Jim Crow laws
Racial separation mandates
Jim Crow laws were state and local statutes in the American South that enforced racial segregation from the late 1800s until the mid-1960s.
Named after a minstrel show character, these laws mandated separate facilities for Black and white Americans—schools, buses, restaurants, drinking fountains, restrooms.
Rosa Parks violated Jim Crow laws by refusing to give up her bus seat.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 dismantled the legal framework, though the term persists in discussions of systemic racism.
Per-person voting charge
- literacy testAssessment of reading ability
- grandfather clauseExemption preserving prior status
- voter suppressionTactics discouraging ballot access
- intimidationDeliberate fear-inducing pressure
Racial separation policy
- separate but equalRacial segregation's constitutional fiction
- color lineSegregation by race
- whites onlyRacial exclusion policy
- drinking fountainsPublic water dispensers
waiting rooms · redlining · ghettoization · sundown towns · exclusion · partition · demarcation · racial separation
Doctrine of racial superiority
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- racial hierarchyRanking groups by ancestry
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
racial purity · scientific racism · social Darwinism · paternalism · stereotyping · dehumanization
Formally enacted laws
- ordinancesLocal government rules
- anti-miscegenationOpposing interracial unions
- vagrancy lawsStatutes criminalizing homelessness
- enactmentPassing into law
codification · mandates · provisions · repeal · Plessy v. Ferguson · state laws · municipal codes · enforcement
Civil rights advocacy organization
- sit-insStationary protest tactics
- boycottOrganized economic protest
- Rosa ParksCivil rights icon
- Martin Luther KingCivil rights movement leader
nonviolent resistance · civil disobedience · protest · CORE · Brown v. Board · Voting Rights Act · desegregation · activism
Extrajudicial killing by mob
- Ku Klux KlanWhite supremacist hate organization
- mob violenceGroup-inflicted harm
- terrorismIntimidation through targeted violence
- intimidationDeliberate fear-inducing pressure
night riders · Emmett Till · race riots · brutality · vigilantism · threats · bombings
Post-1865 national reunification period
- Freedmen's BureauPost-Civil War relief agency
- 14th AmendmentPost-Civil War constitutional addition
- sharecroppingFarm rent in produce
- convict leasingHiring out imprisoned people
poll tax
Per-person voting charge
- literacy testAssessment of reading ability
- grandfather clauseExemption preserving prior status
- voter suppressionTactics discouraging ballot access
intimidation · gerrymandering · citizenship rights · civil death
apartheid
Racial separation policy
- separate but equalRacial segregation's constitutional fiction
- color lineSegregation by race
- whites onlyRacial exclusion policy
drinking fountains · waiting rooms · redlining · ghettoization · sundown towns · exclusion · partition · demarcation · racial separation · balkanization
white supremacy
Doctrine of racial superiority
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- racial hierarchyRanking groups by ancestry
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
prejudice · racial purity · scientific racism · social Darwinism · paternalism · stereotyping · dehumanization
statutes
Formally enacted laws
- ordinancesLocal government rules
- anti-miscegenationOpposing interracial unions
- vagrancy lawsStatutes criminalizing homelessness
enactment · codification · mandates · provisions · repeal · Plessy v. Ferguson · state laws · municipal codes · enforcement · penalties
NAACP
Civil rights advocacy organization
- sit-insStationary protest tactics
- boycottOrganized economic protest
- Rosa ParksCivil rights icon
Martin Luther King · nonviolent resistance · civil disobedience · protest · CORE · Brown v. Board · Voting Rights Act · desegregation · activism · marches
lynching
Extrajudicial killing by mob
- Ku Klux KlanWhite supremacist hate organization
- mob violenceGroup-inflicted harm
- terrorismIntimidation through targeted violence
intimidation · night riders · Emmett Till · race riots · brutality · vigilantism · threats · bombings
Reconstruction
Post-1865 national reunification period
- Freedmen's BureauPost-Civil War relief agency
- 14th AmendmentPost-Civil War constitutional addition
- sharecroppingFarm rent in produce
convict leasing · antebellum · postbellum · Lost Cause · Great Migration
- Black HistoryMartin Luther King Jr., MLK, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass
- civil rightsequal protection, equal rights, Civil Rights Act, right to life, Voting Rights Act
- discriminationracism, systemic discrimination, sexism, racial harassment, prejudice
- Florida HistorySt. Augustine, Ponce de Leon, Everglades, Spanish exploration, Seminole
- Jim Crowseparate but equal, segregation laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, whites only, whites only signs
- legal historylegal history, medieval law, Roman law, Roman jurisprudence, common law
Jim Crow lawsanti-discrimination laws
Legislation forbidding unequal treatment
Brown v. Board of Education · Fourteenth Amendment · Fifteenth Amendment · affirmative action · civil rights legislation
Jim Crow lawsintegration
Combining into a whole
desegregation · racial equality · Reconstruction · civil rights movement · racial justice
Jim Crow lawsfederal intervention
Central government stepping in
civil liberties · enfranchisement · federal oversight · emancipation