Segregation was mandated in the Jim Crow laws.
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States . They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America , starting in 1890 with a `` separate but equal '' status for African Americans in railroad cars . President Woodrow Wilson initiated segregation of federal workplaces at the request of southern Cabinet members in 1913 .