Jim Crow

American  

Or jim crow

noun

1. a practice or policy of segregating or discriminating against Black people, as in public places, public vehicles, or employment.

2. Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a Black person.

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adjective

1. favoring or supporting a segregationist or discriminatory policy of Jim Crow.

2. for Black people only.

   a Jim Crow school.

jim crow British  

/ ˈdʒɪm ˈkrəʊ /

noun

1. 1. the policy or practice of segregating Black people

   2. ( as modifier )

      jim-crow laws

2. 1. a derogatory term for a Black person

   2. ( as modifier )

      a jim-crow saloon

3. an implement for bending iron bars or rails

4. a crowbar fitted with a claw

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Jim Crow Cultural  

1. A descriptive term for the segregation of institutions, businesses, hotels, restaurants, and the like. It also refers to the laws that required racial segregation.

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Other Word Forms

• jim-crowism noun

Etymology

Origin of Jim Crow

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40; so called from the name of a song sung by Thomas Rice (1808–60) in a minstrel show

Example Sentences

Moy was born in 1938, the second of nine children raised by a “gospel-loving mom” and “jazz-loving dad” who had fled Jim Crow Louisiana for a relatively comfortable middle-class life in Detroit.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026

You can hear the differences in lives and backgrounds and upbringing, of men and women in the ’60s, of class and Jim Crow, it’s all in there.

From Salon • Feb. 24, 2026

The Cold War simmered, Emmett Till had been murdered less than a year earlier and in Montgomery, Ala., a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr. was challenging Jim Crow.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 31, 2026

Set in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow era, the film is often characterized as a horror movie, which is understandable given the villain is a vampire.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 24, 2026

As discussed in chapter 4, during Jim Crow, racial stigma contributed to racial solidarity in the black community.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander