Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Offensive slang, U. S. A negro; -- said to be so called from a popular negro dance song, the refrain of which is “Wheel about and turn about and jump Jim Crow,” produced in 1835 by Thomas D. Rice (1808-1860), a famous negro minstrel; -- considered disparaging and offensive.
  • noun A legally sanctioned system of racial discrimination practised in the southern United States until declared unconstitutional in 1953 and further restricted by federal legislation, by means of which negroes were segregated and discriminated against in employment and in many places of public accommodation, such as parks, commercial establishments, and public transportation.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I know -- "and he hurried to the black bishop, who had just descended from the" Jim-Crow "car, and clasped his hand cordially.

    Darkwater Voices from Within the Veil 1915

  • Slavery, Jim-Crow, Women voting, Medicare, all fundamentally changing America, AND unpopular with the people when they were passed!!

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Would “Deem & Pass” Survive Judicial Review? 2010

  • Slavery, Jim-Crow, Women voting, Medicare, all fundamentally changing America, AND unpopular with the people when they were passed!!

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Would “Deem & Pass” Survive Judicial Review? 2010

  • There is not in the world a more disgraceful denial of human brotherhood than the “Jim-Crow” car of the southern United States; but, too, just as true, there is nothing more beautiful in the universe than sunset and moonlight on Montego Bay in far Jamaica.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • Everything in the history of the United States, from slavery to Sunday supplements, from disfranchisement to residence segregation, from “Jim-Crow” cars to a “Jim-Crow” army draft—all this history of discrimination and insult festered to make men think and willing to think that the venting of their unbridled anger against 12,000,000 humble, upstriving workers was a way of settling the industrial tangle of the ages.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • The man who cannot frankly acknowledge the “Jim-Crow” car as a fact and yet live and hope is simply afraid either of himself or of the world.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • The white train crew from the baggage car uses the “Jim-Crow” to lounge in and perform their toilet.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • Here was evidently preparing fertile ground for the spread of disloyalty and resentment among the black masses, as they were forced to choose apparently between forced labor or a “Jim-Crow” draft.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • The “Jim-Crow” car is up next the baggage car and engine.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • Slavery, Jim-Crow, Women voting, Medicare, all fundamentally changing America, AND unpopular with the people when they were passed!

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Would “Deem & Pass” Survive Judicial Review? 2010

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