Existing comment:
Separate & Unequal:
In the 1890s, some states began passing laws limiting the rights of African Americans. Voting restrictions increased during the first half of the 1900s. Poll taxes discriminated against poor blacks. "Understanding tests" required prospective black voters to "correctly" interpret a section of the state of US Constitution. African Americans were not allowed to vote in primaries.
States also segregated African Americans into separate and unequal public facilities. In its 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana's racially designated train cars were constitutional. By World War I, so-called "Jim Crow" laws segregated the races in restaurants, theaters, parks, and hospitals. |