Racial Discrimination in the United States of America and Laws to prevent it

Aashima Kakkar

In May 2020, the headlines of newspapers all over the word announced the death of an African American man named George Floyd. It was stated that he was killed due to police brutality which was fueled by the racial discrimination prevalent in the country for centuries.

The incident was more highlighted as the George Floyd was only accused of counterfeiting a twenty-dollar bill in a café whereas the treatment done to him at the time of arrest was inhumane.

The officer in charge of the case at the time was white who put pressure on George’s neck for a full seven minutes even after George was yelling that he could not breathe. The officer did not stop putting pressure on his neck till George was rendered unconscious and probably dead, which was later confirmed when the lifeless body reached the hospital. This whole incident put a new light on the racial discrimination that all African Americans face in the country, that is not only present in the criminal justice system but also in the opportunities available to them. Later Minneapolis Police Officer charged with second degree murder of George Floyd.

Cut to the year 2021, COVID-19 has re-emerged in most parts of the world. The United States of America after facing the brunt of the highest recorded cases still increasing due to incompetent governance. To which the then President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, fueling the fire of racial discrimination decided to put all the blame on China and other Asian countries as well, because of which the response from his blind and trusted followers was of unprecedented brutality against all Asians because according to them all Asians represent the start of COVID-19 in the country.

Multiple cases of brutality against Asians were seen throughout the country, which lead to shedding a light on the discrimination faced by all immigrants from all over the world, or anybody who is not “white” and not just the community of African Americans in the country.

For hundreds of years, people from all over the world have immigrated to the United States, making it a very diverse, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic country. The migration started when the British Colonial regime took over the governance of the continent. While the first wave of immigrants came from Europe, Latin America, and Asia, they accounted for the majority of people entering North America. There was also the enslavement of Africans in the United States, started by the Colonials and then pushed forward by the Americans.

Native Americans who did not immigrate but lived on the land prior to immigration were displaced as a result of this immigration by various communities. As they went through the process of assimilation, most of these groups experienced a period of disenfranchisement and prejudice.

Native Americans also known as Indians in the US, African Americans, and European Americans have all been considered separate races in the United States since its founding. However, the differences attributed to each group, particularly those who used to label European Americans as the superior race, which obviously had little to do with biology. Instead, these racial classifications were used to concentrate European Americans’ power, wealth, land, and privilege over all the races that were the rightful owner of all the resources present in the continent. Furthermore, the emphasis on racial distinctions frequently resulted in a lack of recognition or oversimplification of the country’s vast ethnic diversity.

The racial category of “white” or “European American,” or just “Britishers and Colonials” for example, fails to reflect the fact that members of this group come from a variety of countries. Similarly, the racial category of “black” and “Asian” makes no distinction between people from the Caribbean and those brought to North America from various parts of Africa and various parts of Asia.

The United States is still seeing a large influx of immigrants from all over the world. Discrimination, persecution, violence, and an ongoing struggle for power and equality continue to plague race relations in the United States that can be reduced by good governance and change of attitude, which is very difficult to achieve in the United States of America or should I say the Land of Whites.

History of racial discrimination in the States

Racial discrimination has been engrained in US since the day the Colonizers captured this native land and started using it for their own profit as they did in their other colonies, under the pretense of making the country “civil”. What they did not realize was that some of these countries did not need to be “civil” or that they already were way ahead of them in the manner of being “civil” and it is not vital to make all races exactly like the British.

Native Americans

The bloody conflict between European colonists and Native Americans, which resulted in the annihilation of the latter’s population, is widely remembered as a historical tragedy. Discrimination against Native Americans was codified and formalized in a series of laws intended to subjugate them and prevent them from gaining power even after the United States government was established.

Native American culture was eradicated until the 1960s, when Native Americans were given the opportunity to participate in and benefit from the civil rights movement. The effects of centuries of degradation are still felt by Native Americans. Long-term poverty, insufficient education, cultural dislocation, and high unemployment rates are all factors that contribute to Native American populations falling to the bottom of the economic ladder.

African Americans

Slavery brought African Americans to North America under duress, and there is no clearer example of the dominant-subordinate group relationship than slavery. Slaves had all of their rights and privileges taken away from them, and they were at the mercy of their masters. For African Americans, the civil rights movement demonstrated that they were no longer willing to submit to oppression. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 dealt a major blow to America’s formally institutionalized racism. Discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin was prohibited under this Act, which is still in effect today.

