Racial segregation in the United States

==Racism==
{{Main|Racism in the United States|Racism against African Americans}}

President [[Woodrow Wilson]] removed many Blacks from public office. He did not oppose segregation practices by autonomous department heads of the [[United States federal civil service|federal civil service]], according to Brian J. Cook in his work, ''Democracy And Administration: Woodrow Wilson's Ideas And The Challenges Of Public Management''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=1115 |title=Another Open Letter to Woodrow Wilson W.E.B. DuBois, September, 1913 |publisher=Teachingamericanhistory.org |access-date=February 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328100131/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=1115 |archive-date=March 28, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> White and [[Black (people)|black people]] were sometimes required to eat separately, go to separate schools, use separate public toilets, park benches, train, buses, and water fountains, etc. In some locales, stores and restaurants refused to serve different races under the same roof.

Public segregation was challenged by individual citizens on rare occasions but had minimal impact on civil rights issues, until December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, [[Rosa Parks]] refused to be moved to the back of a bus for a white passenger. Parks' civil disobedience had the effect of sparking the [[Montgomery bus boycott]]. Parks' act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern [[Civil Rights Movement]] and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

Segregation was also pervasive in housing. [[State constitution (United States)|State constitutions]] (for example, that of [[California Constitution|California]]) had clauses giving local jurisdictions the right to regulate where members of certain races could live. In 1917, the Supreme Court in the case of ''[[Buchanan v. Warley]]'' declared municipal resident segregation [[Local ordinance|ordinances]] unconstitutional. In response, whites resorted to the [[restrictive covenant]], a formal deed restriction binding white property owners in a given neighborhood not to sell to blacks. Whites who broke these agreements could be sued by "damaged" neighbors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=443|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121121733/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=443|url-status=dead|title=The Great Migration, Period: 1920s|archivedate=January 21, 2008}}</ref> In the 1948 case of ''[[Shelley v. Kraemer]]'', the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] finally ruled that such covenants were unenforceable in a court of law. Residential segregation patterns had already become established in most American cities, and have often persisted up to the present from the impact of [[white flight]] and [[Redlining]].

In most cities, the only way blacks could relieve the pressure of crowding that resulted from increasing migration was to expand residential borders into surrounding previously white neighborhoods, a process that often resulted in harassment and attacks by white residents whose intolerant attitudes were intensified by fears that black neighbors would cause property values to decline. Moreover, the increased presence of African Americans in cities, North and South, as well as their competition with whites for housing, jobs, and political influence sparked a series of race riots. In 1898 white citizens of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], resenting African Americans' involvement in local government and incensed by an editorial in an [[African-American newspapers|African-American newspaper]] accusing white women of loose sexual behavior, rioted and killed dozens of blacks. In the fury's wake, [[Wilmington insurrection of 1898|white supremacists overthrew the city government]], expelling black and white officeholders, and instituted restrictions to prevent blacks from voting. In Atlanta in 1906, newspaper accounts alleging attacks by black men on white women provoked an outburst of shooting and killing that left twelve blacks dead and seventy injured. An influx of unskilled black strikebreakers into [[East St Louis, Illinois]], heightened [[East St. Louis riots|racial tensions]] in 1917. Rumors that blacks were arming themselves for an attack on whites resulted in numerous attacks by white mobs on black neighborhoods. On July 1, blacks fired back at a car whose occupants they believed had shot into their homes and mistakenly killed two policemen riding in a car. The next day, a full-scaled riot erupted which ended only after nine whites and thirty-nine blacks had been killed and over three hundred buildings were destroyed.

