Was there an economic impact of segregation? ie separate drinking fountains bathroom etc..

by Don_Dickle
Moley_Moley_Mole

The simple answer is yes it did. On likely more levels than one would think. Obviously, red lining hurt African American communities quite a bit as that would often be used to exclude those areas from the city from development as the city would essentially warn businesses that it was a bad area of town. However that practice has been made illegal.

Although not often pointed out the actual practice of segregation was likely economically costly. Imagine if you wanted to open a restaurant that catered to all. Even if you weren't a racist or even supported segregation you would have to build your building and design your restaurant to code. So instead of making a Male and female restrooms you had to have 4 restrooms in your business rather than two. Alternatively, you had to ensure that your business was separated requiring you to essentially build two buildings rather than one and likely hire entirely separate staff for the two halves. The 1964 Civil Rights act made all of this illegal and would allow for opportunities to be opened up to the African American community as well as everyone else to no longer have opportunities barred off of the simple basis of the color of your skin