Living with Segregation
Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blalock forged a 34-year partnership that, despite their intellectual closeness, operated within the strictures of their times. Because Baltimore's Southern Hotel remained segregated in 1960, Thomas was not officially invited to the crowning event of Blalock's life, the celebration of his 60th birthday, after having worked with Blalock for 30 years.
Segregation was not about whites and blacks living in separate worlds. It was a system of "Jim Crow" laws and customs, regulating the way they interacted. Blacks and whites lived closely together, meeting at work, on the street and in private. Many whites demanded that these encounters conform to a hierarchy of white supremacy. Explore the legal and social conditions under which blacks and whites lived together and the strategies African Americans used to resist, accommodate and survive white racism.
The African American community opposed Jim Crow and the power structure in many different ways. Some of them were outright and some of them were subtle.
-- Bobby Lovett, historian
Explore mistreatment on the job.
See how the government favored white schools.
At the Movies
Find out how businesses and entertainment were segregated.
On Public Transportation
Learn about streetcars -- and boycotts.
Nat Crippens recalls a tense situation.