Jim Crow laws

Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation and political exclusion in the United States, especially across the South from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century.

Racial segregation in the United States: The enforced separation of people by race in American institutions, public spaces, and communities. Jim Crow laws made racial separation a legal system across much of the South.
Reconstruction era: The period from 1865 to 1877 when the United States rebuilt the South and established new rights for formerly enslaved people. Jim Crow arose as Reconstruction’s reforms and protections were rolled back.
Ida B. Wells: An African American journalist and activist who documented lynching and campaigned against racial violence. Her investigations exposed violence used to maintain white supremacy under Jim Crow.
Civil rights movement: A broad movement that challenged racial discrimination and sought equal rights in the United States, especially during the 1950s and 1960s. Its mass organizing and legal campaigns brought Jim Crow’s formal dismantling.
Disfranchisement after Reconstruction: The systematic removal of Black citizens’ voting rights in the South after Reconstruction. Registration rules and election practices turned political exclusion into a central part of Jim Crow.
Black Codes: Laws enacted in Southern states after the Civil War to restrict the rights and labor choices of Black people. Black Codes anticipated later systems of racial control, though they preceded Jim Crow’s mature form.
Booker T. Washington: An African American educator and leader who promoted vocational education and economic advancement amid segregation. His accommodationist strategy became a major debate within Black politics under Jim Crow.
Brown v. Board of Education: A 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause. The ruling rejected separate-but-equal schooling, a pillar of legally enforced segregation.
Poll tax: A fee required before a person may vote, historically used to restrict voting in the United States. Southern states used poll taxes to block many Black voters and poor white voters.
Compromise of 1877: The political settlement that resolved the disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election and ended the remaining federal military presence in the South. The withdrawal weakened federal enforcement of Black civil and voting rights.

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