WHO AND WHAT WAS JIM CROW, AND WHEN DID IT START? (FACTS)
Jim Crow was not a real person. “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 the 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.
LARRY D. ROBERTS…