Some sociologists, on the other hand, argue that institutionalized racism still exists, citing the fact that African Americans continue to struggle in areas such as employment, insurance coverage, and incarceration, as well as in economics, health, and education.

The biggest example of African American discrimination can be seen in the Jim Crow Laws that were prevalent in earlier times.

Jim Crows Law

The Jim Crow laws were a set of laws in the United States that mandated racial segregation. Between 1876 and 1965, these laws were implemented in various states. “Jim Crow” laws established a legal framework for racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. After the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, the laws were enacted and enforced until the mid-twentieth century. They were about segregating whites and blacks in all public buildings.

A racist term for a black person was “Jim Crow.” Black people were frequently treated unfairly in comparison to white people. Segregation was also practised in the armed forces, schools, restaurants, buses, and the jobs that black people were offered. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that segregation in state-run schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education is the name of the case. The Civil Rights Act, 1964 and the Voting Rights Act, 1965 repealed the remaining Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were opposed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Following the Civil War, the United States attempted to enforce ex-slaves’ rights in the South through a process known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction, on the other hand, came to an end in 1876. The Southern legislatures were all-white again by the 1890s. The South was completely ruled by Southern Democrats who opposed black civil rights. This gave them a great deal of clout in the US Congress. Southern Democrats, for example, were able to prevent lynching laws from becoming law.

Beginning in 1890, Southern Democrats began to pass state laws restricting African Americans’ rights. Jim Crow laws were named after these racist laws. They included, for example:

• Black people were denied the right to vote as a result of laws that made it impossible for them to vote (this is called disenfranchisement). Blacks could not serve on juries because they could not vote.
• Laws requiring racial segregation – the separation of whites and blacks. Blacks, for example, could not:
  • Attend the same schools, restaurants, and hospitals that white people do.
  • Use the same restrooms or drink from the same water fountain as whites.

In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson^[1], the United States Supreme Court ruled that these laws were legal in 1896. They said it was fine if things were “separate but equal.” [number six]

Everything was separate in the South. However, black schools and libraries received significantly less funding and were not as well-equipped as white schools and libraries. Things were different, but not in the same way.

Illustration:

In Alabama, it was decided that all passenger stations operated by any motor transportation company in the state must have separate waiting rooms or space, as well as separate ticket windows, for white and colored people.

Jim Crow laws were still in effect when World War II broke out and the United States joined the fight. In some parts of the country, racial segregation was a way of life, so black men serving in the military were assigned to segregated divisions. Black servicemen were assigned to lower-level support jobs like gravedigging or cooking, and their meals were served in separate lines from white servicemen. Initially, black servicemen did not participate in combat, but as the war progressed, an increasing number of them were assigned to front-line positions, where they performed admirably.^[2]

Following the end of World War II, America’s segregation policies were scrutinized. The then President Harry Truman established a committee to look into the matter, and in 1948, he issued an executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in all military branches. With a series of Supreme Court victories for civil rights in the following years, the tide began to turn noticeably toward equality.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which abolished Jim Crow laws, was the pinnacle of this effort, with black people finally breaking down racial barriers and successfully challenging segregation. Discrimination in any type of public accommodation was prohibited under this law. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, ensuring that black people’s right to vote was protected by prohibiting discriminatory voting laws.^[3]

Asian Americans or Immigrants

Asian Americans are people with Asian ancestry who live in the United States. Although the term “Asian” was once used to describe all of Asia’s indigenous peoples, the United States Census Bureau now classifies people with ethnic origins in certain parts of Asia, such as West Asia, as Middle Eastern Americans.

This includes people who report “Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Other Asian” as their race(s) on the census or people who report “Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Other Asian” as their race(s). In 2018, Asian Americans made up 5.4 percent of the population in the United States; when multiracial Asian Americans are included, the percentage rises to 6.5 percent.^[4] With 5 million, 4.3 million, and 4 million people, respectively, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino Americans make up the largest share of the Asian American population. These percentages represent 23%, 20%, and 18% of the total Asian American population, respectively, or 1.5 percent and 1.2 percent of the total US population.^[5]

Although Asian migrants have been present in parts of modern-day America since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-nineteenth century. During the 1880s–1920s, nativist immigration laws excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting nearly all Asian immigration to the continental United States. Asian immigration increased rapidly after immigration laws were reformed in the 1940s–60s, abolishing national origins quotas. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States, according to census data from 2010.

Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese are just a few of the cultures represented among Asian Americans. They, too, have faced racial discrimination. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was motivated by white workers blaming Chinese migrants for stealing their jobs, resulted in the abrupt end of Chinese immigration and the segregation of Chinese already in America, resulting in Chinatowns in major cities.

Despite their difficult history, Asian Americans have earned the reputation of being the model minority. The model minority stereotype refers to a group of people who have achieved significant educational, professional, and socioeconomic success without challenging the status quo.

Hispanic Americans

Hispanic Americans come from a diverse range of ethnic and national backgrounds. Mexican Americans are the largest and oldest Hispanic subgroup. Mexican Americans, particularly those who are in the country illegally, are at the center of a national immigration debate. Mexican immigrants have low economic and civil assimilation rates, which is likely exacerbated by the fact that many of them are in the country illegally.

Cuban Americans, on the other hand, are frequently regarded as a model minority group within the larger Hispanic community. Being a model minority, as with Asian Americans, can obscure the issue of powerlessness that these minority groups face in American society.

Laws protecting the discriminated

Throughout history of discrimination in US, many laws were passed to curb this dangerous menace to spread further and threaten the advance of the country as a whole. Some of the laws that are still prevalent that ensure the end of racial discrimination are:

The 13^th Amendment

The Senate passed the 13th amendment on April 8, 1864, and the House passed it on January 31, 1865, formally abolishing slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures on February 1, 1865. By December 6, 1865, the required number of states had ratified it. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution states that:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which stated:

“all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

Despite this, the Emancipation Proclamation did not abolish slavery in the United States. To ensure the abolition of slavery, Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation would need to be followed by a constitutional amendment.

The 13th amendment, which was passed before the Southern states were restored to the Union at the end of the Civil War, should have been easy to pass in Congress. It was passed by the Senate in April 1864, but not by the House. At that point, Lincoln took an active role in ensuring that the bill was passed by Congress. He insisted that the Republican Party’s platform for the upcoming presidential elections include the passage of the 13th Amendment. His efforts were rewarded when the bill was passed by the House with a vote of 119–56 in January 1865.

The United States found a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery with the adoption of the 13th amendment. Along with the 14th and 15th amendments, the 13th amendment is one of the three Civil War amendments that greatly expanded Americans’ civil rights.^[6]

Civil Rights Act, 1866

The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and made it illegal in the United States, was one of the first laws passed after the civil war. However, after the 13th Amendment, the big question was how the government would protect the rights of newly freed slaves. The 13th Amendment was ratified on December 18, 1965, but Congress was already working on a second bill just a few months later.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was introduced to Congress by Senate Judiciary Chairman Lyman Trumbull as an amendment to the 13th Amendment. Despite the fact that the 13th Amendment made slavery illegal, Trumbull and many other Republicans believed that additional legislation was needed to reaffirm this point.

Several statutes aimed at protecting the rights of newly freed slaves were passed by Congress during Reconstruction, many of them over President Andrew Johnson’s veto. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, for example, declared that all people born in the United States were citizens of the United States and had certain inalienable rights, including the ability to make contracts, own property, sue in court, and enjoy full protection under federal law.

The act gave the United States district courts exclusive jurisdiction over criminal cases involving violations of the act, as well as concurrent jurisdiction over all civil and criminal cases affecting those who were unable to enforce their rights in state court. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ushered in a gradual transformation of federal courts into the primary venues for individuals to assert their constitutional and statutory rights.^[7]

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave men of all races and colours the same rights as white male citizens. Native Americans were the only exception to the law; at the time, Native Americans were not considered citizens, but freed black slaves were.

Men in every U.S. state and territory could, under the Civil Rights Act of 1866:

• enter into contract agreements
• sue other people
• enjoy full property rights (like buying or selling a home, or just owning property in general)

In addition to men’s rights, the 1866 Civil Rights Act outlined how states should enforce the law and established penalties for those who refused to comply.^[8]

The 14^th Amendment

On July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified.

During the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, Congress debated which of the Constitution’s rights applied to the country’s newly freed slaves, who had previously been denied rights or protections. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, 1866 not long after. This law ensured citizenship to anyone born in the United States, regardless of race, skin color, or previous slavery.

