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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

  noun

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

Today, black voter registration in the South, where black voter suppression was most pronounced in the Jim Crow era, is higher than in other regions of the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 5, 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

During Jim Crow, Mississippi’s black voter-registration rate was the lowest in the region.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 28, 2025

One thing it clarifies is why Jim Crow monuments are all rendered in the same backward, Beaux-Arts style, exploiting classical forms and elaborate ornamentation harnessed for the 1890s City Beautiful movement.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 22, 2025

King recognized that it was this indifference to the plight of other races that supported the institutions of slavery and Jim Crow.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander