Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park
Park History Interpretive Series: The W&OD Railway and Jim Crow Laws
In 1900, the Virginia state legislature passed a law that required separation of races in public spaces. This included schools, restaurants, hotels, and public transportation—which at that time was primarily the use of trains. This was nicknamed the “Jim Crow” law and sought to perpetuate discrimination against people of color. Many other states, mostly Southern, passed similar laws.
The W&OD Railway at that time was owned by the Southern Railway and was called the Bluemont Branch. As with other rail lines in Virginia, the Southern was required to have a separate car for African Americans and Native Americans to ride in as a way to comply with the law.
After 1912, this wasn’t always possible since the W&OD usually ran single passenger cars, so separation of the races occurred within the cars with African American riders seated to the rear. Some rail lines even installed a curtain to separate the sections. Within the year of the law passing, African Americans who refused to sit in a separate car or section were arrested and fined for breaking the law. In a few cases, white riders were charged for sitting in the rear of train cars.
In 1900, the District of Columbia National Guard changed the location of their summer encampment from Leesburg, Virginia to Gaithersburg, Maryland to avoid making their African American soldiers ride in a separate car on the Bluemont Branch. A year later, Maryland passed their own version of the Jim Crow law.
Despite periodic lawsuits against them, many race segregation laws stayed in effect until the late 1960’s in Virginia.
