Segregation in the South

Task: Look at the images and readings below. Use the pictures and primary source readings to help you collect evidence to prove the following claim... you must give reasons to support why segregation was unequal. Write the evidence 

CLAIM: Segregation in the South was Separate and Unequal

Class Example: 

White Movie Theater 

Vs.

Black Movie Theater 

 

Look at the differences between the two movie theaters. Be a detective what do you notice about the two. 

What is different? 

How are they unequal? 

How were drinking fountains separate and unequal? 

Now you try it on your own... 

Document 1: 

This "colored" fountain has not been given the space to achieve even a semi- balance of equality. The size in comparison was tiny.  The white fountain was gleaming “white” marble, an extremely expensive fountain compared to the colored fountain to the right.  A key component of this practice is the fountains whose difference in height implies that the fountain is for a child rather than an adult as it was intended for. 


How were drinking fountains separate and unequal? 

Document 2: 

White School 

 

VERSES 

Black School

A teacher in an all black segregated school, Elizabeth K. Cumbo tells her story about the conditions of the school:

We were unable to get new textbooks; these were handed down to us from the white schools. In many cases, pages were missing from these books and pupils had to share with each other.

Our school term was at least a month shorter than that of the white school. The course of study was different. Salaries for us were about one-half of what the white teachers received. When asked the reason for this, the superintendent said, "White people paid more taxes than colored people."

How were schools separate and unequal?  


Document 3: 

Miss Jane remembers about the courthouse in Bayonne in the early 1960s: They didn't have a colored bathroom inside. White, yes; but nothing for colored. Colored had to go outside, rain or shine and go down in the basement. Half the time the bathroom was so filthy you couldn't get inside the door. The water on the floor come almost to the top of your shoes. You could smell the toilets soon as you started downstairs. Very seldom a lady would go down there because it was so filthy. Restrooms for blacks were filthy and often little more than outhouses.  The prevailing Jim Crow policy seems to have been to disregard gender: Cecil Williams recalls doors marked "WHITE WOMEN" and "WHITE MEN" but only occasional doors marked "COLORED," "meaning it was used by black men, women, and children.”

 
How were schools separate and unequal?