[[File:Mr & Mrs Sammy Davis Jnr 2 Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|upright|Although the ban on interracial marriage ended in California in 1948, entertainer [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] faced a backlash for his involvement with a white woman in 1957.]]
[[Anti-miscegenation laws]] (also known as miscegenation laws) prohibited whites and non-whites from marrying each other. The first ever anti-miscegenation law was passed by the [[Maryland General Assembly]] in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/> During one of his [[Lincoln–Douglas debates|famous debates]] with [[Stephen A. Douglas]] in [[Charleston, Illinois]] in 1858, [[Abraham Lincoln]] stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people".<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen A. |last=Douglas|title=The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 |date=1991 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=235}}</ref> By the late 1800s, 38 US states had anti-miscegenation statutes.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/> By 1924, the ban on interracial marriage was still in force in 29 states.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation"/>

While interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, in 1957 actor [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] faced a backlash for his involvement with white actress [[Kim Novak]].<ref name="Smithsonian" /> [[Harry Cohn]], the president of Columbia Pictures (with whom Novak was under contract) gave in to his concerns that a racist backlash against the relationship could hurt the studio.<ref name="Smithsonian" /> Davis briefly married black dancer Loray White in 1958 to protect himself from mob violence.<ref name="Smithsonian" /> Inebriated at the wedding ceremony, Davis despairingly said to his best friend, Arthur Silber Jr., "Why won't they let me live my life?"<ref name="Smithsonian" /> The couple never lived together and commenced divorce proceedings in September 1958.<ref name="Smithsonian">Lanzendorfer, Joy (August 9, 2017) [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/hollywood-loved-sammy-davis-jr-until-he-dated-white-movie-star-180964395/ "Hollywood Loved Sammy Davis Jr. Until He Dated a White Movie Star"], ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' Retrieved February 23, 2021.</ref> When former president [[Harry S. Truman]] was asked by a reporter in 1963 if interracial marriage would become widespread in the U.S., he responded, "I hope not; I don’t believe in it", before asking a question often aimed at anyone advocating racial integration, "Would you want your daughter to marry a Negro? She won't love someone who isn't her color."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wallenstein |first1=Peter |title=Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and Law--An American History |date=2004 |publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |page=185}}</ref>

In 1958, officers in [[Virginia]] entered the home of [[Loving v. Virginia#Plaintiffs|Richard and Mildred Loving]] and dragged them out of bed for living together as an interracial couple, on the basis that "any white person intermarry with a colored person"— or vice versa—each party "shall be guilty of a felony" and face prison terms of five years.<ref name="Anti-miscegenation">{{cite news |title=Eugenics, Race, and Marriage |url=https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/eugenics-race-and-marriage |access-date=February 23, 2021 |website=Facing History.org}}</ref> In 1965, Virginia trial court Judge Leon Bazile, who heard their original case, defended his decision:

{{blockquote|Almighty God created the races [[White people|white]], [[Black people|black]], [[Asian people|yellow]], [[Malay race|Malay]], and [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|red]], and placed them on separate [[continents]], and but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend the races to mix.<ref name="tucker">Tucker, Neely (June 13, 2006). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201716.html "Loving Day Recalls a Time When the Union of a Man And a Woman Was Banned"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914005046/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201716.html |date=2017-09-14 }}. ''The Washington Post''.</ref>}}

{{See also|Racism against African Americans in the U.S. military}}
[[File:ColoredSailersRoomWWINOLA.jpg|thumb|right|Colored sailors room in World War I]]
In [[World War I]], blacks served in the [[United States Armed Forces]] in segregated units. The 369th Infantry (formerly 15th New York National Guard) Regiment distinguished themselves, and were known as the "[[Harlem Hellfighters]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/detached.htm |title=Detached Service By Segregated Infantry Units |publisher=Worldwar1.com |date=April 16, 1918 |access-date=February 28, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/hhf.htm |title=James Reese Europe and The Harlem Hellfighters Band by Glenn Watkins |publisher=Worldwar1.com |access-date=February 28, 2013}}</ref>

