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. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
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. [PJC]

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

jim crow, n. US 1 the practice of segregating Blacks.
2 offens. a Black.
3 an implement for straightening iron bars or bending rails by screw pressure.

Derivative

Jim Crowism n. (in sense 1).

Etymology

nickname

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THESAURUS

jim crow

Jim Crow law, alien, anti-Semitism, apartheid, apartness, black power, black supremacy, chauvinism, class consciousness, class distinction, class hatred, class prejudice, class war, color bar, color line, detachment, discrimination, division, ethnocentrism, exclusiveness, fascism, foreigner, insularity, insulation, isolation, isolationism, know-nothingism, male chauvinist, minority prejudice, narrowness, out-group, outcast, outsider, parochialism, persona non grata, privacy, privatism, privatization, quarantine, race hatred, race prejudice, race snobbery, racial discrimination, racial segregation, racialism, racism, recess, reclusion, red-baiting, retirement, retreat, rustication, seclusion, secrecy, segregation, separation, sequestration, sex discrimination, sexism, snobbishness, social barrier, social discrimination, splendid isolation, stranger, superpatriotism, tightness, ultranationalism, white power, white supremacy, withdrawal, xenophobia

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