Secondary question to this one: which category would people fall in if they were neither black nor white? Eg asians, mexicans, etc...

So far, many of the linked answers are well done, but I think several fail to mention the intent behind the action is what mattered most. If a white man were to sit in a "colored" section of a restaurant or bus, or park, or wherever, based merely on a "I'll sit wherever I want" attitude that conformed to the prevailing social order (white supremacy, that is), very likely nothing would have happened. As some have pointed out, the function of segregation was not so much as separation in and of itself, but separation as means to keep blacks down. However, if a white person deliberately flaunted breaking the color barrier as a means of resisting Jim Crow, the backlash could be immediate and severe.

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Such was the case of James Reeb. In 1965, minister Reeb, along with several others, dined at an all-black restaurant following a Civil Rights march. As they left the establishment, white men attacked and beat them, fatally injuring Reeb.

William Moore was a white man who was arrested along with other African Americans who tried to enter an all-white movie theater in Baltimore in 1963. The police even made sure to explain to him that he was in the "you're gonna get arrested line" but he was there on his own accord deliberately. Some days later, he was shot and killed.

From Senator John Stephens, murdered by the Klan in 1870, to Viola Liuzzo (murdered after the Selma Marches) to dozens in between, just breaking that line wasn't itself a major problem, but the reasoning behind it, and especially if you had a history of pushing against segregation or were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, that simple violation could have drastic consequences. So the racist store owner is seen sitting in the "colored" restaurant section=likely nothing happens (outside some probably racist humor thrown at him later) But the person who has been known to stand or talk against racial injustice is seen doing the same thing=consequences typically outside the law.

I asked a similar question a while back, got some good answers: What might happen if during segregation a ‘white’ person used facilities designated for ‘colored’ people? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/804plz/what_might_happen_if_during_segregation_a_white/

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