ORIGIN OF “JIM CROW”
The phrase “Jim Crow” has become so inseparably affixed to the laws separating the races in public conveyances that two States, North Carolina and Maryland, have indexed the laws on that subject under “J” in some of their annual statutes. The earliest public use of the phrase appears to have been in 1835, when Thomas D. Rice, the first Negro minstrel, brought out in Washington a dramatic song and Negro dance called “Jim Crow.” The late actor, Joseph Jefferson, when only four years old, appeared in this dance.[[517]] In 1841 “Jim Crow” was first used in Massachusetts to apply to a railroad car set apart for the use of Negroes.[[518]] The phrase, then, has a somewhat more dignified origin than is ordinarily attributed to it by those who have considered it as only an opprobrious comparison of the color of the Negro with that of the crow.