| What did the Louisiana law say? (1)"...[A]ll railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this State, shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored races, by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations....No person or persons, shall be admitted to occupy seats in coaches, other than the ones assigned to them, on account of the race they belong to." (2) "Any passenger insisting on going into a coach or compartment to which by race he does not belong, shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five dollars, or in lieu thereof to imprisonment for a period of not more than twenty days in the parish prison, and any officer of any railroad insisting on assigning a passenger to a coach or compartment other than the one set aside for the race to which said passenger belongs, shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five dollars or in lieu thereof to imprisonment for a period of not more than twenty days in the parish prison..." (3) "Nothing in this act shall be construed as applying to nurses attending children of the other race." Who is a member of the "colored race"? Definitions varied by state (preponderance / less than 3/4 white blood / "any visible admixture of black blood" / "one drop" rule). Louisiana followed the "one drop" rule. |