<P> Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States . Enacted by white Democratic - dominated state legislatures in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction period , these laws continued to be enforced until 1965 . They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America , starting in the 1870s and 1880s , and upheld by the United States Supreme Court 's `` separate but equal '' doctrine for African Americans . Public education had essentially been segregated since its establishment in most of the South after the Civil War . This principle was extended to public facilities and transportation , including segregated cars on interstate trains and , later , buses . Facilities for African Americans were consistently inferior and underfunded compared to those which were then available to white Americans ; sometimes they did not exist at all . This body of law institutionalized a number of economic , educational , and social disadvantages . Segregation by law existed mainly in the Southern states , while Northern segregation was generally a matter of fact -- patterns of housing segregation enforced by private covenants , bank lending practices , and job discrimination , including discriminatory labor union practices . `` Jim Crow '' was a pejorative expression referring to a minstrel song called `` Jump Jim Crow '' by a performer appearing in blackface . </P>
<P> Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States . Enacted by white Democratic - dominated state legislatures in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction period , these laws continued to be enforced until 1965 . They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America , starting in the 1870s and 1880s , and upheld by the United States Supreme Court 's `` separate but equal '' doctrine for African Americans . Public education had essentially been segregated since its establishment in most of the South after the Civil War . This principle was extended to public facilities and transportation , including segregated cars on interstate trains and , later , buses . Facilities for African Americans were consistently inferior and underfunded compared to those which were then available to white Americans ; sometimes they did not exist at all . This body of law institutionalized a number of economic , educational , and social disadvantages . Segregation by law existed mainly in the Southern states , while Northern segregation was generally a matter of fact -- patterns of housing segregation enforced by private covenants , bank lending practices , and job discrimination , including discriminatory labor union practices . `` Jim Crow '' was a pejorative expression referring to a minstrel song called `` Jump Jim Crow '' by a performer appearing in blackface . </P>
what did the american south 's jim crow laws do
what did the american south 's jim crow laws do
enforced racial segregation
enforced racial segregation