Racist laws and practices known as "Jim Crow" laws dominated southern politics in the mid-twentieth century. The term Jim Crow comes from characters in "minstrel shows," theatrical performances that represented African Americans using racist stereotypes. (Source)

Yeah: that should be your first clue that these laws were insanely messed-up.

The Jim Crow regime included a number of racially divided laws and non-legal practices. The laws demanded segregated schools and trains, and separation of real estate by race. There was even an Alabama law that disallowed African Americans and white people to play cards together—because nothing challenges the status quo like a game of Crazy Eights? Seriously: what were these lawmakers thinking? (Source)

In contemporary times, journalists, sociologists, politicians, and scholars debate whether economic inequality between the races constitutes a "new Jim Crow" (source).