"Jim Crow" refers to a set of laws in many states, predominantly in the South, after the end of Reconstruction in 1877 that severely restricted the rights and privileges of African Americans. This major encyclopedia is the first devoted to the Jim Crow era. It contains over 275 essay entries on such areas as law, media, business, politics, employment, religion, education, people, events, culture, the arts, protest, the military, class, housing, sports, and violence. Key primary documents are excerpted in side bars. The authoritative entries are written by a host of historians with expertise in the Jim Crow era. Sample entries include: Affirmative Action; Armed Forces; Confederate Flag; Congress of Racial Equality; GI Bill; Intelligence Testing; Minstrelsy; Poll Taxes; Rural Segregation; Sharecropping; Booker T. Washington; and, WPA.