There was a respectful separation between the white and black populations but it was never violent and always polite.
*** What a strange thing to say. I wouldn't say it was so much respectful as it was 'just the way things were'. What options did someone black have living in such a time. Either be angry and bitter or work with whatever you had. All that politeness ended whenever someone stepped out of place. Having said that, the North was no prize and there were places with unspoken 'whites only' policies just like the South.
Yes, it was "just the way things were". As a child in MS I knew no different. Whites and blacks did not mix except in work and commerce. I picked cotten and cucumbers and corn alongside blacks who were just as poor as I and my family. We ate the same foods and we talked about the same music singers. We had the same sweat and worn out clothes. Never did I or anyone I know ever think that we were better than they were. It was only a few southern hotheads who carried the whole region into civil rights warfare. Hollywood has exploited that image for 50 years. It's not the real way it was.......