The Jim Crow Era
Fed up with the Jim Crow era, black activism arose within black communities across the country in the latter half of the 1950s which promptly transformed into the Civil Rights Movement that would implement non-violent tactics to pursue equality.
The name Jim Crow came from the exaggerated, black theater caraticure made by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" 1 in the early 1800s. The phrase at first was used as a slur aimed towards black people however the slur began to take a new meaning by describing the way of life for black people that had began to take place with "black codes" being established in the late 1800s, continuing into the 1900s.
“1914: Every southern state and many northern cities had Jim Crow laws that discriminated against black Americans. 1955: The Maryland legislature passed a law that imprisoned any white woman who birthed a mixed-race child. The white woman would be incarcerated up to five years. 1958: The Virginia legislature voted to close any school that enrolled both black and white students. 1959: An Arkansas law required all state buses to designate whites-only seating areas.” - Jim Crow Museum, Jim Crow Timeline (1877-1964)
A black man drinks from a water fountain labeled "colored"
This was a result of the Plessy v. Ferguson case which legitimized racial segregation in 1896. The aftermath was Jim crow becoming a racial caste system in which black people lived as second-class citizens. Jim crow had become an era of great adversity for black americans. However, the era started to dissemble in the 1950s when black people in the south established the Civil Rights Movement that tore down anti-black laws and customs.