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 Present Extent of Separation

With the exception of the early law of Georgia[57] of 1891, the "Jim Crow" street car laws came in with the new century. So far, eight of the Southern States have passed general statutes to separate the races on street cars, in the following order: Georgia,[57] 1891; Louisiana,[58] 1902; Mississippi,[59] 1904; Tennessee,[60] and Florida,[61] 1905; Virginia,[62] 1906, and North Carolina,[63] and Oklahoma,[64] 1907. The statute of Arkansas,[65] of 1903, might be included in the above list, but it applies only to cities of the first class. Some States passed laws of special application before they made them general. Thus, in 1902, the legislature of Virginia[66] separated the white and colored passengers on street cars going between Alexandria and points in Fairfax and Alexandria Counties; and in 1901, between Richmond and Seven Pines. And so Tennessee,[67] in 1903, made the regular separate coach law apply to street cars in counties having 150,000 inhabitants or over, as shown by the census of 1900 or any subsequent Federal census. Memphis only came within this law. In 1905, South Carolina[68] required the separation of the races on "electric railways outside of the corporate limits of cities and towns." This State has not yet made the law general.

The extent of legislation at present is as follows: Georgia and Oklahoma, by their regular "Jim Crow" laws, require the white and colored passengers on street cars to be separated. Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina have separated the races by statutes specially applicable to street cars. Arkansas, by statute, requires a separation in cities of the