The Laws
- A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
- Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
- Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
- Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended whites.
- Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the white person), this is Charlie (the black person), that I spoke to you about."
- Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
- If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
- White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
Timeline Of The Jim Crow Laws
1828- Thomas “Daddy” Rice sings a song to insult African American people.
1866- The Klu Klux Klan is created.
1870- A law made by Virginia made it illegal for African American children to go to the same schools as white children.
1875- The Congress made The Civil Rights Act of 1875 prohibiting white people to discriminate against African Americans in public accommodations such as water fountains and benches.
1882- In 1882, more than 49 African American people were lynched.
1890- Laws were made so that African Americans did not have the right to vote.
1892- Ida B. Wells began trying to stop lynching. In that year alone, 161 African Americans were lynched.
1896- During this year, there was the Plessy v. Ferguson trial.
1909- A lot of African Americans met up in New York City and started the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
1914- By the time this year started, all of the Southern States and a lot of Northern States had Jim Crow Laws.
1917- The United States entered WWI and over 370,000 African Americans were forced to fight.
1920- White women get the right to vote.
1931- The Scottsboro boys and everything surrounding it started.
1942- Congress of Racial Equality is founded in Chicago.
1945- After WWII ended, 1,150,000 African Americans were forced to join the military.
1955- A Virginia law imprisoned any white woman that gave birth to a mixed child.
1955- Rosa Parks, an African American woman refuses to give her seat to a white man.
1956- African Americans were banned from playing certain games with other white people.
1959- A law in Arkansas made every bus have a designated white only seating area.
1964, 2nd of July- President Johnson signed the Civil Rights of Act.