SEGREGATION Legislation known as Jim Crow laws separated people of color from whites in schools, housing, jobs, and public gathering places. In 1954 17 of 48 states had laws that required racial segregation. In the 1949-50 school year, for every dollar spent on a white child only 24 cents was allotted for a black student. (Courtesy of South Carolina Department of Archives and History)

southern states enacted literacy tests poll taxes Taking away the vote southern states enacted literacy tests poll taxes elaborate registration systems Grandfather Clauses

Taking away the vote The laws proved very effective. In Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age African Americans were registered after 1890. In Louisiana, where more than 130,000 black voters had been registered in 1896, the number had plummeted to 1,342 by 1904.

Voter Purges 1961-1963 Louisiana “purged” unqualified voters. 90% of registered blacks removed from files. Loss of jobs, beaten and threatened. Mississippi retaliated for voter registration drive, surplus food cut off.

Voter Purges Mississippi = 24,000 black registered voters out of 400,000 voting age blacks and only 5% of black voters actually voted. Selma, Alabama – 156/15,000 voting age blacks were on the voter rolls.

SEPARATE, BUT EQUAL? State White Black Alabama $34.25 $12.20 Arkansas  $34.25  $12.20 Arkansas  $23.93  $11.17 Florida  $51.96  $23.09 Georgia  $40.50  $13.92 Louisiana  $51.78  $14.93 Mississippi  $31.33  $6.64 North Carolina  $34.63  $23.60 South Carolina  $42.00  $13.81 Texas  $53.09  $29.36 Nine-state average  $40.39  $16.52

1960 Only 765 of the South’s 7,000 school districts were desegregated Only 7% of black students in the South attended integrated schools No schools in South Carolina, Alabama, or Georgia had been integrated. Schools in Prince Edward, Virginia, closed in 1959 would remain closed until 1963.

White school in Summerton The county provided 30 buses to bring white children to larger and better-equipped facilities. White children from the Summerton area attended this red brick building with a separate lunchroom and science laboratories. Most rural black schools had neither electricity nor running water The community’s initial demand was small—a bus for children who had to walk up to nine miles to school.

Chicago June 12, 1954 landmarkcases.org

Richmond May 22, 1954 landmarkcases.org