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The controversy over individual states changing their election and voting laws has raised concern among voting rights and civil rights activists and some elected leaders, including President Joe Biden.

For much of the 20th century, Black Americans in the South were barred from the voting booth, sent to the back of the bus and walled off from many of the rights they deserved as citizens. Until well into the 1960s, segregation was legal. The system was called Jim Crow.

On Wednesday, Biden said parts of the United States are "backsliding into the days of Jim Crow," by passing laws he said are reminiscent of when Black Americans had to pay poll taxes and pass other tests to vote. Last month the president called the Georgia election law "Jim Crow in the 21st century." 

In this 2001 American Public Media documentary

, Americans — Black and white — remember life in the Jim Crow times.

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For much of the 20th century, Black Americans in the South were barred from the voting booth, sent to the back of the bus and walled off from many of the rights they deserved as citizens. Until well into the 1960s, segregation was legal. The system was called Jim Crow. In this documentary, Americans — Black and white — remember life in the Jim Crow times.

For much of the 20th century, African Americans endured a legal system in the American South that was calculated to segregate and humiliate them. The system was called Jim Crow.

APM documentary: 'Remembering Jim Crow'

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