| − | So-called "Jim Crow" laws were passed throughout the South after the Civil War to segregate (separate) blacks from whites in schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, theaters, transportation, and drinking fountains, also to interfere with the right to vote by the former slaves. The name "Jim Crow" comes from a show performed on stage in the 1800s whereby a white man pretended to be black by wearing "blackface" makeup and mocking blacks based on stereotypes of that time. Today such performances and any use of "blackface" makeup to pretend to be black is considered offensive and racist. | + | So-called "Jim Crow" laws were passed throughout the South after the Civil War to segregate (separate) blacks from whites in schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, theaters, transportation, and drinking fountains, and also to interfere with the right to vote by the former slaves. The name "Jim Crow" comes from a show performed on stage in the 1800s whereby a white man pretended to be black by wearing "blackface" makeup and mocking blacks based on stereotypes of that time. Today such performances and any use of "blackface" makeup to pretend to be black is considered offensive and racist. |
| − | Segregation by race was also common in the North, and it is incorrect to pretend that racism occurred only in the South. The photo above shows a restaurant in Ohio which posted a sign in 1938 saying it wanted only white customers. For roughly a century after the Civil War no federal law prohibited discrimination by private businesses, and it was unclear whether Congress even had authority under the Constitution to ban private discrimination. It was not until 1964 that Congress passed a Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination by restaurants, hotels, transportation, employers, and other businesses which affect interstate commerce in any way. Private clubs which are not businesses, such as country clubs, sometimes continued to discriminate in the North and the South and are beyond the authority of Congress under the Constitution. | + | Segregation by race was also common in the North, and it is incorrect to pretend that racism occurred only in the South. The photo above shows a restaurant in Ohio which posted a sign in 1938 saying it wanted only white customers. For roughly a century after the Civil War no federal law prohibited discrimination by private businesses, and it was unclear whether Congress even had authority under the Constitution to ban private discrimination. It was not until 1964 that Congress passed a Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination by restaurants, hotels, transportation, employers, and other businesses which affect interstate commerce in any way. Private clubs which are not businesses, such as country clubs, sometimes continued to discriminate in the North and the South, and are generally beyond the authority of Congress under the Constitution. |