Historical events can be looked at from different perspectives, depending on the source of the information.I read two different sources that each provided different information regarding the origin of the term Jim Crow.The first site, Duckers, a popular educational website briefly mentions that the name “Jim Crow” came from a song back in 1832. Whereas the second site, Blackpast told the whole origin story of the word including who started using it, when they started using it, and why they started using it. So you can see they are two very different websites.

Based on the information I read I think that the origin of the word came from Thomas Dartmouth Rice when he performed a song called Jump Jim Crow. Where he imitated an older disabled black man that he had met. The song became very popular and many white people referred to black men as Jim Crow from then on.

The other thing that I learned about from these two sources were what the Jim Crow laws actually were. From reading both articles more then once I came to the understanding that the  Jim Crow laws were laws that enforced racial segregation in the south between 1877 and the 1950’s.

Finally the last thing I learned is what the black code laws were. The Black Crow laws denied African Americans the right to vote, hold jobs, and get an education. Meaning they were similar to the Jim crow laws in a lot of ways.

I think that I learned a lot from this mostly because I used two articles. They both had something different to say that was important. If I had only used the the first one I would have not known the  the origin of the name “Jim Crow”. But If i had only used the second one I wouldn’t know what the Jim Crow laws were. So both of them were equally helpful and educating.