367 |doi=10.1177/0193723513520553 |s2cid=145668916 |issn=0193-7235}}</ref>