WHO AND WHAT WAS JIM CROW AND WHEN DID IT START? (FACTS)

Jim Crow was not a real person.


Jim Crow was not a real person. The name comes from a fictional character created in the early 19th century and later became a term for a system of racial segregation in the United States.

Here’s how it developed:

1. The character “Jim Crow”

In the 1830s, a white performer named Thomas D. Rice created a blackface minstrel character called Jim Crow.

The character portrayed racist stereotypes of Black people and was part of popular entertainment at the time.

The name “Jim Crow” became a derogatory term for Black Americans.


2. Jim Crow laws

After the Civil War and the end of Reconstruction (late 1800s), Southern states passed laws known as Jim Crow laws.

These laws enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black people.

Examples included:

Separate schools, buses, restrooms, and restaurants

Poll taxes and literacy tests to block voting


The system lasted from roughly 1877 to the 1960s.


3. End of Jim Crow

Jim Crow laws were dismantled through:

The Civil Rights Movement

Court rulings like Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965



In short:
Jim Crow began as a racist fictional character and became the name for a long-standing system of legalized racial segregation in the U.S.


“Jim Crow” started as a racist minstrel character popularized by white performer T.D. Rice around 1830, and the name later became shorthand for segregation laws and customs meant to degrade and control Black people.

When did Jim Crow start?

• Slavery ended in 1865

• Reconstruction ended in 1877

• Jim Crow laws began spreading widely after 1877

• By the 1890s, segregation and voter suppression were firmly in place. Jim Crow laws remained largely in effect until the 1960s, when federal civil rights legislation finally dismantled them.

What did Jim Crow do?

Jim Crow laws controlled nearly every part of Black life:

• Segregated schools, housing, transportation, and businesses

• Blocked Black voting through poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation

• Paid Black workers less and restricted job opportunities

• Allowed violence and lynching to go unpunished

• Used police and courts to enforce racial inequality

In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized segregation through Plessy v. Ferguson, ruling that “separate but equal” was constitutional even though it was never equal.

Why this matters

Jim Crow was legal discrimination written into law and enforced by government.

Many people alive today had parents or grandparents who lived under it.

So when people say “that was a long time ago,” they are ignoring real history.

You can’t understand today’s inequalities without understanding Jim Crow.

History doesn’t disappear just because it makes people uncomfortable.