1887

Beginning with Florida in 1887, Southern states passed laws mandating racial segregation on railroads. Mississippi followed in 1888, Texas in 1889, Louisiana in 1890, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee in 1891. These laws required separate and invariably inferior cars for Black passengers regardless of their class of ticket. They were followed by segregation laws covering streetcars, waiting rooms, hotels, restaurants, schools, hospitals, prisons, courtrooms, cemeteries, drinking fountains, and parks — creating a comprehensive caste system enforced by law and violence. The railroad laws specifically targeted the Black middle class, who could afford first-class tickets, to enforce a racial hierarchy that transcended economic class.

On November 23, 1887, in Thibodaux, Louisiana, a white militia and armed civilians attacked striking Black sugar cane workers who had walked off plantations to demand higher wages. At least 50 and possibly over 100 Black men, women, and children were killed over several days; exact numbers are unknown because bodies were dumped in swamps. Two white men died. The strike, organized by the Knights of Labor, involved 10,000 Black workers across the sugar parishes. Judge Taylor Beattie declared martial law and forced Black families into a restricted area before the massacre began. The Thibodaux Massacre was one of the bloodiest labor massacres in American history and effectively destroyed Black labor organizing in Louisiana sugar country for a generation.

As AFL craft unions organize, Black workers who had practiced skilled trades as enslaved artisans and free craftsmen during Reconstruction are excluded from union membership by constitutional bars or tacit exclusion. Plasterers, bricklayers, carpenters, and cigar makers who had worked alongside white craftsmen are denied union cards, excluded from apprenticeship programs, and replaced by white union members. Gompers acknowledges the exclusions but takes no action.

As AFL craft unions organize, Black plasterers, bricklayers, carpenters, and cigar makers who practiced trades since before emancipation are denied union cards and excluded from apprenticeship programs. Gompers acknowledges the exclusions but takes no action. White union members replace Black craftsmen who had previously worked alongside them.

Mississippi's own state records documented that in 1887, 126 of approximately 735 state convicts died in the lease system — a mortality rate of over 17%. Alabama documented similar rates; one private investigator reported that at Slope No. 12 mine of Pratt Coal, 45 of every 100 convicts died in a year. Federal investigator Frederick Hoffman's 1896 Race Traits study used these mortality differentials — without interrogating their causes — to argue Black biological inferiority.

By 1887, despite Powderly's nominal commitment to racial inclusion, the Knights of Labor permits Southern assemblies to expel Black members, refuse integrated meetings, and charter exclusively white locals in trades where Black workers previously worked. When Black members protest, Powderly mediates in favor of white members to preserve organizational cohesion. The pattern prefigures the AFL's practice of racial exclusion through craft autonomy.

By 1887, the Knights permit Southern assemblies to expel Black members and charter whites-only locals in trades where Black workers previously worked. When Black members protest, Powderly mediates in favor of white members to preserve cohesion. The pattern prefigures the AFL's use of craft autonomy to enforce racial exclusion.

T. Thomas Fortune relaunched his paper as the New York Age in 1887, building it into the most influential Black newspaper in the nation by the 1890s. Fortune's militant editorials, published under the motto 'No Temporizing,' called for full civil and political equality and denounced Booker T. Washington's accommodationism. By 1890 over 150 Black newspapers were publishing nationwide, forming a critical infrastructure for Black political and cultural life.

In 1887, the International League formally barred Black players, completing the de facto color line in professional baseball. In response, Black players organized their own teams and leagues. The Cuban Giants, founded in 1885 in Babylon, New York, became the first professional Black baseball team. Independent Black teams barnstormed nationally, demonstrating excellence that directly contradicted white claims of Black athletic inferiority.

In 1887 the International League formally barred Black players, completing the de facto color line in professional baseball. In response, Black players organized their own teams. The Cuban Giants, founded 1885 in Babylon, New York, became the first professional Black baseball team, demonstrating excellence that directly contradicted white claims of Black athletic inferiority.