Jim Crow

Etimology of Jim Crow

(You may find Jim Crow at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

black man, 1838, American English, originally the name of a black minstrel character in a popular song-and-dance act by T.D. Rice (1808-1860) that debuted 1828 and attained national popularity by 1832: Wheel about, an’ turn about, an’ do jis so; Eb’ry time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow. Where and how Rice got it, or wrote it, is a mystery. Even before that, crow; this term is also a noun. had been a derogatory term for a black man. As an adjective from 1833, in reference to the song. Association with segregation dates from 1841, in reference to separate railroad cars for blacks in Massachusetts. Modern use as a type of racial discrimination is from 1943. Jim Crow also could be a reference to someone’s change of (political) principles (1837, from the “jump” in the song) or reversible machinery (1875, “wheel about”).