United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936
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"Jim Crow" America
This photograph was taken in Halifax, North Carolina (U.S.), in April 1938. The sign on the tree (“Colored”) indicates that the water fountain was for use by Blacks, who were forbidden to use fountains reserved for white people.
This photograph was taken in Halifax, North Carolina (U.S.), in April 1938. The sign on the tree (“Colored”) indicates that the water fountain was for use by Blacks, who were forbidden to use fountains reserved for white people.
—USHMM #22533/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
"Jim Crow" laws barred African-Americans from access to employment and to public places such as restaurants, hotels, and other facilities. In the U.S. South especially, Blacks lived in fear of racially motivated violence.

For more information, see "Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936: African American Voices and Jim Crow America" in the Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Listen to podcast: David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum, speaks about propaganda.

The Museum’s exhibitions are supported by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990.