Segregation Signs

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Segregation signs visually divided the Deep South into racial groups through simple verbal cues, sometimes augmented with arrows or pointing fingers. These plaques were posted at the entrances, exits, and water fountains of the meeting areas, waiting rooms, halls, auditoriums, salesrooms, and restrooms of institutions and accommodations, both public and private. From a Georgia law requiring separate public parks to a South Carolina directive that forbade blacks and whites to work together in textile factories, they helped enforce segregation throughout the South.

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Segregation Signs: Colored Seated in Rear; No Dogs, Negroes, Mexicans; We Served Colored, Carry Out Only; Showers: White Officers, White Enlistees, C. 1930s, each aprox. 4 5/8 x 10 7/8 x 3/16 in. Collection of Civil Rights Archive/CADVC-UMBC, Baltimore, MD