Talking with my cousin about her experience living under Jim Crow laws caused me to think about the logistics, or the daily experience.
Some things were clear and definite: separate schools, separate swimming pools (or days of availability), separate drinking fountains. Once you knew the rules, complying with them was relatively straightforward.
But some situations were not so clear and fixed. For example, on the bus, a bus that's heavily used by both blacks and whites. At the beginning whites sit at the front and blacks at the back. But once it gets full, if you're a 10-year white girl boarding the bus you're forcing a black to give up her/his seat, regardless of the age or condition of the black. If it's full and a black is the next to board, she's forced to stand unless another black yields his seat.
Depending on the rearing and beliefs of the girl, she may accept causing inconvenience to the black as her right and due, or as a violation of treating people as equals.
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