Jim Crow Laws - Separate Is Not Equal - 1 views
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Jennifer Reyes Orellana on 14 Sep 13This webpage is part of an online exhibition on the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History website, titled "Separate Is Not Equal Brown v. Board of Education". Listed are a handful of Jim Crow laws that prohibited various interactions between white people and individuals of other races and ethnicities. These laws prohibited intermarriage, mandated separate facilities for travel and education, and even imposed jail time for women who carried the child of a black or mixed race man. In communities around the country property owners would sign a restrictive covenant that stated they promised not to sell their homes to individuals who were not white. The bus that Parks was arrested on belonged to a company that adhered to segregation laws. Living in a city as diverse as New York makes it so challenging for me to imagine that there was a time when people couldn't ride a bus together if they belonged to different racial groups. On any given day I find myself sitting or standing next to a variety of people from all kinds of ethnic and cultural background. Thank goodness for the Civil Rights movement and the activists that stood up for equality.