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From Separate Drinking Fountains to Separate Lunch Tables
Society’s continued segregation prevents real racial healing.
In response to 2023 racial justice efforts, some white folks I know like to remind people what things were like 50 years ago.
As one acquaintance put it to me recently, “You act like we haven’t made considerable progress on race issues.”
They’re referring to a time when society was legally separate.
There were separate drinking fountains, separate restrooms, separate schools, you name it. All permissible.
States and cities literally all over the country (not just the South) legally prohibited people from consorting with members of another race. There were laws prohibiting intermarriage and other places that ordered business owners to keep their Black and white customers separated.
Georgia, for example, mandated that restaurants served either patrons who were all Black or all white, but not both. The state was so racist it wouldn’t even let Black and white people be buried in the same places.
In the North, Maryland segregated passenger railroad cars by race.
Oklahoma had mandatory segregated fishing. Even separate telephone booths. Can you imagine? A telephone booth…
