Seating was racially segregated in most theatres during the modernist era, although the African American musicals of the 1890s created some exceptions. African Americans were often obliged to buy their tickets at a separate box office on one side of the playhouse, after which they would ascend to the top gallery through a separate entrance and a narrow stairway, sometimes even by stairs on the exterior of the building.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.