Edited by Brown (history, U. of New Orleans) and Stentiford (history, Grambling State U.), this encyclopedia presents some 275 alphabetical entries detailing the history of Jim Crow, the American system of racial segregation that ran from the mid-1880s to the mid-1960s. It addresses issues of religion, culture, politics, class, law, music, protest, sports, government, gender and sexuality, health, education, and employment. The cross-referenced entries, written in a style accessible to students and the general public, are typically a page or two long and include relatively substantial "further reading" references. The coverage is broad enough to include such possibly unexpected topics as the Asian Exclusion Act, apartheid, The Birth of a Nation, black nationalism, the Communist Party, Duke Ellington, Mahatma Gandhi, Haiti, humor and comedic traditions, the Industrial Workers of the World, Japanese internment, Jews in the South, Latin America, Native Americans and football alongside such expected topics as the Congress of Racial Equality, W.E.B. Du Bois, Medgar Evars, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, historically black colleges and universities, Martin Luther King Jr., the March on Washington, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, racial stereotypes, and Emmett Till. A number of significant race riots receive individual attention, as do important court cases, pieces of legislation, and executive orders. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)