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
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- caused (incoming)·EventThe Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction
Abandoning Reconstruction opened the door to a century of legal segregation.