Just
about every public amenity you can think of was segregated under the notorious Jim Crow laws.
Schools, restaurants, water fountainsthey were all used to separate people on racial grounds.
There weren't separate buses for different races, as it would've been a hit to bus companies'
profits, but buses were still segregated in that African Americans were confined to specific
areas at the back. Rosa Parks famously defied segregation on buses by refusing to get up and
move from her seat at the front to make way for white passengers.
It was the
same with lunch counters. Certain lunch counters were reserved for white patrons, while African
Americans were expected to eat elsewhere. Segregated lunch counters in places such as
Birmingham, Alabama became the focus of the civil rights movement. Activists would sit down in
whites-only areas and stage protests until they were forcibly removed by the police. The
protesters were campaigning against not only the separate provision of facilities but the fact
that facilities for African Americans were either decidedly inferior or, in the case of
segregated buses, led to their being treated as second-class citizens.
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