Question #4

Heather: How were Gender and class divided during this time? Were you treated differently because you were black?

Alexander Miles: Around the time that I submitted my ideas for the elevator, the Jim Crow Laws were passed by State Governments throughout the South. These laws seperated Blacks into different everything from Whites. We had different trains that we had to ride on. We were forced to attend different churches, hospitals, hotels, schools, etc. We were also denied any right to vote. The Ku Klux Klan was also very popular about these times. I was very concerned for my family's safety a lot. Fortunately, aside from being treated poorly compared to whites, we were never treated any different from other blacks. I wouldn't consider myself to be a wealthy man, but I believe myself to be rather well off and as far as the whites went, they pretty much just minded themselves unless they absolutley had to be involved with us.