<p>A collection of images that explain Jim Crow laws.</p> <p>Jim Crow laws were rules made in the Southern United States after the Civil War that forced Black and white people to live separately. These laws were named after a racist character and were designed to keep African Americans from having the same rights as white people. They started in the late 1800s, after a time called Reconstruction, when new laws had tried to give freedom and equality to African Americans. But many white Southerners didn’t like these changes and worked to undo them once federal troops left the South in 1877.</p> <p>Jim Crow laws separated Black and white people in schools, buses, restaurants, bathrooms, and other public places. There were signs that said “Whites Only” or “Colored Only” to show where people could and couldn’t go. These laws also made it hard for African Americans to vote by using unfair rules like reading tests and poll taxes. Violence, threats, and groups like the Ku Klux Klan also kept Black people from standing up for their rights. The U.S. Supreme Court made things worse in 1896 by saying that segregation was okay as long as things were “separate but equal,” but in reality, things were not equal at all.</p> <p>Jim Crow laws were strongest from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, but they started to fall apart during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Important events, like the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 (which ended school segregation) and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955–1956, helped bring change. New laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made segregation and unfair voting rules illegal. Even though Jim Crow laws ended, their impact is still felt today in ongoing issues like racism and inequality.</p> <p></p>