These pictures offer us a glimpse into what life was like for African-Americans in the South during the early 1900s, the era in which To Kill a Mockingbird is set. Many states, especially in the Deep South, instituted segregation laws, alternatively known as “Jim Crown laws,” that required separate accommodations for whites and African-Americans, in all facets of public life ranging from water fountains to public schools.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Thus began the slow shift away from segregation and towards legal equality for all races.

Detroit, Michigan in February 1942 –

Sign for “colored” waiting room at a Greyhound bus terminal in Rome, Georgia, 1943