[[File:African-americans-wwii-002.jpg|thumb|left|A black [[military police]]man on a motorcycle in front of the "colored" MP entrance during World War II]]
The U.S. military was still heavily segregated in World War II. The [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]] (forerunner of the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]]) and the [[United States Marine Corps|Marines]] had no blacks enlisted in their ranks. There were blacks in the Navy [[Seabees]]. Before the war, the army had only five African-American officers.<ref name=fonerblack/> No African American received the [[Medal of Honor]] during the war, and they were mostly relegated to non-combat units. Black soldiers were sometimes forced to give up their seats in trains to [[Nazi]] prisoners of war.<ref name=fonerblack>{{cite book|last=Foner|first=Eric|title=Give Me Liberty!: An American History|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|isbn=978-0393935530|edition=3|page=696|date=February 1, 2012}}</ref> World War II saw the first black military pilots in the U.S., the [[Tuskegee Airmen]], 99th Fighter Squadron,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2004/may/interest.htm|title=On Clipped Wings|date=May 9, 2006|access-date=May 18, 2017|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061128214021/http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2004/may/interest.htm|archive-date=November 28, 2006}}</ref> and also saw the segregated 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion participate in the liberation of [[Holocaust survivors|Jewish survivors]] at [[Buchenwald concentration camp]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://asagordon.byethost10.com/LIBERATORS/ENCOUNTR.HTM |title=William A. Scott, III and the Holocaust: The Encounter of African American Liberators and Jewish Survivors at Buchenwald by Asa R. Gordon, Executive Director, Douglass Institute of Government |publisher=Asagordon.byethost10.com |access-date=February 28, 2013}}</ref> Despite the institutional policy of racially segregated training for enlisted members and in tactical units; Army policy dictated that black and white soldiers train together in [[officer candidate school]]s (beginning in 1942).<ref name="WAAC">{{cite book| title = Women's Army Corps| chapter-url = http://www.history.army.mil/books/wac/chapter1.htm#p5| chapter = Chapter I The Women's Army Corps, 1942–1945| url = http://www.history.army.mil/books/wac/index.htm#contents| first = Bettie J.| last = morden| publisher = [[United States Army Center of Military History]]| year = 2000| orig-year = 1990| id = CMH Pub 30-14| series = Army Historical Series| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100729213804/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wac/index.htm#contents| archive-date = July 29, 2010}}</ref><ref name="OCSINT">{{cite book| title = Integration of the Armed Forces: 1940–1965| chapter-url = http://www.history.army.mil/books/integration/IAF-02.htm| chapter = CHAPTER 2 "World War II: The Army"| id = (link: [http://www.history.army.mil/books/integration/IAF-fm.htm IAF-fm.htm])| year = 1985| publisher = [[United States Army Center of Military History]]| first = Morris J. Jr.| last = MacGregor| series = Defense Studies Series| access-date = July 15, 2010| archive-date = July 27, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100727161209/http://www.history.army.mil/books/integration/IAF-02.htm| url-status = dead}}</ref> Thus, the [[Officer Candidate School (U.S. Army)|Officer Candidate School]] became the Army's first formal experiment with integration – with all Officer Candidates, regardless of race, living and training together.<ref name="OCSINT" />

[[File:US Census Bureau keypunch operators, Negro section.jpg|thumb|Negro section of [[keypunch]] operators at the [[U.S. Census Bureau]]]]
During World War II, 110,000 [[Japanese Americans|people of Japanese descent]] (whether citizens or not) were placed in [[internment camp]]s. Hundreds of people of [[German Americans|German]] and [[Italian Americans|Italian descent]] were also imprisoned (see [[German American internment]] and [[Italian American internment]]). While the government program of [[Japanese American internment]] targeted all the Japanese in America as enemies, most German and Italian Americans were left in peace and were allowed to serve in the U.S. military.

Pressure to end racial segregation in the [[Federal government of the United States|government]] grew among African Americans and progressives after the end of World War II. On July 26, 1948, President [[Harry S. Truman]] signed [[Executive Order 9981]], ending segregation in the United States Armed Forces.

A club central to the [[Harlem Renaissance]] in the 1920s, the [[Cotton Club]] in Harlem, New York City was a whites-only establishment, with blacks (such as [[Duke Ellington]]) allowed to perform, but to a white audience.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ella Fitzgerald |date=1989 |publisher=Holloway House Publishing |page=27}}</ref> The first black Oscar recipient [[Hattie McDaniel]] was not permitted to attend the premiere of ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' with [[Racial segregation in Atlanta|Atlanta being racially segregated]], and at the [[12th Academy Awards]] ceremony at the [[Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles)|Ambassador Hotel]] in [[Los Angeles]] she was required to sit at a segregated table at the far wall of the room; the hotel had a no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor.<ref name="LA segregation">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/oscars-first-black-winner-accepted-774335|title=Oscar's First Black Winner Accepted Her Honor in a Segregated 'No Blacks' Hotel in L.A.|last=Abramovitch|first=Seth|date=February 19, 2015|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|access-date=August 10, 2017}}</ref> McDaniel's final wish to be buried in [[Hollywood Forever Cemetery|Hollywood Cemetery]] was denied because the graveyard was restricted to whites only.<ref name="LA segregation"/>

