"In 1881 Tennessee passed the first of the so-called 'Jim Crow' laws. Under this law, white southerners and black southerners were required to ride in separate railway cars. Other states followed Tennessee's example. By the 1890's all southern states required such separation, not only in schools but in streetcars, railroads, and railroad stations. Within a few years, this pattern of segregation spread to parks, playgrounds, and other public facilities." From Triumph of the American Nation. The World Book Dictionary says that the term "Jim Crow" came from a refrain in a Negro minstrel song of about 1835. Diana