The other day an Asian friend of mine and I got on a bus, and sat in the front row. As he joke, he said, "Are you sure we can sit here? This is where the white people sit". I pointed out that I am white, but I have no idea where he would have had to sit.
The internet only gave a bunch of people throwing out their thoughts on the matter. Anyone have any historical documents or knowledgeable conjecture?
Thanks!
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1e38qd/what_was_it_like_to_be_asianlatino_in_the/
I'd also have to double check it, but Iris Chang's book The Chinese In America also covers this period pretty thoroughly as well. Overall, Asian people had a tough line to walk in the segregated South- they could enter 'whites only' places in most areas, but clearly only on 'suffrance'.
And as many Asian shopowners dealt almost completely with the African-American community, there came a point where they were asked to take sides. Even putting a sign up in the window supporting desegregation would cost them 'honorary' status (and it wasn't like they weren't subject to casual racism anyway- this was only an exception to de jure institutional racism), but not supporting desegregation could cost them most of their customer-base.