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[[Image:JimCrow.gif|thumb|minstrel character "Jim Crow"]]

[[Image:JimCrow.gif|thumb|minstrel character "Jim Crow"]]

'''Jim Crow''' was the system of racial segregation in the Southern U.S. from the 1880s to 1964 in which African Americans were segregated (separated) in public schools and public places, so that they did not mingle in public with whites on equal terms. It also means that blacks had little or no political power. It was a low point in [[Black history]] after the euphoria of [[Reconstruction]].  

'''Jim Crow''' was the system of racial segregation in the Southern U.S. from the 1880s to 1964 in which African Americans were segregated (separated) in public schools and public places, so that they did not mingle in public with whites on equal terms. In addition to segregation it also means that blacks had little or no political power. It was a low point in [[Black history]] after the euphoria of [[Reconstruction]].  

==Supreme Court approves==

==Supreme Court approves==

The Supreme Court of the United States held in the ''Civil Rights Cases'' (1883) that the Fourteenth Amendment did NOT give the federal government the power to outlaw private discrimination. In an even more important decision the Supreme Court held in ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' (1896) that Jim Crow laws were constitutional as long as they allowed for "separate but equal" facilities. Everyone knew that the "equal" in "separate but equal" was a technicality, and that gross inequality was tolerated in practice.

The Supreme Court of the United States held in the ''Civil Rights Cases'' (1883) that the Fourteenth Amendment did NOT give the federal government the power to outlaw private discrimination. In an even more important decision the Supreme Court held in ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' (1896) that Jim Crow laws were constitutional as long as they allowed for "separate but equal" facilities. Everyone knew that the "equal" in "separate but equal" was a technicality, and that gross inequality was tolerated in practice.