Jim Crow Laws

        First off, don't tell me I'm the only one who thought Jim Crow was a real person! While reading through these laws I was not at all shocked or mortified because it is what I expected. However, I also expected there to be a few laws saying that whites could do something while colored people couldn't, but there was not. Instead every law simply stated that this building was seperated and so on. There were quite a few laws that I found especially harsh or just strange. For example, for different races to be in the same restaurant there must be a wall at least seven feet tall seperating the two groups. Another law stated that a white baseball team is not allowed to play within two blocks of a playground devoted to a different race. We have come so far in terms of this law because today if seems as if half of our professional sports players are of another race. A law I found strange is that circus entrances and ticket booths must be seperate for each race (apparently they had a lot of circuses in Louisiana). The other law I found peculiar is that buildings for teaching the blind must also be segregated. First of all, the students are blind so they probably do not care if they are in a room with someone of another race (seriously, how would they know?) Secondly, I can't picture them having enough blind kids to open up a different building for each race (but who knows, I could be wrong).
           Intermarriage seemed as if it was the most strict law, and also the most common. A white person was not allowed to marry a colored if they were one-eighth or more of African descent. (I heard in Social Studies that humans originated and evolved in Africa, but I'm sure if someone used that as an excuse back then it would not go over well.) They also mentioned in a few laws that whites and Mongolians were not allowed to marry, and I was not sure if that was to be taken literally or did it refer to anyone of any Asian descent. We have also come a long way in terms of this law, because we don't just tolerate other races, but there is a great percentage of interracial marriages in the U.S.
            Another law said that textbooks were not to be shared between races. It takes me back  to kindergarten when everyone had cooties! The law that disturbed me the most was that white convicts and colored convicts must be seperated in prison. It's puzzling as to why whites were still considered better than blacks even when they were both in prison for of committing heinous crimes. This is like saying a white person can do no wrong, which in a way is what people stood for during this time period.