However, abolitionists were concerned about the contentiousness of the Civil Rights Act, 1866, which was vetoed by then-President Andrew Johnson and was hotly contested by Southern states. They were concerned that the law could be overturned or repealed, jeopardizing Black Americans’ civil rights. To combat this, they lobbied for these safeguards to be enshrined in the United States Constitution via a constitutional amendment.

To be ratified, or approved, an amendment must first receive the approval of two-thirds of both houses of Congress. The amendment then goes to the states for approval. A constitutional amendment must be approved by three-fourths of the United States’ states in order to become law. The 14th amendment was ratified by the majority of three-fourth states of the United States on July 9, 1868 and became part of the United States Constitution. The 14^th amendment stated that:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”^[9]

The 15^th Amendment

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1870, ensuring that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of “race, colour, or previous condition of servitude.” The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, which abolished slavery and guaranteed citizenship to African Americans, respectively, were supplemented and followed by this amendment. The Fifteenth Amendment was passed and ratified on February 3, 1870, effectively enfranchising African American men while denying women of all races the right to vote. That right would not be granted to women until the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920. The exact amendment is:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude—

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” ^[10]

The amendment was successful in encouraging African Americans to vote after the Civil War, during the period known as Reconstruction (1865–77). During the 1880s, many African Americans were elected to public office in the states that once made up the Confederate States of America. Efforts by several states to enact poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, as well as widespread threats and violence, had completely reversed those trends by the 1890s. By the turn of the century, nearly all African Americans in the former Confederacy’s states had lost their voting rights.^[11]

The Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) abolished poll taxes in federal elections, and the Supreme Court extended that prohibition to state and local elections in 1966. The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) abolished registration and voting requirements and allowed for federal “preclearance” of election law changes in certain (“covered”) jurisdictions, mostly in the South. The Supreme Court, however, struck down the section of the VRA that had been used to identify covered jurisdictions in Shelby County v. Holder^[12], effectively rendering the preclearance requirement unenforceable.

Civil Rights Act of 1964: Title VII (Equal Employment Opportunities)

When it was passed in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was a landmark piece of legislation that continues to protect people from discrimination. Many anti-discrimination provisions are included in the Act, including Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Equal Employment Opportunities), which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (including limited English proficiency).

Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)

Through the anti-discrimination provision of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, all applicants are given an equal chance to obtain credit. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, age, or the applicant’s use of government assistance.

U.S. Code Title 42, Chapter 21-Civil Rights

In a variety of settings, including education, employment, public accommodations, federal services, and more, Title 42, Chapter 21 of the United States Code prohibits discrimination against people based on age, disability, gender, race, national origin, and religion (among other things). A number of federal acts relating to civil rights, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, are codified in Chapter 21.

Fair Housing Act

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability in the sale, rental, or financing of housing.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) prohibits the denial or restriction of the right to vote, as well as discrimination in voting practices based on race or color, across the United States.

Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act

During an official emergency, the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act ensures that relief operations are fair and impartial, with no discrimination based on race, colour, religion, nationality, sex, age, or economic status. or disaster. 

Executive order 11478

On August 8, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon signed Executive Order 11478, which prohibited discrimination in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce on certain grounds. Later, the order was amended to include more protected classes.

The federal civilian workforce, including the US Postal Service and civilian employees of the US Armed Forces, was covered by Executive Order 11478. It outlawed employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, or age. All departments and agencies were required to take affirmative steps to promote employment opportunities for the classes it covered.

Executive Order 11478 charged the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with directing the Order’s policies’ implementation and issuing rules to promote its principles. Agencies were then required to follow the rules and submit any reports requested by the EEOC.

The Federal Women’s Program (FWP) was integrated into the EEOC programme and placed under the direction of EEOC for each agency following the release of Executive Order 11478.

Racial discrimination or Multiculturalism in US in recent times

Multiculturalism is an ideology that advocates for the institutionalization of multi-cultural communities. It refers to the demographic makeup of a specific location, usually at the organizational level, such as schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or countries.

In a political context, the term can mean anything from advocating for equal respect for all cultures in a society to a policy promoting the preservation of cultural diversity to policies in which people of various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities according to the group to which they belong.

Multiculturalism is not clearly established in federal policy in the United States. Instead, it has been primarily addressed through the educational system, with the rise of ethnic studies programmes in higher education and efforts to make grade school curricula more inclusive of non-white peoples’ history and contributions.

