The brutal system of Jim Crow Laws enforced racial segregation and discrimination in the American South from 1877 to 1964, systematically denying African Americans their fundamental rights and freedoms. These state and local laws created a rigid framework of racial oppression that touched every aspect of daily life.
Key aspects:
- Established legal racial segregation in public spaces and institutions
- Enforced by violence and terror, particularly through groups like the KKK
- Impacted education, transportation, housing, marriage, and voting rights
- Eventually dismantled through Civil Rights Movement and Supreme Court decisions
- Named after a racist minstrel show character performed by Thomas Dartmouth Rice