Jim Crow originally referred to a fictional character created by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, a white entertainer in the 1830s, who performed a minstrel show act in blackface portraying a stereotypical, dim-witted African American named Jim Crow. This character was based on African American folk traditions and songs and became widely popular, reinforcing racist stereotypes

. Over time, the name "Jim Crow" evolved from this theatrical persona into a derogatory term for Black people and was used as a collective racial epithet in the 19th century

. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "Jim Crow" came to symbolize the system of racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern United States. The Jim Crow laws were state and local statutes that enforced racial segregation, relegating African Americans to second-class citizenship and institutionalizing racism in public life, education, transportation, and voting rights

. Thus, "Jim Crow" refers both to the original minstrel character and, more broadly, to the racial caste system and segregation laws that oppressed African Americans primarily from the late 1800s through the mid-1960s in the U.S.