laws which promoted segregation, or the separation of people based on race. These laws worked primarily to restricted the rights of African Americans to use certain schools and public facilities, usually the good ones; to vote; find decent employment and associate with anyone of their own choosing. These laws did not make life "separate but equal," but only served to exclude African Americans and others from exercising their rights as American citizens. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the US Supreme Court ruled that Jim Crow laws were unconstitutional. It took many years and much effort, however, before Jim Crow laws would be overturned across the country.
A system in the late 19th century of Southern segregation, often called the Jim Crow system. Throughout the Southern states laws were passed that segregated blacks and restricted African American rights in almost every conceivable way.
Jim Crow laws were segregation laws that became widespread in the South during the 1890s; they were named for a minstrel show character portrayed satirically by white actors in blackface.
The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and Border States of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for African Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans.