What is "jim crow"

Jim Crow \Jim Crow\ n.

1. 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.]

2. 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.

"black person," 1838, American English, originally the name of a black minstrel character in a popular song-and-dance act by T.D. Rice (1808-1860) that debuted 1828 and attained national popularity by 1832:\n\nWheel about, an' turn about, an' do jis so;\n
Eb'ry time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow.\n\nWhere and how Rice got it, or wrote it, is a mystery. Even before that, crow (n.) had been a derogatory term for a black man. Association with segregation dates from 1842, in reference to a railroad car for blacks. Modern use as a type of racial discrimination is from 1943. In mid-19c., Jim Crow also could be a reference to someone's change of (political) principles (from the "jump" in the song).

A jim crow is a tool for bending rails, consisting of a U-shaped or V-shaped armature with a hefty screw rod in its axis. Deluxe models are outfitted with rollers for continuous bending. Terry Pratchett uses this term in his novel Raising Steam.

Jim Crow is the American Type Founders' 1933 and 1949 re-casting of the Dickinson Type Foundry's type of the 1850s, Gothic Shade. Dickenson, a Boston type foundry, had been incorporated into ATF in the original merger of 1892. The face was also known as Tombstone. ATF only cast the face in 24 point, but later versions by the Los Angeles Type Foundry were cast from 18 to 30 point. It was often used to indicate political motifs. While cold type versions were popular right through the 1970s, no major foundry has issued a digital version, and it is seldom used today. Foundry Harold's Fonts has released a digitised version named Jim Dandy.

Jim Crow is a rap group made up of Polow da Don, Cutty Cartel, Damon Holmes and Mr. Mo.

Jim Crow (archetype) was a persona created by white minstrel show performer Thomas D. Rice c. 1830. It came to mean the American system of racial segregation embodied in the Jim Crow laws.

Jim Crow may also refer to:

Jim Crow is a minstrel character created around 1830 by a Caucasian minstrel show performer of the United States known as Thomas D. Rice, who wore blackface while singing and dancing madly, thus creating this character. The character is believed to be Rice's emulation of a negro male that he had seen in his travels through the Southern United States; Rice sang this refrain at the end of the chorus:

"Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."

It is believed that a man named Mr. Crow owned this slave, and this is why the name Jim Crow took hold. Rice incorporated this routine into his act, and by the 1850s, the Jim Crow character had become a standard character throughout the United States.

The Jim Crow laws took the name of this character in the 1890s.

The term "Jim Crow" is also used in a disparaging or derogatory way to refer to people, largely African Americans, that act in a similar way to the original Jim Crow of the song; singing, dancing, and jumping; often wildly, and otherwise being foolish. This term has connotations of being uneducated, unproductive, or unprofessional.

Jim Crow (31 October 1885 – 7 September 1926) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL).