Politics
Water fountains at a public institution are separated between "White" and "Colored." Although separate, the fountains are not equal, the "White" fountain being of better quality and material than the "Colored" fountain.
Along with the poor living conditions, African Americans were suppressed in government. The Jim Crow Laws were still in effect, threatening any African American who wished to vote. The grandfather clause and literacy tests left few of them able to do so. Under the grandfather clause, only those whose grandfather had the right to vote could legally vote. The laws were passed when few African Americans had a grandfather that could vote, so the majority of them couldn't express their beliefs in politics. Those who could vote were again threatened by the literacy test proposed by the Laws. One could vote if they could pass the literacy tests. The poor education system accompanied with most black neighborhoods made this close to impossible for African Americans to pass, and again decreased the amount of African Americans who were able to vote. In addition to being unable to vote, America now found itself living a "separate but equal" life, proposed by the Jim Crow Laws. Under this section of the laws, public facilities and buildings were to have "separate but equal" areas for whites and African Americans because they believed that no white man should have to sit next to an African American. However, the separate facilities were always equal. Those designated for "colored" people were in significantly worse conditions. Those that were created equal were not kept up, however, and so they decreased to conditions similar to those of those that weren't equal in the first place. The government was not inclusive of all citizens, as a democracy should be, and American society was split.