Jim Crow: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic

摘要

Jim Crow describes the period of US history from the failure of Reconstruction following the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s. Following the emancipation of African Americans, southern states took advantage of the federal government's lassiez-faire approach to enforcing equality by codifying discriminatory laws that made it difficult, often impossible, for African Americans to vote, obtain employment, buy homes and live without constantly fearing being arrested or lynched for manufactured charges. This state of "separate but equal" - which was always more of the former than the latter - has continued to affect and inform the lives of African Americans into the twenty-first century.