Jim Crow Railroad Cars Spread Across the South 1881-1891

Tennessee enacted the first Jim Crow railroad car law in 1881; nine other Southern states followed through the 1880s and early 1890s. Black passengers who refused segregated cars faced arrest. The laws were designed partly to humiliate middle-class Black professionals who had previously accessed first-class accommodations. Homer Plessy's 1892 test case, organized by the New Orleans Comité des Citoyens, challenged Louisiana's 1890 Separate Car Act, leading to the Plessy ruling.