Jim Crow on the Books

In 1955, Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth organized the first march to City Hall when he petitioned the city to hire Negro policemen. By 1963, thousands of Blacks marched on City Hall to protest Jim Crow laws that constantly reinforced their second-class status in America by denying fair voting rights and access to public facilities. Separate water fountains, restrooms, schools, public transportation, and other facilities were marked for “Whites Only” and “Colored” or “Negroes,” and separate never meant equal, as facilities for Blacks were substandard to those for Whites. As Supreme Court rulings in the 1950s began to overturn the legal basis for Jim Crow across the nation, Blacks in Birmingham and throughout the American South began disobeying segregation laws and demanding their repeal. By May 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was considered America’s most segregated city, with city and state legal codes that strictly banned nearly all social contact between Blacks and Whites. City Code Section 597 made it unlawful for a Negro and a white person to play together, or in company with each other, at cards, dice, dominoes, or checkers, and on September 19, 1950, Ordinance 798-F added more restrictions to prevent racial interaction at baseball, softball, football, basketball, and similar games.

Birmingham, Alabama · United States