System of oppression · 1877–1965
Jim Crow
State-enforced racial segregation and disenfranchisement across the South after Reconstruction.
On the timeline
- April 13, 1873The Colfax Massacre
A white militia murders scores of Black freedmen in Louisiana, a turning point against Reconstruction.
- March 2, 1877The Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction
Federal troops withdraw from the South, abandoning Black citizens to white-supremacist "Redeemer" governments.
- 1881Tennessee passes the first Jim Crow railroad law
The legal architecture of segregation begins to spread across the South.
- October 15, 1883The Civil Rights Cases
The Supreme Court strikes down the 1875 Civil Rights Act, opening the door to Jim Crow.
- May 18, 1896Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court blesses "separate but equal," constitutionalizing Jim Crow for half a century.
- November 10, 1898The Wilmington coup of 1898
White supremacists violently overthrow a multiracial elected government in North Carolina.
- September 22, 1906The Atlanta race massacre
White mobs attack Black Atlantans over several days.
- August 14, 1908The Springfield race riot
Violence in Lincoln's hometown spurs the founding of the NAACP.
- February 8, 1915The Birth of a Nation
D.W. Griffith's film glorifies the Klan and fuels a violent revival.
- March 25, 1931The Scottsboro Boys
Nine Black teenagers are falsely accused of rape in Alabama, a landmark of Jim Crow injustice.
Resources
Documents 4,000+ racial-terror lynchings of Black Americans between 1877 and 1950.
A teaching museum of racist artifacts documenting the Jim Crow era and its imagery.
EJI''s report documenting more than 4,000 racial-terror lynchings (1877–1950) used to enforce the racial caste hierarchy.
Overview of the Jim Crow legal regime that codified racial segregation and caste from Reconstruction into the 20th century.
Comprehensive social history of lynching and the anti-lynching movement.
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- part of·ThreadFrom Owned to Caste
The codified architecture of caste, enforced by segregation law and lynching terror.
- connects to (incoming)·EventThe murder of Emmett Till
An all-white jury acquitted the killers — Jim Crow justice in plain view.
- part of (incoming)·EventThe trial and acquittal of Emmett Till's killers
Jim Crow justice performed openly for the world's cameras.
- caused (incoming)·EventThe Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction
Abandoning Reconstruction opened the door to a century of legal segregation.
- enabled (incoming)·EventPlessy v. Ferguson
The "separate but equal" ruling gave constitutional cover to a half-century of legalized segregation.
- caused (incoming)·ThreadGreed — The Root
Segregation protected white economic advantage as much as it enforced a racial hierarchy.