Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws, primarily enacted by officials in southern and border states, that mandated "separate but equal" status for black citizens. All public facilities and organizations, including schools and the military, could maintain separate services and accommodations for white and black Americans, but rather than being "equal," the treatment of non-white Americans was typically inferior. Many historians have argued that Jim Crow laws institutionalized and systematized racism in America. Jim Crow laws included the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared state-sponsored schools segregation unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education. Any Jim Crow laws that remained following the ruling were largely overturned by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

• 1871: Civil Rights Act is passed
• 1883: Civil Rights Act declared unconstitutional
• 1896: Plessy vs Ferguson Supreme Court case further limits the rights
• 1909: NAACP is formed
• 1913: Segregation in the Government is initiated by Woodrow Wilson
• 1947: Harry S. Truman supports civil rights
• 1954: Brown vs Board of Education offers a ruling key in overturning Jim Crow laws
• 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 followed by the Voting Rights Act permanently ends Jim Crow laws

The phrase "Jim Crow" is believed to have come from "Jump Jim Crow," a song-and-dance caricature of African-Americans which first appeared in 1832. The phrase "Jim Crow Law" had already achieved common usage by the late 1890s.