Reaction to Jim Crow laws.

Everyone knows that segregation occurred in the south and that the civil rights movement fought to bring equality, but it is really hard to grasp how severe it really was until you read the Jim Crow laws. I knew that buses were separated front to back, and that black and white people had separate bathrooms, but I didn't realize there were laws against a white and black person getting married. I was shocked by the level of segregation and the fact that it was everywhere! Hospitals had to have separate wards, buses had to have separate bus stations, trains had to have separate compartments, restaurants had to have separate rooms, bars, and entrances, circuses had to have separate seating, libraries had to have separate areas for reading, and prisons had to have separate wards. Whites couldn't rent a room in their home to a black person and vice versa. Text books in a school could not be shared between races. A white and black person could not get married to each other. Whites and Blacks were not even allowed to play pool/billiard together! These laws are from Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Virginia, Florida, and Alabama. That is over 1/5 of the states. The worst part is that the civil rights act was only passed in 1964! That is less than 50 years ago. It seems impossible that such injustice could have been occurring so recently in our past. I know that some black people and some white people must have been friends with each other but it sure would have been hard because there wasn't anywhere they could go in public together. I understand why MLK was so upset with the article in the paper from the 8 clergymen who wanted him to go through the court system instead of taking direct action. People had tried using the justice system to end segregation, but clearly it wasn't working so it was time to take it a step further. Segregation had lasted long enough and it was time to end it.