Race Distinctions in American LawStephenson, Gilbert Thomas
History
Race Distinctions in American Law
Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas
African Americans -- Politics and government; Law -- United States -- History; United States -- Race relations
The third division of the subject is the separation of races in street
cars. This is a field of much more active legislation than any of the
preceding, in which much has been done recently and in which much more
is likely to be done.
Of the thirteen separate coach laws just considered, six of them—those
of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and
Texas—except street railroads from their application. Georgia and
Oklahoma alone make their laws all inclusive, embracing electric and
street cars as well as railroad coaches. It is safe to assume that the
laws of the other States refer only to railroad coaches.
_Present Extent of Separation_
With the exception of the early law of Georgia[573] of 1891, the “Jim
Crow” street car laws came in with the new century. So far, eight of the
Southern States have passed general statutes to separate the races on
street cars, in the following order: Georgia,[573] 1891; Louisiana,[574]
1902; Mississippi,[575] 1904; Tennessee,[576] and Florida,[577] 1905;
Virginia,[578] 1906, and North Carolina,[579] and Oklahoma,[580] 1907.
The statute of Arkansas,[581] of 1903, might be included in the above
list, but it applies only to cities of the first class. Some States
passed laws of special application before they made them general. Thus,
in 1902, the legislature of Virginia[582] separated the white and
colored passengers on street cars going between Alexandria and points in
Fairfax and Alexandria Counties; and in 1901, between Richmond and Seven
Pines. And so Tennessee,[583] in 1903, made the regular separate coach
law apply to street cars in counties having 150,000 inhabitants or over,
as shown by the census of 1900 or any subsequent Federal census. Memphis
only came within this law. In 1905, South Carolina[584] required the
separation of the races on “electric railways outside of the corporate
limits of cities and towns.” This State has not yet made the law
general.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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