On September 11, 1964, [[John Lennon]] announced [[The Beatles]] would not play to a segregated audience in [[Jacksonville, Florida]].<ref name="Concert"/> City officials relented following this announcement.<ref name="Concert">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14963752 "The Beatles banned segregated audiences, contract shows"]. BBC. Retrieved July 17, 2017</ref> A contract for a 1965 Beatles concert at the [[Cow Palace]] in [[Daly City, California]], specifies that the band "not be required to perform in front of a segregated audience".<ref name="Concert"/>

Despite all the legal changes that have taken place since the 1940s and especially in the 1960s (see [[Desegregation in the United States|Desegregation]]), the United States remains, to some degree, a segregated society, with housing patterns, school enrollment, church membership, employment opportunities, and even college admissions all reflecting significant ''de facto'' segregation.<ref name="Krysan"/> Supporters of [[affirmative action]] argue that the persistence of such disparities reflects either racial discrimination or the persistence of its effects.

''[[Gates v. Collier]]'' was a case decided in federal court that brought an end to the [[Trusty system (prison)|trusty system]] and flagrant inmate abuse at the notorious [[Mississippi State Penitentiary]] at [[Parchman, Mississippi]]. In 1972 [[federal judge]], [[William C. Keady]] found that Parchman Farm violated modern standards of decency. He ordered an immediate end to all unconstitutional conditions and practices. Racial segregation of inmates was abolished. And the trusty system, which allowed certain inmates to have power and control over others, was also abolished.<ref name="hnet">{{cite web |url          = http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=22500870194459 |title        = Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice |access-date   = August 28, 2006 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060826214105/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=22500870194459 |archive-date = August 26, 2006 |url-status     = dead }}</ref>

More recently, the disparity between the [[Race and incarceration in the United States|racial compositions of inmates in the American prison system]] has led to concerns that the U.S. Justice system furthers a "new [[apartheid]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=43&ItemID=5758 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040704061407/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=43&ItemID=5758 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 4, 2004 |title=The New American Apartheid |publisher=ZMag.org |date=June 22, 2004 |access-date=February 28, 2013 }}</ref>

===Scientific racism===
{{main|Scientific racism}}

The intellectual roots of ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', the landmark United States Supreme Court decision which upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation, under the doctrine of "separate but equal", were partially tied to the [[scientific racism]] of the era. The popular support of the decision was likely a result of the racist beliefs which were held by most whites at the time.<ref name="rlac">{{cite book |title=Race, Law, and Culture: Reflections on Brown V. Board of Education |url=https://archive.org/details/racelawculturere00sara |url-access=limited |first=Austin |last=Sarat |pages=[https://archive.org/details/racelawculturere00sara/page/n65 55] and 59 |year=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195106220 }}</ref> Later, the court decision ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' rejected the ideas of scientific racists about the need for segregation, especially in schools. Following that decision both scholarly and popular ideas of scientific racism played an important role in the attack and backlash that followed the court decision.<ref name="rlac"/>

The ''[[Mankind Quarterly]]'' is a journal that has published scientific racism. It was founded in 1960, partly in response to the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision ''Brown v. Board of Education'', which ordered the desegregation of US schools.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schaffer |first=Gavin |title='"Scientific" Racism Again?': Reginald Gates, the Mankind Quarterly and the Question of 'Race' in Science after the Second World War |journal=Journal of American Studies |year=2007 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=253–278 |doi=10.1017/S0021875807003477 |s2cid=145322934 }}</ref><ref name="jackson">{{cite book |title=Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown V. Board of Education |url=https://archive.org/details/scienceforsegreg00jack |url-access=limited |first=John P. |last=Jackson |isbn=978-0814742716 |page=[https://archive.org/details/scienceforsegreg00jack/page/n160 148] |date=August 2005 |publisher=NYU Press }}</ref>  Many of the publication's contributors, publishers, and board of directors espouse academic [[hereditarianism]]. The publication is widely criticized for its extremist politics, anti-semitic bent and its support for scientific racism.<ref>e.g., {{cite book |last=Arvidsson |first=Stefan |year=2006 |title=Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science |others=translated by Sonia Wichmann |location=Chicago and London |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226028606 }}</ref>

