Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. segregated.

1977

J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 277: It was the days of sit-ins and Freedom Riders, when SNCC was still salt-and-pepper, days of the first push for voter registration down in Darkest Alabama.

2. of a place, frequented by both blacks and whites, e.g. salt-and-pepper neighbourhood.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 24: He had been ‘Pop’ from almost the first day he opened for business in the then salt-and-pepper neighborhood.
1971		N.Y. Times 1 June 28: There is salt-and-pepper integration, a sprinkling of Negroes here and there, but it is insignificant.
1972		New Yorker 23 Dec. 38: Detroit is a salt-and-pepper situation. A great mix of black and white.

3. of people, involving both blacks and whites, e.g. a pair of TV anchors.

1977		N.C. Heard When Shadows Fall 219: Tex Norvo and Larry Corridor, a salt-and-pepper May-December team from the Newark Daily.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 5: North of Hue City the Phantom Blooper is a salt and pepper team of snuffy grunts who guide the Marine patrols into L-shaped ambushes set by the Viet Cong.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 184: A hambone and peckerwood comprising an impromptu saltandpepper traveling band.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 49: The news was on [...] Another salt-and-pepper team, but those guys were pretty good.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 221: ‘Salt-and-pepper team,’ said McGinnes.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 145: As I hit the avenue, I fall in step with a salt-and-pepper duo – one dread-headed Rasta, the other a hippie-haired blonde.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 89: What you think, Richard? This salt-and-pepper team we got here, they cops?

4. of hair, black and grey/white.

1924		D. Hammett ‘Nightmare Town’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 13: A little plump fellow with carefully trimmed salt-and-pepper whiskers.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 105: To her left a hedgerow of salt-and-pepper Afros crowning the heads of Winston’s father and his Panther cronies.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 367: Rab runs ehs hand ower his ain salt-n-pepper crop.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 63: Lou is five-ten with some salt creeping into the pepper of his ink-black hair.