Jim Crow Background

Introduction to the Jim Crow South

During seven Civil Rights cases in 1883, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that the force of federal law could not extend to individual action because the 14th Amendment, which provided that "no state" could deny citizens the equal protection of the laws, stood to prohibit only in the cases of state action. As a result, the slogan "separate but equal" lost its validity, particularly in the south. Many white southerners embraced a racial ideology that held that African Americans were "retrogressing" as a result of the being granted their freedom. This racial ideology was manifested in what was called "Jim Crow Laws." These laws allowed for the disenfranchisment of blacks and did not take long to extend segregation into almost every aspect of southern society. Railways, schools, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, stores, jobs, and entertainment were all segregated. If an aspect of segregation was overlooked by the law, it was not by society. The prevalence of this view is seen in a quote from the editor of the Richmond Times:

"It is necessary that this principle be applied in every relation of Southern life. God Almighty drew the color line and it cannot be obliterated. The negro must stay on his side and the white man must stay on his side, and the sooner both races recognize this fact and accept it, the better it will be for both."

Charlottesville, a small, southern city in central Virginia, was not hidden from the segregation the Jim Crow Laws brought. The city transformed physically, socially, and demographically as a result of the Jim Crow Era.