The laws require that "equal accommodations" shall be furnished on railroads, but violations are frequently evident, as the railways often assign old or inferior equipment to the negroes.

In street cars one end is often assigned to negroes and the other to whites, and therefore the races alternate in the use of the same seats when the car turns back at the end of the line.

The division in a railway station may be nothing more than a bar or a low fence across the room, and one ticket office with different windows may serve both races.
Some of these regulations are defended on the ground that by reducing close contact they lessen the chances of race conflict.

That such a result is measurably attained is probable, and the comfort of traveling is increased for the whites at least.

William Archer, the English journalist and author, in _Through Afro-America says_, "I hold the system of separate cars a legitimate means of defence against constant discomfort," and most travelers will approve his verdict.