From “US: The Resurrection of American Terror” by Rev. Kenneth W. Wheeler
Segregation under the Jim Crow laws was not just about separating the races. It ultimately was about instilling self-hatred and trying to separate Black people from their own humanity. This was what those signs in public places were about. It was what riding in the back of the bus was about. It was what living in substandard housing was about. Segregation meant attending schools that were not as well equipped as the neighboring white schools. It meant that to maintain any semblance of self-respect, you had to wake each morning and look in the mirror and tell yourself that you were not what whites were saying you were.
This was a huge internal struggle. Almost daily you saw messages telling you that you were less than, that you were inferior, and that you were defective.