- As early as 1865, directly following the enactment of the 13th Amendment, which ended slavery in the United States, the seeds for what would later become known as Jim Crow laws were planted.
- Black codes were stringent rules enacted at the municipal and state levels that specified when, where, and how previously enslaved persons might labor, as well as the amount of compensation they were entitled to receive.
What were Jim Crow laws?
In the south of the United States, the enforcement of Jim Crow laws was an official effort to maintain racial segregation between African Americans and whites for many years. From the late 1870s up to the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, these laws were in effect.
What is Jim Crow and why is it important?
- The phrase ″Jim Crow″ evolved into a pejorative epithet for persons of African descent, and in the latter half of the 19th century, it came to be associated with the legislation that served to restore white dominance in the American South following the end of the Reconstruction period.
- The degrading character served as a metaphor for the symbolic justification of segregation and the refusal to provide equal opportunities.