Jim Crow

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A Black man.

2. 2

   The collective policies and customs of an era of racial oppression in the U.S.,…

   The collective policies and customs of an era of racial oppression in the U.S., especially legalized racial persecution and segregationist practices, prevalent from the late 1800s through the 1960s until challenged by the U.S. civil rights movement.

   • Texas stands for segregation—for Jim Crow cars, for eating in separate restaurants, for sitting in separate rail coaches, for doing all the things which make white and black people in the United States realise how different they are.
   • Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?
3. 3

   A fictional character from various minstrel show performances who is stereotypically…

   A fictional character from various minstrel show performances who is stereotypically depicted as an unintelligent, violent, and promiscuous Black man.

4. ›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A World War II code name for patrols along the British coastline to intercept enemy…

      A World War II code name for patrols along the British coastline to intercept enemy aircraft, originally intended to warn of invasion in 1940.

      • … flying cannon equipped Spitfires V’s mainly on ‘Jim Crow’ operations (operational Patrols along the home coastline intercepting any hostile aircraft and looking out for any invasion forces).
   2. 5

      A double-action planing tool invented by Joseph Whitworth, in which the blade ‘jumps’ to…

      A double-action planing tool invented by Joseph Whitworth, in which the blade ‘jumps’ to face the other way on the back-stroke.

      • Two other machines exhibited by Whitworth… One was furnished with a reversing tool to plane both ways, and called, from its peculiar motion, a Jim Crow machine.
      • He has considerably improved upon the planing machine, in his “Jim Crow” machine, so called because the cutter reverses itself and works both ways, and in fact adapts itself to any position to do its work.
      • The “Jim Crow” machine, which is Whitworth's patent, was new to some of the visitors. … But with a “Jim Crow” a cut is obtained both ways.
   3. 6

      A tool for bending railway rails, by holding the rail with two arms and pushing a screw…

      A tool for bending railway rails, by holding the rail with two arms and pushing a screw into the other side.

      • When rails have to be bent with a Jim Crow, as in setting stock or check-rails, or straightening a bent rail, they should always be heated first, or they are liable to crack, especially steel rails.
      • It is placed on the rail pretty much as a jim-crow is set, and as the middle roll is turned it travels along on the rail, curving the rail as it moves.
      • Quelling his nerves, Moist grabbed a jim crow and opened the trap door on to the roof of the guard's van, to the initial amazement of the grag who had been trying to force his way in.
   4. 7

      Discriminatory against African Americans.

   5. 8

      Segregated between African Americans and Caucasians.

      • A Jim Crow audience
   6. 9

      To work toward legislation that incorporates a discriminatory caste system or racial…

      To work toward legislation that incorporates a discriminatory caste system or racial segregation. Also jimcrowing, jimcrowed.

      • The American Bowling Congress’ 50-odd years of jimcrowing went by the boards during their convention in May which carried a motion to delete the "white males only" clause from their constitution.
      • It is not only the students who are jimcrowed in the South. And it is not only the students who are protesting.

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