===In the South===
{{see also|Racial segregation in Atlanta}}
<!-- This section is linked from [[Mutual Broadcasting System]] -->
[[File:Ku Klux Klan members and a burning cross, Denver, Colorado, 1921.jpg|thumb|Founded by former [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] soldiers after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] (1861–1865), the [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK) used [[Terrorism|violence and intimidation]] to prevent blacks from voting, holding political office and attending school.]]

After the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops, which followed from the [[Compromise of 1877]], the Democratic governments in the South instituted state laws to separate black and white racial groups, submitting African-Americans to ''de facto'' second-class citizenship and enforcing [[white supremacy]]. Collectively, these state laws were called the [[Jim Crow]] system, after the name of a stereotypical 1830s black minstrel show character.<ref name="Remembering_Jim_Crow">[http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/remembering/ Remembering Jim Crow] – Minnesota Public Radio</ref> Sometimes, as in Florida's [[Florida Constitutional Convention of 1885|Constitution of 1885]], segregation was mandated by state constitutions.

Racial segregation became the law in most parts of the [[Southern United States|American South]] until the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. These laws, known as [[Jim Crow laws]], forced segregation of facilities and services, prohibited intermarriage, and denied suffrage. Impacts included:
* Segregation of facilities included separate schools, hotels, bars, hospitals, toilets, parks, even telephone booths, and separate sections in libraries, cinemas, and restaurants, the latter often with separate ticket windows and counters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov:80/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm|title="Jim Crow" Laws|website=National Park Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821012733/http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm|archive-date=August 21, 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Estes, R. (1960). "Segregated libraries." ''Library Journal'' (December 15), 4418–4421.</ref>
** After Reconstruction, many southern states passed Jim crow laws and followed the "separate but equal" doctrine created during the [[Plessy v. Ferguson|''Plessy v. Ferguson'' case.]] Segregated libraries under this system existed in most parts of the south. The [[East Henry Street Carnegie Library|East Henry Street Carnegie]] library in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]], built by African Americans during the segregation era in 1914 with help from the Carnegie foundation, is one example. Hundreds of segregated libraries existed across the United States prior to the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. &nbsp;These libraries were often underfunded, understocked, and had fewer services than their white counterparts. Only during the landmark [[Brown v. Board of Education|''Brown v. Board'']] was the acknowledgement that separate was never equal and that African Americans were not segregating by choice.<ref>{{Citation|title=African-Americans and U.S. Libraries: History|date=December 17, 2009|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/e-elis3-120044938|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition|pages=42–50|publisher=CRC Press|doi=10.1081/e-elis3-120044938|isbn=978-0203757635|access-date=April 22, 2021}}</ref> During the Civil rights movement, several demonstrations and sit-ins were orchestrated by activist including nine [[Tougaloo College|Tugaloo College]] students who were arrested when they requested service from the all-white Jackson Public Library in Mississippi. Another example was the St. Helena Four, where four local teenagers made several attempts to use the Auburn Regional Library located in [[Greensburg, Louisiana|Greenburg, Louisiana]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wiegand|date=2017|title="Any Ideas?": The American Library Association and the Desegregation of Public Libraries in the American South|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/libraries.1.1.0001|journal=Libraries: Culture, History, and Society|volume=1|issue=1|pages=1–22|doi=10.5325/libraries.1.1.0001|issn=2473-0343}}</ref> Police were typically called on these civil rights activists usually resulting in some form of intimidation or incarceration.  Libraries in several states continued their segregation practices even after the "separate but equal" doctrine was overruled by the Civil Rights Act. In 1964 E.J. Josey, the first African American member of ALA, put forth a resolution preventing ALA officers and staff members to attend segregated state chapter meetings.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=February 2020|title=AONL 2020|journal=Nurse Leader|volume=18|issue=1|pages=21–22|doi=10.1016/j.mnl.2020.01.001|issn=1541-4612|doi-access=free}}</ref> The segregated states being targeted by this resolution were Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. This resolution led to the integration of these state's libraries within a few years.
* Laws prohibited blacks from being present in certain locations. For example, blacks in 1939 were not allowed on the streets of [[Palm Beach, Florida]] after dark, unless required by their employment.<ref>{{citation|title=Florida. A Guide to the Southernmost State|date=1939|place=New York|author=Federal Writers' Project|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=229}}</ref>
* [[Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States|State laws prohibiting interracial marriage]] ("[[miscegenation]]") had been enforced throughout the South and in many Northern states since the Colonial era. During [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], such laws were repealed in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Texas and South Carolina. In all these states such laws were reinstated after the Democratic "[[Redeemers]]" came to power. The [[SCOTUS|Supreme Court]] declared such laws constitutional in 1883. This verdict was overturned only in 1967 by ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]''.<ref name="Hist_Jim_Crow">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060602172112/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm|url-status=dead|title=The History of Jim Crow|archivedate=June 2, 2006}}</ref>
* The [[Black suffrage in the United States|voting rights of blacks]] were systematically restricted or denied through suffrage laws, such as the introduction of [[poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]] and [[literacy test]]s. Loopholes, such as the [[grandfather clause]] and the understanding clause, protected the voting rights of white people who were unable to pay the tax or pass the literacy test. (See [[Benjamin Tillman#Disenfranchising the African American: 1895 state constitutional convention|Senator Benjamin Tillman's open defense of this practice]].) Only whites could vote in [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] primary contests.<ref name="Hist_Jim_Crow"/> Where and when black people did manage to vote in numbers, their votes were negated by systematic [[Gerrymandering in the United States|gerrymander]] of electoral boundaries.

