FLORIDA
Background information is provided to put the Jim Crow laws in context and explain how minorities were treated prior to the Civil War. In a few cases, the dates of specific information also have been provided. Florida enacted 19 Jim Crow segregation laws between 1865 and 1967. It also imposed some of the harshest penalties on record. The state also rewarded informers for reporting cases of miscegenation, who would receive half of the $1,000 fine.
Many of these entries came from an inactive website—www.jimcrowhistory.org—though much of the data previously posted on that website has been reproduced on other websites. To avoid repeating the source of information for these entries, we have added the symbol “#” at the end of each of them. Capitalization of words follows the original usage, and many of the entries have been edited for clarity.
1865: This Statute provided that Negroes or mulattoes who intruded into any railroad car reserved for white persons would be found guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, sentenced to stand in the pillory for one hour, or to be whipped, not exceeding 39 stripes, or both, at the discretion of the jury." Whites faced the same penalty for entering a car reserved for persons of color. Source is The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Jan. 1969), pp. 292-309
1873: Although this Statute prohibited discrimination on account of race in the full and equal enjoyment of public accommodations such as inns, public transportation, theaters, schools, cemeteries and places of public amusement, it did not include private schools or cemeteries established exclusively for white or colored persons. #
1881: This Statute made it unlawful for any white person to intermarry with any Negro person. Penalty: Performing such a ceremony punishable by a fine of $1,000, "of which one-half shall be paid to the informer." #
1885: The Constitution (Article XII, Section 12) stated that white and colored children shall not be taught in the same school, and (Article XVI, Section 24) "Forever" prohibited marriages between whites and blacks, or between a "white person and a person of Negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive." Source
1887: The Constitution specified that "All respectable Negro persons" to be sold first-class tickets at the same rates as white passengers and shall be provided a separate car "equally as good and provided with the same facilities for comfort as for white persons." Penalty: Conductors and railroad companies violating the provisions of the law faced a fine up to $500. It also prohibited White and colored children from being taught in the same schools. #
1895: This Statute made it a penal offense for any persons to conduct any school, any grade, either public or private where whites and blacks are instructed or boarded in the same building, or taught in the same class by the same teachers. Penalty: Between $150 and $500 fine, or imprisonment in the county jail between three and six months. #
1903: A Statute made intermarriage with a Negro, mulatto, or any person with one-eighth Negro blood illegal. Penalty: Imprisonment up to ten years or a fine not more than $1,000. #
1905: This Statute made separation of races required on all streetcars, an update of the 1865 Statute. It also gave Caucasian mistresses the right to have their children attended in the white section of the car by an African nurse but withheld from an African woman the equal right to have her child attended in the African section by its Caucasian nurse. #
1907: A Statute created separate waiting rooms for each race to be provided at railroad depots along with separate ticket windows. Also called for separation of the races on streetcars. Signs in plain letters to be marked "For White" and "For Colored" to be displayed. Penalties: Railroad companies that refused to comply with the provision could be fined up to $5,000. Source
1909: This Statute required separate accommodations required by race on railroads. Penalty: Passengers who failed to comply with law would be fined up to $500. Source is: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 3, No. 2 (May 1909), pp. 180-204.
1913: This Statute made it unlawful for white teachers to teach Negroes in Negro schools, and for Negro teachers to teach in white schools. Penalty: Violators subject to fines up to $500, or imprisonment up to six months. #
1927: This education Statute made it a criminal offense for teachers of one race to instruct pupils of the other in public schools. #
1927: This Statute defined the words "Negro" or "colored person" to include persons who have one eighth or more Negro blood. #
1944: The Constitution made it a felony for whites and Negroes to marry. A Negro is defined as a person having more than or at least one-eighth Negro blood. Such marriages are utterly null and void. A felony. Penalty: up to $500, or up to two years imprisonment. Source is: FLA. CONST., Art. 16, & 24; STATS. ANN., && 741. 11-.12
1949: Individuals with 1/8th African or Negro blood are prohibited from marrying a White person. Source
1958: This Statue made ensured that races to be segregated on public carriers. #
1964: McLaughlin v. Florida overturned an interracial cohabitation law in Florida that ruled that “any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room, shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars." The ruling also overturned the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in Pace v. Alabama (106 U.S. 583) . Source
1967: Sarasota passed a city ordinance stating that "Whenever members of two or more…races shall…be upon any public…bathing beach within the corporate limits of the City of Sarasota, it shall be the duty of the Chief of police or other officer…in charge of the public forces of the City...with the assistance of such police forces, to clear the area involved of all members of all races present." #
GEORGIA
Background information is provided to put the Jim Crow laws in context and explain how minorities were treated prior to the Civil War. In a few cases, the dates of specific information also have been provided. Georgia passed 27 Jim Crow laws. In addition to the usual miscegenation and educational statues, segregation laws governing such areas as business licenses, health care and prisons were passed. In 1750 forbade any nonwhite person from marrying any white person. Source
Many of these entries came from an inactive website—www.jimcrowhistory.org—though much of the data previously posted on that website has been reproduced on other websites. To avoid repeating the source of information for these entries, we have added the symbol “#” at the end of each of them. Capitalization of words follows the original usage, and many of the entries have been edited for clarity.
1865: This Statute made it unlawful for officials to issue marriage licenses to persons of African descent and the other a white person. Penalty: A misdemeanor that carried a fine between $200 and $500, or confinement in jail for three months, or both. Ministers who married such persons also guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined between $500 and $1,000, or confined in jail for six months, or both. Source
1872: This Statute called for separate schools for white and black children. Penalty: Schools that admitted both races would receive no monies from the public school fund. Source
1877: The Georgia Constitution prohibits Black and white children from attending the same schools. In 1895, 1926, 1933, 1945, and 1957, the state legislature will create laws to enforce this constitutional mandate. Source
