The Jim Crow laws were a series of state and local laws that enforced racial segregation and discrimination in the United States from the late 1800s until the mid-1960s. These laws were designed to keep black people from practicing their civic rights, including the right to vote, hold public office, serve on juries, receive equal education and job opportunities, and enjoy other basic civil liberties.
For example, in many Southern states, black people were required to pass literacy tests, pay poll taxes, and endure other discriminatory measures to register to vote. The Jim Crow laws also enforced racial segregation in public places such as schools, hospitals, restaurants, and transportation systems. Black people were often forced to use separate and inferior facilities that were poorly maintained and underfunded. The Jim Crow laws also allowed for the widespread use of violence, intimidation, and lynching to maintain white supremacy and suppress black activism.
Overall, the Jim Crow laws were a major impediment to the full exercise of civic rights and liberties by black people in the United States, and their eventual dismantling was a significant victory for the civil rights movement and the struggle for racial equality.