The first great question that arises is the extent of application of the laws. The statutes declare that they apply to all railroads doing business in the State. But just what does this mean? It has been generally understood and the principle has been confirmed by judicial decisions[558] that States may pass laws separating passengers going one from one point to another in the same State. But how about passengers coming from or going to points outside the State? Suppose, for instance, a colored passenger were to board a train at Philadelphia for Evansville, Indiana, and go through Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Pennsylvania and West Virginia have no “Jim Crow” laws; Maryland and Kentucky have. When the colored passenger reaches the Maryland line, must he enter a car set apart for colored people? When he reaches the West Virginia line, may he go back into the coach with white passengers? When, again, he reaches the Kentucky line, will he be forced to return to the car set apart for his race? And, finally, when he comes to Indiana, may he once more return to the car for white passengers? Or, suppose a railroad from Ohio to Indiana has only a few miles of its track in Kentucky and only two depôts in that State. Must the railroad furnish separate accommodations for the white and colored passengers going between those two points in Kentucky? If these questions had been asked thirty years ago or at the time of the Hall v. DeCuir case, there is no doubt that the Federal courts would have held that it was an unwarranted interference with interstate commerce or would lead to too much confusion.
The law of Alabama of 1891 contained the provision that “this act shall not apply to cases where white or colored passengers enter this State upon such railroads under contract for their transportation made in other States where like laws to this do not prevail.” Since these laws, however, have become so prevalent throughout the South, the courts seem to have swung over to the side of public opinion. In 1889, the Supreme Court of Mississippi held[559] that though the “Jim Crow” law of that State applied only to intrastate travel, it was not an unwarranted burden upon interstate railroads to require them to furnish separate accommodations for the races as soon as they came across the State line.