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• Jim Crow
  Jim Crow

  noun

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

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

See Examples For:

Jim Crow jim crow

These explored difficult aspects of American history — including slavery and Jim Crow — but also touched on more personal themes of family, memory, magic and spirituality.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

The Jim Crow Era ushered in a new kind of slavery but eventually galvanized Congress to establish some of its most impactful legislation, in the VRA and the Civil Rights Act.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Mary Porter is worried by the Supreme Court's ruling and says "we don't want those kind of laws, Jim Crow laws, to come back"

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

“He was wrong to do so,” Mr. Pence tells us, “as the Jim Crow laws of the southern states amounted to a systematic abuse of the nation’s highest principles.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

Although the parallels listed above should be enough to give anyone pause, there are a number of other, less obvious, similarities between mass incarceration and Jim Crow that have not been explored in earlier chapters.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

His arms had been laden with T shirts reading jim crow must go.

From Time Magazine Archive