The actual separation of the races is accomplished by requiring railroads to furnish on each passenger train either separate cars or one car divided into separate compartments by a partition. Each State gives the choice. In case of the division of the car into compartments, the partition must, in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, be made of wood; in Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Texas, it must be “substantial”; and in Maryland and Texas, it must have a door in it. Arkansas requires only a partitioned car on roads less than thirty miles long, but separate cars on longer roads, though a train on any road may carry one partitioned car.
Maryland and North Carolina provide that, in case the car or compartment for either race becomes filled and no extra cars can be obtained and the increased number of passengers could not have been foreseen, the conductor may assign a portion of the car or compartment for one race to the passengers of the other race.
Designation of Separation
Several States specify a means by which the public shall be notified of the existence of the “Jim Crow” requirements. Arkansas requires the law to be posted in each coach and waiting-room; Louisiana, in each coach and ticket-office; Texas, in each coach and depôt. In Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Texas, each coach or compartment must bear in some conspicuous place appropriate words, in plain letters, to indicate the race for which it was set apart.
Punishment for Violating Law
Certain liabilities are incurred for the violation of the “Jim Crow” laws. The three parties concerned are the passenger, the conductor or manager of the train, and the railroad company itself. If a passenger refuses to occupy the coach or compartment to which he, by his race, belongs, the conductor may refuse to carry him and may eject him if he is already on the train; and for this neither the conductor nor the railroad company is liable. In Georgia and Texas, conductors are given express power to enforce the law, and in other States the power is implied. Some States punish passengers for wilfully riding in the wrong car by a fine ranging from a minimum of five dollars in Maryland and Texas to a maximum of one thousand dollars in Georgia, or imprisonment from twenty days in Louisiana to six months in Georgia.
The conductor is liable for two kinds of offences: (1) for assigning a passenger to a car or compartment to which he does not by race belong, and (2) for failing to separate passengers. Most of the States consider the two violations as one. Only Arkansas and Louisiana prescribe separate punishments for assigning the passenger to the wrong car—a fine of twenty-five dollars in Arkansas and a fine of twenty-five dollars or twenty days’ imprisonment in Louisiana. The punishment for refusing to enforce the law is a fine varying from a minimum of five dollars in Texas to a maximum of one thousand dollars in Georgia, or, in a few States, imprisonment of varying length. In Texas, the fines collected are applied to the common school fund of the State.
The fine imposed upon railroad companies for failing or refusing to furnish separate accommodations, varies between twenty-five dollars and one thousand dollars for each offence, and for this purpose each trip that the train makes is considered a separate offence. If, however, the railroad company provides the required separate cars or compartments and the conductor fails to enforce the law or violates its provisions, it is the conductor, not the company, who is liable.[[571]]
Separation of Postal Clerks
A special question has arisen out of the Federal postal cars on which both white and colored clerks are employed. At present, they are obliged to sleep in the same cars, and at the terminals of long runs dormitories are provided for them, but without any race separation. The post-office department has said that such regulation is beyond its control.[[572]] Thus the matter stands, with a growing discontent on the part of the white postal clerks to be so intimately associated with the colored clerks.