[[File:Wallace at University of Alabama edit2.jpg|thumb|[[Stand in the Schoolhouse Door]]: Governor [[George Wallace]] attempts to block the enrollment of black students at the [[University of Alabama]].]]
* In theory the segregated facilities available for negroes were of the same quality as those available to whites, under the separate but equal doctrine. In practice this was rarely the case. For example, in [[Martin County, Florida]], students at [[Stuart Training School]] "read second-hand books...that were discarded from their all-white counterparts at [[Martin County High School|Stuart High School]]. They also wore secondhand basketball and football uniforms.... The students and their parents built the basketball court and sidewalks at the school without the help of the school board. 'We even put in wiring for lights along the sidewalk, but the school board never connected the electricity.{{'"}}<ref>{{cite news
|title=Students remember receiving hand-me-down books, uniforms
|newspaper=[[Palm Beach Post]] ([[West Palm Beach, Florida]])
|date=January 16, 2000
|page=27
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32215654/stuart_training_school_reunion/}}</ref>

===In the North===
Formal segregation was enforced in the North. Some neighborhoods were restricted to blacks and job opportunities were denied them by unions in, for example, the skilled building trades. Blacks who moved to the North in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] after World War I sometimes could live without the same degree of oppression experienced in the South, but the racism and discrimination still existed.

{{blockquote|Despite the actions of abolitionists, life for free blacks was far from idyllic, due to northern racism. Most free blacks lived in racial enclaves in the major cities of the North: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. There, poor living conditions led to disease and death. In a Philadelphia study in 1846, practically all poor black infants died shortly after birth. Even wealthy blacks were prohibited from living in white neighborhoods due to whites' fear of declining property values.<ref name="AIA4">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4narr3.html "Africans in America"] – PBS Series – Part 4 (2007)</ref> |}}

