Black Codes

What does Black Codes mean in American Law?

The definition of Black Codes in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

Statutes in effect in most southern states prior to (and for a short time after) the Civil War, regulating, segregating, and systematically disadvantaging blacks. Whatever other purposes the 1866 Civil Rights Act might have had (see Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.), one aim was totally to abolish the black codes.