After the Civil War, African Americans in the South faced great challenges. Rules known as "Jim Crow laws" kept whites separate from blacks. African Americans could not go to the same restaurants or movie theaters as whites. They were required to sit in the back of buses and could only shop in certain stores. Many African Americans in the South worked as sharecroppers and could only keep some of the money they earned from farming white people's land. Often, they were not even allowed to vote. African Americans had to fight very hard to defend their rights.