JIM CROW • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Jim crow

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/dʒɪm kroʊ/ Listen

noun

Jim Crow n.

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. (Offensive slang, U. S.)

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.

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Etymology of 'Jim crow'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Jim crow" Quotes from Famous Books

... time that "Jim Crow" was the rage at one of the minor theatres, and as I felt interested to know how the personification would strike the boy, I sent him one night to the gallery with orders to return as soon as the piece was concluded. But the whole night passed without the appearance of ...

— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer

... to have Jim Crow cars for these cock-sure sons of Nippon," the ex-soldier growled to himself. "We'll come to it yet if something isn't done about them. They breed so fast they'll have us crowded into ...

— The Pride of Palomar • Peter B. Kyne

... North, at the amount and withering influence of this prejudice. William applied at the railway station for a ticket for the train going to Sandusky, and was told that if he went by that train he would have to ride in the luggage-van. "Why?" asked the astonished Negro. "We don't send a Jim Crow carriage but once a day, and that went this morning." The "Jim Crow" carriage is the one in which the blacks have to ride. Slavery is a school in which its victims learn much shrewdness, and William had ...

— Clotel; or, The President's Daughter • William Wells Brown

... to be sure, and train in the way she should go. I thought she was rather a funny specimen in the Jim Crow line. Here, Topsy," he added, giving a whistle, as a man would to call the attention of a dog, "give us a song, now, and show ...

— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... of America. But when Murray gets an act of congress at his back and a squad of nervy, gamy, law-abiding monogamous assistants appointed by the president under that act of congress to knock crosswise and crooked the Jim Crow revelations of Utah and Mormondom, you will see the fur fly, and the fragrant follower of a false prophet will rise up William Riley and the regular army will feel lonesome. I asked a staff officer in one of the territories last summer what would be the result ...

— Remarks • Bill Nye

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