[[File:We want white tenants.jpg|thumb|White tenants seeking to prevent blacks from moving into the [[Sojourner Truth Project|Sojourner Truth housing project]] erected this sign. [[Detroit]], 1942.]]
The rapid influx of blacks during the Great Migration disturbed the racial balance within Northern and Western cities, exacerbating hostility between both blacks and whites in the two regions.<ref>Michael O. Emerson, Christian Smith (2001). ''Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America''. p. 42. Oxford University Press</ref> Deed restrictions and [[restrictive covenants]] became an important instrument for enforcing racial segregation in most towns and cities, becoming widespread in the 1920s.<ref name="CNN 2020">{{cite news |title=Racist language is still woven into home deeds across America. Erasing it isn't easy, and some don't want to |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/15/us/racist-deeds-covenants/index.html |access-date=December 5, 2020 |agency=CNN}}</ref> Such covenants were employed by many [[real estate development|real estate developers]] to "protect" entire [[subdivision (land)|subdivisions]], with the primary intent to keep "[[white people|white]]" neighborhoods "white". Ninety percent of the housing projects built in the years following [[World War II]] were racially restricted by such covenants.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Stetson|url=http://www.stetsonkennedy.com/jim_crow_guide/index.html|title=Jim Crow Guide: The Way it Was|year=1959|chapter=Who May Live Where|chapter-url=http://www.stetsonkennedy.com/jim_crow_guide/chapter6.htm}}</ref> Cities known for their widespread use of racial covenants include [[Chicago]], [[Baltimore]], [[Detroit]], [[Milwaukee]],<ref>{{cite web|author1=Michelle Maternowski|author2=Joy Powers|date=March 3, 2017|title=How Did Metro Milwaukee Become So Segregated?|url=https://www.wuwm.com/post/how-did-metro-milwaukee-become-so-segregated|website=WUWM.com|ref=WUWM 89.7 Milwaukee NPR}}</ref> [[Los Angeles]], [[Seattle]], and [[St. Louis]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Racial Restrictive Covenants: Enforcing Neighborhood Segregation in Seattle – Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project |url=https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants_report.htm |access-date=December 5, 2020 |agency=University of Washington}}</ref>

{{blockquote|"Said premises shall not be rented, leased, or conveyed to, or occupied by, any person other than of the white or Caucasian race."|[[Racial covenant]] for a home in [[Beverly Hills, California]].<ref name="CNN 2020"/>}}

[[Cicero, Illinois]], a [[sundown town]] adjacent to Chicago, for example, was made famous when Civil Rights advocate Rev. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] led a march advocating open (race-unbiased) housing in 1966.<ref name="Loewen">{{cite book |last1=Sundown Towns A hidden dimension of American racism |first1=James W. |title=Loewen |date=2018 |publisher=The New Press |quote=The Civil Rights Movement rarely addressed northern sundown towns and suburbs directly, and when it did, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1966 march for open housing in Cicero, Illinois, it usually failed.|location=New York, London |isbn=9781620974346 |pages=7, 394 |edition=2018 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Northern blacks were forced to live in a white man's democracy, and while not legally enslaved, were subject to definition by their race. In their all-black communities, they continued to build their own churches and schools and to develop vigilance committees to protect members of the black community from hostility and violence.<ref name="AIA4"/>}}

[[File:No beer sold to indians.jpg|thumb|left|A sign posted above a bar that reads "No beer sold to Indians" ([[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]). Birney, Montana, 1941.]]
Within employment, economic opportunities for blacks were routed to the lowest-status and restrictive in potential mobility. In 1900 Reverend Matthew Anderson, speaking at the annual [[Hampton Negro Conference]] in Virginia, said that "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South. There seems to be an apparent effort throughout the North, especially in the cities to debar the colored worker from all the avenues of higher remunerative labor, which makes it more difficult to improve his economic condition even than in the South."<ref>{{cite book|title=Annual Report of the Hampton Negro Conference|chapter=The Economic Aspect of the Negro Problem|first=Anderson|last=Matthew|series=Hampton bulletinno. 9–10, 12–16 |editor1-last=Browne |editor1-first=Hugh |editor2-last=Kruse |editor2-first=Edwina |editor4-last=Moton |editor3-last=Walker |editor3-first=Thomas C. |editor4-first=Robert Russa |editor4-link=Robert Russa Moton |editor5-last=Wheelock |editor5-first=Frederick D. |publisher=Hampton Institute Press|location=[[Hampton, Virginia]]|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkQ9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA39|hdl=2027/chi.14025588?urlappend=%3Bseq=43|volume=4|year=1900|page=39}}</ref> In the 1930s, job discrimination ended for many African Americans in the North, after the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]], one of America's lead labor unions at the time, agreed to integrate the union.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brueggemann |first1=John |last2=Boswell |first2=Terry |s2cid=154406653 |year=1998 |title=Realizing Solidarity: Sources of Interracial Unionism During the Great Depression |journal=[[Work and Occupations]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=436–482 |doi=10.1177/0730888498025004003 }}</ref>

