Jim Crow

Jim Crow, name for a system of laws and customs in the southern United States to segregate African Americans from white society. The name comes from a minstrel song. The laws dated from the 1880s and applied to schools, transportation, theaters, and parks. These laws were invalidated by Supreme Court decisions in the 1950s and 1960s and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968.

See also: Segregation.