- Transit
- Segregation
- 1891–1959
- City of Atlanta
- Location approximate
Jim Crow on the streetcars
Georgia's 1891 law required streetcar segregation 'as much as practicable', enforced by conductors. Black Atlantans boycotted the cars between 1900 and 1906, and mobs attacked Black passengers on them during the 1906 massacre.
The record
Before 1891 Black and white passengers commonly sat side by side (Wikipedia). Black Georgians boycotted segregated streetcars in several cities between 1900 and 1906 (NGE). In September 1906 rioters entered trolley cars and assaulted Black men and women. Under the rules in force by 1910, Black riders sat in the rear, and those sitting farthest forward had to stand if white riders lacked seats. In 1943 Atlanta deputized bus drivers and armed them with revolvers. Segregated seating on the city's buses and trolleys lasted until the 1959 court ruling.
Today: Five Points MARTA station and the Atlanta Streetcar.
Where on the map: Systemwide; point at the Five Points transfer hub.