Jim Crow

Meanings

Proper Noun

• A black man.
• Southern United States racist and especially segregationist policies in the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s, taken collectively.

Noun

• A World War II code name for patrols along the British coastline to intercept enemy aircraft, originally intended to warn of invasion in 1940.
• A double-action planing tool invented by Joseph Whitworth, in which the blade ‘jumps’ to face the other way on the back-stroke.
• A tool for bending railway rails, by holding the rail with two arms and pushing a screw into the other side.

Adjective

• Discriminatory against African Americans.
• Segregated between African Americans and Caucasians.

Verb

• To work towards legislation that incorporates a discriminatory caste system or racial segregation.

Origin

• From the minstrel show song Jump Jim Crow, written in 1828 by Thomas D. Rice, the originator of blackface performance.