(n.) State and local laws enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation of public schools, public facilities, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains between white and Black people. Upheld in 1896 by the U.S. Supreme Court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, Jim Crow laws were enforced until 1965 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
