MISSOURI
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. Seven school segregation and five miscegenation statutes, a public accommodations statute and a law forbidding interracial adoptions were passed in Missouri between 1865 and 1952, characterizing the state's civil rights stance as typical of most other border states. No anti-segregation laws were passed during this period. The state's 1879 miscegenation law, which made marriage between any white person and a person with one-eighth Negro blood or more illegal, offers testament to the difficulty of determining an individual's racial lineage. The statute noted that a jury in a miscegenation trial would determine the amount of Negro blood from a person's appearance.
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: The Constitution called for separate free public schools for white and Negro children. #
1865: A Statute provides education for all children if white children are sent to separate schools from black children. #
1866: A Statute prohibited all marriages between whites and Negroes. #
1875: The Constitution requires separate public schools for Black children. In 1887, 1889, and 1929, the state legislature will create laws to enforce this constitutional mandate. Source
1879: A Statute stated that persons with one-eighth or more Negro blood were prohibited from marrying white persons. Penalty: Two years in the penitentiary, or a fine up to $100, or imprisonment in the county jail for three months, or both fine and imprisonment. "A jury could determine the amount of Negro blood from appearance." The statute will be renewed in 1909, 1929, and 1949. Source
1887: A Statute stated that a school for Negro children to be established in districts where there are more than fifteen children of required age. In districts with less than fifteen children, they may attend school in another district with a separate school for Negro children. #
1889: A Statute made it unlawful for any black child to attend any white public school, or for any white child to attend a school for black children. #
1909: A Statute stipulated that marriages between white persons and Negroes, or white persons and Asians prohibited. #
1911: A St. Louis neighborhood enacted a racially restrictive covenant designed to prevent African-Americans and Asian-Americans from living in the area. Source
1929: A Statute called for separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school. Source
1929: A Statute authorized city boards of education to establish and maintain separate libraries for whites and blacks. #
1929: A Statute declared miscegenation a felony. It also prohibited marriages between persons of the Caucasian and Asian races. #
1942: A Statute declared that marriage between whites and persons having one-eighth or more Negro blood or Mongolians is prohibited and declared absolutely void. Felony. Source is: MO. REV. STAT., && 3361, 4651
1949: A Statute enabled Negroes to enroll in the University of Missouri in cases where the course they took were not available at Lincoln University (a black college). #
1949: A Statute prohibited marriage between white persons and Negroes or white persons and Asians. Penalty: Two years in penitentiary or not less than three months in county jail, fine not less than $100, or both. #
1952: A Statute forbid interracial adoptions #
MONTANA
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. Montana, with its large Native American population, denied voting rights to persons under federal "guardianship" in 1871 and forbade voter precincts on reservations. Four Jim Crow laws were enacted in Montana between 1871 and 1921. The school segregation act was repealed in 1895. In 1921, The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) organized in Montana. Though it counted approximately 5,100 members at its height, evidence suggests that Montana’s KKK held little influence over the lives of black Montanans, as the organization’s anti-Catholic/anti-immigrant stance outweighed whatever anti-black attitudes were found in the state. Source
1871: An education Statute dictated that children of African descent would be provided separate schools. Source
1872: The Territorial Legislature voted to segregate African American children in schools. Source
1884: The Crow Indians were confined to a reservation in Montana. Source
1889: The state opened voting to all male persons except Native Americans. Source
1897: A voting rights Statute excluded "any person living on an Indian or military reservation" from residency, unless that person had acquired a residence in a county of the state and is in the employment of the government while living on a reservation. Without residency, a person could not vote. Source
1897: A residency Statute excluded "any person living on an Indian or military reservation" from residency, unless that person had acquired a residence in a county of MT and is in the employ of the government while living on a reservation." Source
1909: Prohibited intermarriage between whites and African Americans, Chinese and Japanese and penalized those who performed such marriages. Source
1921: A miscegenation State Code prohibited and nullified interracial marriages if parties went to another jurisdiction where legal. Also prohibited marriages between persons of the Caucasian and Asian races. Source
1924: After the federal Indian Citizenship Act was adopted, Montana divided counties into at-large districts to dilute the impact of Native American voters. Source
1935. Marriage between Whites and Negroes (a person of Negro blood or in part Negro), Chinese person or Japanese person is prohibited. Source is MONT. REV. CODES, && 5700-5702
1937: The state ruled that all deputy voter registrars must be taxpaying residents of their precincts. Since Native Americans were exempt from some local taxes, they could not act as voter registrars, and tribal voter registration was effectively limited. Source
1943: Miscegenation [Statute] Prohibited marriage of whites with anyone with one-eighth or more Negro, Japanese or Chinese blood. Source
NEBRASKA
Background: The Nebraska Territorial Legislature felt comfortable blatantly discriminating against students of color in a 1856 law stating, “It shall be the duties of the directors . . . to take… an enumeration of all the unmarried white youths . . . between the ages of five and twenty-one years. . . for the purpose of affording the advantage of free education to all the white youth of this territory . . . ”Source is: Section 60, 5th Session of the Territorial Legislature, Complete Neb. Sess. Laws, 1855 to 1865, 92 (1886)
1865: A miscegenation Statute declared marriage between whites and a Negro or mulatto as illegal. Penalty: Misdemeanor, with a fine up to $100, or imprisonment in the county jail up to six months, or both. Source
