U.S. history concepts · AP U.S. History
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws: State and local laws, mainly in the South from the late nineteenth century into the 1960s, that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black Americans.
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What it means
After Reconstruction, Southern states passed laws segregating schools, transportation and public places, and used poll taxes, literacy tests and white primaries to prevent Black citizens from voting. The Supreme Court upheld segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) under the 'separate but equal' doctrine.
The civil rights movement challenged Jim Crow through litigation, protest and legislation, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Example
Plessy v. Ferguson upheld a Louisiana law requiring separate railway cars for Black and white passengers.
On the exam
Jim Crow appears in Periods 6 through 8 and in AP Gov questions on equal protection and civil rights.
Lessons and practice questions
Related terms
- ReconstructionThe period after the Civil War (1865 to 1877) when the federal government tried to rebuild the South and define the rights of formerly enslaved people.
- Great MigrationThe movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to cities in the North and West during the twentieth century.