"Jim Crow was not a person, yet affected the lives of millions of people."-PBS
Jim Crow is believed to have originated around 1830 from a white traveling entertainer who blackened his face with charcoal paste and danced a ridiculous jig while singing the lyrics to the song "Jump Jim Crow." The character was developed after the entertainer saw a crippled, elderly black man (some say a young black boy) dancing and singing a song ending with these chorus words:
"Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Ed'ry time I weel about i jump Jim Crow".
The word Jim Crow became a part of the list of racial slurs against
the black community and later the discrimination
towards black was often referred to as Jim Crow laws.
Between 1865 and 1967 more than 400 state laws, constitutional amendments, and city ordinances legalizing segregation and discrimination were passed.
127 laws were passed between 1865 and the 1950s prohibiting interracial marriage and cohabitation nationwide, with 37 percent passed outside the South. Both whites and blacks who ignored the law could receive sentences for up to ten years hard labor in the penitentiary in a number of states.
With understanding Jim Crow Laws you can better understand what the African Americans in Invisible Man went through. Throughout the book the main character is faced with many challenges refering to racism and segregation.
By: Frances Duncan
Ashley Donovan