Jim Crow laws legalized racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These laws restricted African Americans' access to public facilities, limited their economic opportunities, and prevented them from voting through discriminatory tests and taxes. As a result of this unequal treatment and lack of opportunities under Jim Crow, around 6 million African Americans migrated from the rural South to Northern and Midwestern cities in the early 1900s in a period known as the Great Migration, seeking greater freedom and economic opportunities.