Were segregation laws enforced anywhere in the US besides the Southeastern USA?
Segregation laws (also called “Jim Crow”) existed in most parts of the country. In New York City, for example, when Jesse Owens returned from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he had to use the freight elevator in the Waldorf-Astoria to get to the reception being held in his honor there. Segregation laws had existed since at least the Civil War, but their legality came about mostly as a result of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). This was a case that eventually went before the Supreme Court; it was a suit over whether having separate railroad cars for black passengers was constitutional. The case helped cement the doctrine of “separate but equal,” meaning that as long as facilities designated for use by blacks were equal to those provided for whites, such practices were legal. After Plessy, segregation statutes started being passed in large numbers. Up until that time, the trend had been more toward extending civil rights. Laws were passed in every state of the union, and the District of Columbia.
