How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Immediately, now that they were out of Delaware and a long way from Maryland there would be no green-as-poison curtain separating the colored people eating from the rest of the diners. (2.10)
Yuck. Segregation was a disgusting and shameful chapter of American history. Like all the Big Historical Stuff in Jazz, segregation is referred to in a casual manner. Since it's a historical novel, the characters in Jazz don't respond to the injustices of their day with the same incredulity that we do.
Quote #2
The wave of black people running from want and violence crested in the 1870s; the '80s, the '90s but it was a steady stream in 1906 when Joe and Violet joined it. (2.14)
History lesson: So the South in general was super-racist toward black people after the Civil War (and before and during) so a lot of black people decided that they would move to the North toward friendlier areas with more miserable weather. This is called the Great Migration, and our protagonists, Joe and Violet, are among the last wave of the Great Migration.
Quote #3
Everybody with fingers in a twenty-mile radius showed up and was hired on the spot. Nine dollars a bale, some said, if you grew your own; eleven dollars if you had a white friend to carry it up for pricing. (4.19)
Yeah, more casual references to how messed up the world is. A bale of cotton goes for nine dollars (not even very much back then) if you're black, but you get a substantial pay raise if you hand in the exact same bale of cotton and happen to be white.