Jim Crow Laws Codify Total Racial Segregation Across Southern States

By 1900, every former Confederate state had passed comprehensive Jim Crow legislation mandating racial segregation in virtually all public life: railroads, streetcars, waiting rooms, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, barber shops, water fountains, phone booths, and cemeteries. Georgia and North Carolina segregated textile factories by race. Oklahoma segregated telephone booths. Mississippi required separate textbooks for Black and white students, with the books stored separately to prevent contamination. Florida made it illegal for white and Black students to use the same edition of a textbook. These laws backed by threat of violence.