Jim Crow laws mandated racial segregation and were enforced in the United States between the 1880s and 1960s. These laws required facilities like schools, public parks, restaurants, and transportation to be segregated for black and white people. Signs at facilities would label entrances, waiting areas, seating sections, or other spaces as "colored" or "white." The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, finding that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This landmark ruling overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine and dismantled the legal basis of racial segregation in America.

1. SIGNS OF JIM CROW from the Library of Congress Collection

2. What were Jim Crow laws? From the 1880s into the 1960s, most American states enforced segregation through " Jim Crow " laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows). From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for mingling with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep blacks and whites separated.

3. Some Facilities that Were Separate: Bus station waiting rooms and ticket windows Railroad cars or coaches Restaurants and lunch counters Schools and public parks Restrooms and water fountains Sections of movie theaters There were even separate cemeteries

4. JUST IMAGINE… You are Black. You must address all whites as Yes Sir, Yes Ma’am. You must not look a white person in the eye – always head down You must walk in the street to yield to Whites on sidewalks

5. Dallas Bus Station

6. At the bus station, Durham, North Carolina, 1940.

7. Greyhound bus terminal, Memphis, Tennessee. 1943.

8. A rest stop for bus passengers on the way from Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, with separate entrance for Blacks. 1943.

9. A sign at bus station, Rome, Georgia. 1943.

10. A highway sign advertising tourist cabins for Blacks, South Carolina. 1939.

11. Cafe, Durham, North Carolina. 1939.

12. Drinking fountain on the courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina. 1938.

13. Movie theater’s "Colored" entrance, Belzoni, Mississippi. 1939.

14. The Rex theater for colored people, Leland, Mississippi. June 1937.

15. Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio. 1938.

16. Water cooler in the street car terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 1939.

17. Sign above movie theater, Waco, Texas. 1939.

18. Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. 1939.

19. Brown v. Board of Education " We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

20. What Happened? On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction. The 1954 decision declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal.

21. The Name Brown v. Board received its name from the lawsuit brought by the parents of eight-year-old Linda Brown, who had to travel a great distance to attend grade school while white children went to a school a few blocks away.

22. The Outcome The key phrase in the ruling delivered by Chief Justice Earl Warren was as follows: Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn.

23. Continued… Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system. ... We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."