To Be Black in North Carolina?

In 1941, when the original Second Ward film was made, Caucasians and African Americans lived completely separate lives. Caucasians were called "White" and African Americans were called "Colored." The two races could not mix: they lived in separate neighborhoods, went to separate schools and colleges, ate in separate restaurants, and drank from separate water fountains. "Whites Only" or "Colored" distinguished which public places each race was allowed to enter, which restroom each could use. In fact, white and black people could not even be treated by the same doctors or at the same hospital.

Plessy vs. Ferguson was the court case that made the separation of races legal. The decision influenced not only where black people could and could not go; it created the atmosphere for the type of relationship that the two races would have.

In addition, the North Carolina General Assembly added laws to the state constitution that dictated the boundaries within which black people could live. These laws, now known as the "Jim Crow laws," legalized discrimination in schools, public buildings, city and county areas, and relationships. They returned to white people the superiority over blacks they had lost after the 13th Amendment.

Bessie and Sadie Delaney talk about their experiences with the "Jim Crow days" in their autobiography, Having Our Say:

"We encountered Jim Crow laws for the first time on a summer Sunday afternoon. We were about five and seven years old at the time. Mama and Pap used to take us to Pullen Park in Raleigh for picnics, and that particular day, the trolley driver told us to go to the back. We children objected loudly, because we always liked to sit in the front, where the breeze would blow your hair. But Mama and Papa just gently told us to hush and took us to the back without making a fuss.

When we got to Pullen Park, we found changes there, too. The spring where you got water now had a big wooden sign across the middle. On one side, the word "white" was painted, and on the other, the word "colored." Why, what in the world was all this about? We may have been little children but, honey, we got the message loud and clear.

On another day, soon afterward, a teacher from Saint Aug's took us to the drugstore for a limeade, which was something we had done hundreds of times. Well, this time, the man behind the counter said, 'I can't wait on you.' The teacher got very upset. She said, 'I can see you not waiting on me, but surely you are not going to deny these young children?' And he said, "Sorry. It's the law.'" (excerpted from Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters' First 100 Years)

More...