Jim Crow laws facts for kids
The Jim Crow laws were rules that made racial segregation legal in the United States. This meant that Black people and white people were kept separate. These laws were used in many states from 1876 to 1965. Jim Crow laws created a system where African Americans were treated unfairly and kept apart from white people.
These laws started after the Civil War and a time called the Reconstruction Era. They forced Black and white people to be separate in public places. Black people were often treated much worse than white people. This separation happened in the military, schools, restaurants, on buses, and even in the types of jobs Black people could get.
In 1954, the US Supreme Court decided that separating students in state schools was against the US Constitution. This important decision is known as Brown v. Board of Education. Other Jim Crow laws were ended by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) worked hard to fight against these unfair laws.
What Does "Jim Crow" Mean?
The name "Jim Crow law" was first used in a newspaper in 1884. The term "Jim Crow" itself came from a popular song and dance from 1828. A white actor named Thomas D. Rice performed it in blackface, which was a disrespectful way of making fun of Black people. Because of this actor's fame, "Jim Crow" became a mean way to refer to Black people by 1838. When Southern states later passed laws to separate Black Americans, these laws became known as Jim Crow laws.
How Jim Crow Laws Started
After the Civil War, the U.S. government tried to protect the rights of formerly enslaved people in the South. This effort was called Reconstruction. However, Reconstruction ended in 1876. By the 1890s, the state governments in the South were mostly run by white politicians again.
Southern Democrats did not support equal rights for Black people. They had a lot of power in the South and in the United States Congress. For example, they stopped laws that would have prevented lynching, which was the murder of Black people by mobs.
Starting in 1890, these Southern Democrats began to pass new state laws. These laws took away the rights that African Americans had gained. These unfair laws became known as Jim Crow laws. Here are some examples:
- Laws that stopped Black people from voting. This was called disenfranchisement. Because they could not vote, Black people also could not serve on juries.
- Laws that required racial segregation, meaning Black and white people had to be separated. For instance, Black people could not:
- Go to the same schools, restaurants, or hospitals as white people.
- Use the same bathrooms or drink from the same water fountains as white people.
- Sit in the front seats of buses.
In 1896, the United States Supreme Court made a ruling in a case called Plessy v. Ferguson. The Court said that these segregation laws were legal. They claimed that having things "separate but equal" was acceptable. However, in the South, things were separate but never equal. Places for Black people, like schools and libraries, received much less money and were not as good as places for white people.
Images for kids
-
Freedmen voting in New Orleans, 1867
-
A 1904 drawing showing "White" and "Jim Crow" rail cars. Even though the law said things were "separate but equal," Black people were given worse facilities and treatment.
-
In the important case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court decided that separating students in public schools was against the Constitution.
See also
In Spanish: Leyes Jim Crow para niños
