Final answer:
The characteristics described relate to the Civil Rights Movement period. During this time, the South faced De Jure segregation, codified by Jim Crow laws, while the North experienced De Facto segregation enforced by social customs and practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
The characteristics of rigid segregation in jobs and employment, segregation by law in the South (De Jure segregation), and segregation by custom in the North (De Facto segregation) are indicative of the historical period or social issue related to the Civil Rights Movement (Option B). This period was marked by efforts to end legal segregation in the South, most notably symbolized by the Jim Crow laws, but also tackled the more entrenched social practices of segregation in the North, which, while not codified in law, persisted in many areas of daily life.
These conditions outlined the struggle for civil rights, which included landmark Supreme Court decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the 'separate but equal' doctrine, and later the groundbreaking ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that declared 'separate educational facilities are inherently unequal'. The southern states saw the official end to De Jure segregation primarily during the 1950s and 1960s, while De Facto segregation in the North posed a more subtle, but no less significant, impediment to racial equality.
The term 'White Flight' illustrates how De Facto segregation continued, as urban whites moved to suburbs, effectively maintaining racial separation during the time when legal segregation was ending in the South.