Anthony Barthelemy on Jim Crow legislation

Anthony Barthelemy, Associate Professor of English, defines the concept of phenotype to describe the racist, segregated, "Jim Crow" South. He grew up in that South and remembers July 2, 1964, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a bill that opened all public accommodations -- hotels, restaurants, swimming pools -- to all Americans regardless of race, color, religion or national origin. The Jim Crow signs could no longer be enforced, although Barthelemy explains that racism continued to harass blacks. He describes the plight of African Americans seeking medical attention; they had to hope that a white doctor would be willing to see them. Barthelemy adds that African Americans who wanted to buy clothes were not allowed to try them on first. "'Couldn't' was the word that we lived by."