School segregation in the North was also a major issue.<ref name=io>{{cite web |url=http://web.wm.edu/news/archive/index.php?id=5438 |title=Q&A with Douglas: Northern segregation |website=William and Mary College, Office of University Relations |date=December 13, 2005 |access-date=February 28, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222054448/http://web.wm.edu/news/archive/index.php?id=5438 |archive-date=February 22, 2014 }}</ref> In Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, towns in the south of those states enforced school segregation, despite the fact that it was prohibited by state laws.<ref name=io /> Indiana also required school segregation by state law.<ref name=io /> During the 1940s, NAACP lawsuits quickly depleted segregation from the Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey southern areas.<ref name=io /> In 1949, Indiana officially repealed its school segregation law as well.<ref name=io /> The most common form of segregation in the northern states came from [[anti-miscegenation]] laws.<ref name=d.c />

The state of Oregon went farther than even any of the Southern states, specifically excluding blacks from entering the state, or from owning property within it. School integration did not come about until the mid-1970s. As of 2017, the population of Oregon was about 2% black.<ref name="Oregon Exclusion">{{cite web |title=Black Exclusion Laws in Oregon |url=https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/exclusion_laws/#.XH_kUIhKhGM |access-date=March 6, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Blacks in Oregon">{{cite web |title=Blacks in Oregon |url=https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/blacks_in_oregon/#.XH_k_IhKhGM |access-date=March 6, 2019}}</ref>

===In Alaska===
[[File:Discrimination_in_a_restaurant_in_Juneau_in_1908.png|thumb|Discrimination in a restaurant in [[Juneau, Alaska]], in 1908: "All White Help."]]

Racial segregation in [[Alaska]] was primarily targeted at [[Alaska Natives]].{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=430}} In 1905, the Nelson Act specified an educational system for whites and one for indigenous Alaskans.{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=431}} Public areas such as playgrounds, swimming pools, and theaters were also segregated.{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=434}} Groups such as the [[Alaska Native Brotherhood/Sisterhood|Alaska Native Brotherhood]] (ANB) staged boycotts of places that supported segregation.{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=434}} In 1941, [[Elizabeth Peratrovich]] ([[Tlingit]]) and her husband argued to the governor of Alaska, [[Ernest Gruening]], that segregation was "very Un-American".{{Sfn|Cole|1992|pp=435–436}} Gruening supported anti-discrimination laws and pushed for their passage.{{Sfn|Cole|1992|p=436}} In 1944, [[Alberta Schenck Adams|Alberta Schenck]] ([[Iñupiat|Inupiaq]]) staged a sit-in in the whites-only section of a theater in Nome, Alaska.<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 16, 2017|title=Peratrovich, ANB work to end 'de jure' segregation in Alaska|url=https://www.kcaw.org/2017/02/16/peratrovich-anb-work-end-de-jure-segregation-alaska/|access-date=November 11, 2020|website=KCAW|language=en-US}}</ref> In 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, the [[Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945|Alaska Equal Rights Act]], was passed in Alaska.<ref name="Vaughan-2019">{{Cite news|last=Vaughan|first=Carson|date=March 20, 2019|title=Overlooked No More: Elizabeth Peratrovich, Rights Advocate for Alaska Natives|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/obituaries/elizabeth-peratrovich-overlooked.html|access-date=November 11, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The law made segregation illegal and banned signs that discriminate based on race.<ref name="Vaughan-2019" />

===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>