Jim Crow

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noun

ˈjim-ˈkrō 

1

a

: racial segregation and discrimination enforced by laws, customs, and practices in especially the southern states of the U.S. from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 until the mid-20th century

The percentage of blacks living in the South fell from 89 percent in 1910 to 53 percent in 1970 as millions migrated to the Northeast and Midwest to escape Jim Crow and acquire a better standard of life.

—Manning Marable

—often used before another noun

the Jim Crow era

Jim Crow states

Jim Crow segregation

called also Jim Crowism

b

: the laws requiring racial segregation that were enacted under Jim Crow

The explicit sanctioning of segregation by Jim Crow meant that black public schools lacked of resources and public funding—shortcomings that limited the skill sets and education levels of young, black men during this period, which in turn limited their job opportunities.

—Gillian B. White

It took the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the repeal of Jim Crow for the most egalitarian society on earth even to begin to narrow the gulf between principle and practice.

—Michael Ignatieff

All the women … who marched or canvassed during the civil rights movement helped bring about the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which ended Jim Crow and enfranchised Southern blacks.

—Viv Sanders

—often used before another noun

Jim Crow laws

In 1926, while traveling by train from Wilmington, N.C., to Richmond, Va., the Jamaican-American writer J. A. Rogers was forced to ride in the wooden Jim Crow car [=segregated car required by Jim Crow laws], which was typically placed toward the front, behind the engine and ahead of the steel cars reserved for white passengers.

—Jennifer Szala

2

a

: racist systems or beliefs

Although such segregation has been banned since the late 1960s by federal, state and local public accommodations laws, civil rights activists say Jim Crow still exists here, largely unnoticed and unchallenged.

—Garry Boulard

called also Jim Crowism

b

: racism personified : racist systems or beliefs imagined as a person

But [Congressman George H.] White understood that, in fact, Jim Crow was determined to maintain the power structure of the plantation economy by any means necessary.

—William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

But in 1883 the Supreme Court had cast aside the law, saying that not even the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment gave the Congress the power to outlaw racial discrimination among private individuals. That is one of the openings via which Jim Crow dug in after the end of slavery.

—The New York Sun

3

plural Jim Crows, dated, disparaging + offensive : a Black person

Jim Crow

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verb

Jim Crowed; Jim Crowing; Jim Crows

transitive verb

: to restrict the liberty of (someone) through Jim Crow

—usually used in passive constructions

I also like it because we've got subways and it does not take all day to get downtown, neither are you Jim Crowed on the way.

—Langston Hughes

[Frederick] Douglass was Jim Crowed on railroads, on steamboats and in hotels more times than he could count, but loved the Declaration of Independence, the natural-rights tradition and especially the reinvented Constitution—the one rewritten in Washington during Reconstruction, not the one created in Philadelphia in 1789.

—David W. Blight

Examples of Jim Crow in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

During debate inside the statehouse, Black lawmakers said the Republican legislation harks back to the state's shameful Jim Crow history. —Arkansas Online, 9 May 2026

The profits from these amateur community shows funded the very infrastructure of Jim Crow America, from paving streets, financing university buildings, and building the hospitals and schools that Black citizens were systematically excluded from using. —Erik Pedersen, Oc Register, 8 May 2026

The legislation won approval on a party-line vote after four hours of fiery debate during which Black legislators said the moment calls back to the state’s shameful Jim Crow-era history. —David A. Lieb, Chicago Tribune, 6 May 2026

From ‘Jim Crow’ to ‘authentically’ Black In my view, the willingness of courts to accept rap lyrics as evidence emerges from popular entertainment’s long-standing deployment of negative stereotypes about Black people. —A.d. Carson, The Conversation, 6 May 2026

Over decades this led to Jim Crow laws, under which most Black Americans in the south were effectively disenfranchised despite constitutional rights. —ABC News, 6 May 2026

It’s rooted in broader efforts to limit the education students receive about their Black history and the ways in which governments have limited how educators talk about the facts around Jim Crow, slavery and systemic inequality. —Miami Herald, 2 May 2026

Ma Honey—a Black woman building business equity in the Jim Crow South—was always the blueprint. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 29 Apr. 2026

Their joyous innocence depicts the newest generation of Black Americans who won’t contend with enslavement but will be forced to confront the terrors of Jim Crow. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 26 Apr. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Jim Crow, stereotype Black man in a 19th century song-and-dance act

First Known Use

Noun

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Verb

1899, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Jim Crow

• acknow
• aglow
• ago
• airglow
• aloe
• altho
• although
• ammo
• backflow
• backhoe
• banjo
• barbeau

Kids Definition

jim crow

noun

ˈjim-ˈkrō 

often capitalized J&C

: discrimination against Black people enforced by law especially in the southern U.S. from 1877 until the mid-20th century