Origin of the term “Jim
Crow”
The term
Jim Crow is believed to have originated
around 1830 when a white, minstrel
show performer, Thomas "Daddy" Rice, blackened his face with charcoal
paste or burnt cork and danced a ridiculous jig while singing the
lyrics to the
song, "Jump
Jim Crow." Rice created this character after seeing
(while traveling in the South) a crippled, elderly black man (or some
say a
young black boy) dancing and singing a song ending with these chorus
words:
"Weel
about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel
about I jump Jim Crow."
Some historians believe that a
Mr. Crow owned the slave who inspired
Rice's act--thus the reason for the Jim Crow term in the lyrics. In any
case,
Rice incorporated the skit into his minstrel act, and by the 1850s the
"Jim Crow" character had become a standard part of the minstrel show
scene in
Image and Description
Source: http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm
Audio Source: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/remembering/bitter.html