The National Myth and Multiculturalism

Since the first half of the nineteenth century, continuous mass immigration has been a feature of the American economy and society. The acceptance of the influx of immigrants became a prominent feature of America’s national myth, inspiring its own historical narrative.

This was exemplified by the metaphor of America as a “Melting Pot,” which implies that all immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without the intervention of the state. This metaphor also implies that each individual immigrant, as well as each group of immigrants, assimilated at their own pace into American society.

Philosophy of Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism as a philosophy began as part of the pragmatism movement in Europe and the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, then as political and cultural pluralism at the turn of the twentieth century. It was partly in response to a new wave of European imperialism in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as massive migration of Southern and Eastern Europeans to the US and Latin America.

Multiculturalism in the School

As school systems try to rework their curricula to introduce students to diversity at an earlier age, the educational approach to multiculturalism has recently spread to the grade school system. This is frequently justified on the grounds that minority students need to see themselves represented in the classroom. According to studies, the 46.3 million Americans aged 14 to 24 make up the most diverse generation in the country.^[13]

Multiculturalism is a point of conflict

In the United States, multiculturalism is a controversial subject. In Texas, for example, controversy erupted in 2009 and 2010 when the state’s curriculum committee made several changes to the state’s school curriculum requirements, often at the expense of minorities: juxtaposing Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address with that of Confederate president Jefferson Davis; debating the removal of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and labour leader César Chávez; and rejecting the inclusion of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address with that of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.^[14]

Conclusion

Through the intentional exclusion and oppression of people of color, the hallmarks of American democracy – opportunity, freedom, and prosperity – have been largely reserved for white people throughout the country’s history. The historical and contemporary policies, practices, and norms that create and maintain white supremacy are directly responsible for today’s deep racial and ethnic inequities.

In the year 2020, Americans were living through history, as they were forced to reconcile the past with the present. The Covid-19 pandemic, dubbed the “great equalizer” by many, paralyzed the world, with Black, Latino, and Native American communities among the hardest hit. Racist attacks against Asians were also on the rise in the United States. While jogging, birdwatching, or even dialing 911 all minority communities felt at risk, when George Floyd’s death by a police officer jolted Americans out of whatever numbness they had to racism and police brutality.

You could not turn away from reality no matter where you went. The United States of America was at the center of a racial reckoning. Within days of the George Floyd incident, over 10,000 people had joined nationwide demonstrations, and a movement to demand reform in police departments swept the country. Monuments to the Confederacy were desecrated. The call for social justice was heard on television and in sports arenas, and athletes were among the leading voices in the fight for racial equality.

Throughout the year, law enforcement officials in the United States warned of a growing threat and expressed concern that the rise of White supremacist groups had become the most serious domestic terrorism threat.

People switched from protesting in the streets to protesting at the polls by November, and Black, Latino, and Native American voters helped turn some states blue. Examine the political, policing, and cultural events that shaped an extraordinary year in which America was forced to confront racism – and, in some cases, pushed the needle toward change, which was due since a very long time.

1. Plessey v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 (1896) ↑

2. Urofsky, M. I. “Jim Crow law.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, February 12, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law ↑

3. A brief history of Jim Crows Laws available at: https://onlinellm.usc.edu/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow-laws/ ↑

4. Asian American population in the United States continues to grow available at: https://asiamattersforamerica.org/articles/asian-american-population-in-the-united-states-continues-to-grow ↑

5. Supra refer to footnote 1 ↑

6. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Thirteenth Amendment.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, August 14, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thirteenth-Amendment ↑

7. Civil Rights Act of 1866 available at: https://www.fjc.gov/history/timeline/civil-rights-act-1866#:~:text=One%20such%20law%20was%20the,full%20protection%20of%20federal%20law. ↑

8. “The Civil Rights Act of 1866 Summary.” Study.com. October 7, 2015. https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-civil-rights-act-of-1866-summary.html ↑

9. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Fourteenth Amendment.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, September 27, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fourteenth-Amendment ↑

10. Parrott-Sheffer, C. “Fifteenth Amendment.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, August 14, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fifteenth-Amendment ↑

11. Ulysses S. Grant and the 15^th Amendment available at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/ulysses-s-grant-the-15th-amendment.htm#:~:text=The%2015th%20Amendment%20was%20ratified,or%20previous%20condition%20of%20servitude.%E2%80%9D ↑

12. Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013) ↑

13. Race in America 2019 available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/ ↑

14. Race and ethnicity in the US available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-u-s/ ↑