ABSTRACT
Blacks suffered more than their white counterparts as the Southern economy spiraled downward in the 1890s. Jim Crow laws mandated regulated racial segregation in public facilities of all kinds, from water fountains to seats on turn-of-the-century streetcars. Beginning in Tennessee in 1875, state after state pushed through hundreds of Jim Crow laws, separating blacks and whites on trains, in stations, and on ships. In 1883 blacks were banned from white schools, theaters, and restaurants. Many African Americans refused to accept the new racial order: in North Carolina, blacks made political alliances with populist whites and initially were able to hold off Jim Crow laws. But in 1898, whites rioted when a black newspaper in Wilmington criticized the tactics of Southern Democrats. In a famous speech in 1895, Booker T. Washington in effect accepted segregation as a temporary accommodation, in exchange for white support to improve blacks' economic progress, education, and social uplift.
