Jim Crow

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.

adjective

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

2. for Black people only.

   a Jim Crow school.

jim crow

/ 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

Jim Crow

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.

Other Word Forms

• jim-crowism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Jim Crow¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Jim Crow¹

C19: from Jim Crow, name of song used as the basis of an act by Thomas Rice (1808–60), American entertainer

Example Sentences

But his analysis is undermined by his alarmist hyperbole and his tendency to cast nearly all of his political antagonists as authoritarian villains bent on thrusting America back to the days of Jim Crow.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Yet the collapse of Reconstruction in 1877 and the rise of Jim Crow left him embittered, mourning the rollback of hard-won rights.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Both of Mr. Smith’s parents fled the Jim Crow South, met in Washington and imbued their son with ambition, purpose and tenacity.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

They set out to create twisted public sculptures in enduring bronze that would fabricate a “noble” legacy to reinforce the modern white supremacy of Jim Crow’s racial segregation.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The Court held that the formula was an anachronism from the Jim Crow era and didn’t account for racial progress.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal