State laws

• Where were the rail travel laws first introduced?

  Florida
• When were the rail travel laws introduced?

  1887
• What did Florida state law of 1865 mean?

  Black or white Americans who entered a railroad car reserved for the other race would be punished
• What did the Florida state law of 1887 say?


  Mandated segregation in the first-class cars, as long as facilities were 'equal'
• What was the fine for breaking the Florida state law?

  $500 fine
• How did South Carolina decrease black representation?

  In 1880, they redrew the congressional districts (jerrymandering)
• Who first introduced a poll tax?

  Georgia in 1871
• How much did voters have to pay to register to vote?

  $2
• What percentage of the black population could vote in Arkansas in 1890?

  71%
• What percentage of the black population could vote in Arkansas after the poll tax was introduced?

  Only 9%
• Why did the Poll tax disproportionately affect black Americans?

  Poverty was often high among black Americans
• What did South Carolina introduce in 1882?

  A literary qualification for voting
• What did Mississippi do to follow South Carolina?

  Introduced a literary qualification in 1890 for the sole purpose of excluding black voters
• What percentage of the black Mississippi population was illiterate?

  60%
• What clause was introduced by Louisiana?

  The Grandfather clause of 1898
• What did the grandfather clause say?

  A man could vote if it was proven that an ancestor had voted prior to Reconstruction
• What percentage of black Southern males could vote?

  Only 3% by 1900
• Which states followed the changes to rail travel in Florida?

  Mississippi (1888), Louisiana (1890) and Georgia in (1891)
• What was an example of de jure segregation in Louisiana?

  Black and white people were forbidden to play dice, dominoes or checkers together and textbooks for use in white schools had to be stored separately from those for black schools
• When was the Grandfather Clause deemed unconstitutional?

  1915