https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws
According to Kelly and Lewis (2005), “Jim Crow was an old pejorative way of referring to black people.” The laws were named after a black minstrel show character. Jim Craw laws resulted in the racial segregation of people in public places. Also, the laws applied different rules that affected blacks’ and whites’ ability to do things like voting, securing loans, or choosing a place to live. The Jim Crow laws made areas of the West and Midwest, which at first had seemed attractive, difficult places for blacks to fulfill their dreams of independent lives free of white control or repression (Kelly & Lewis, 2005). Despite the injustices, people worked hard and made better lives for themselves and their neighbors. The laws that lasted from the post-civil era until 1968 were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them, among other things, the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities (Roback, 1984). The law represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South.
In the 20th century, the Jim Crow Laws flourished within an oppressive society marked by violence. The violence which mostly involved lynching and race riots led to few opportunities for the black college graduated, while education was increasingly under attack (Mack, 1999). The North was not spared from the Jim Crow-like laws. For instance, there were states where African Americans had to own property before they could be allowed to vote. The schools and neighborhoods were segregated, and businesses displayed “Whites only” signs.
Theoretically, the law was separate but equal. Realistically, the law did not advocate for equality. Everything separated for the blacks was significantly inferior to those for the whites (Roback, 1984). For example, public facilities such as restrooms were separate but considerably different between blacks and whites. Blacks were still viewed as less than human and were treated as such.
The law came to an end after World War II due to increased civil rights activities in the African American communities, especially concerning ensuring that people of color had the right to vote. The removal of the Jim Crow laws was pushed by the civil rights movement (Kelly & Lewis, 2005).
References
Mack, K. W. (1999). Law, Society, Identity, and the Making of the Jim Crow South: Travel and Segregation on Tennessee Railroads, 1875‐1905. Law & Social Inquiry, 24(2), 377-409.
Roback, J. (1984). Southern labor law in the Jim Crow era: exploitative or competitive?. The University of Chicago Law Review, 51(4), 1161-1192.