Jim Crow law

In the United States, the so-called Jim Crow laws were made to enforce racial segregation, and included laws that would prevent African Americans from doing things that a white person could do. For instance, Jim Crow laws regulated separate use of water fountains, public bath houses, and separate seating sections on public transport. Jim Crow laws varied among communities and states. The term is not applied to all racist laws, but only to those passed post-Reconstruction starting in about 1890, the start of a period of worsening race relations in the United States. Similar laws passed immediately after the civil war were called the Black Codes. These were the codes that transformed into the Jim Crow laws of the twentieth century.

The Name

The term Jim Crow comes from the minstrel show song "Jump Jim Crow" written in 1828 and performed by T.D. (Thomas Dartmouth) "Daddy" Rice, a white English migrant to the U.S., the originator of blackface performance. The song and blackface itself were an immediate hit. "Jim Crow" became a standard character in Minstrel shows, being a caricature of a shabbily dressed rural black; "Jim Crow" was often paired with the character "Zip Coon," a flamboyantly dressed urban black who associated more into white culture. By 1837, Jim Crow was being used to refer to racial segregation.

Related Topics:
Minstrel show - Jump Jim Crow - 1828 - T.D. (Thomas Dartmouth) "Daddy" Rice - Blackface - White - 1837

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