Changes in Race Relations and Its Influence on the US Government

Changes in race relations have often spawned social movements that have played an essential role in the advancement of minorities in the United States. The difference between the success and failure of a movement was often contingent on how much of a government response it received. While the government’s initial reaction was not always in favor of these movements, the pressure from growing protestations and criticism usually caused it to act in some way. Transformational shifts in racial attitudes have affected the US government in ways that resulted in various legislation and policy changes, which have both stagnated and accelerated the evolution of race relations.

The early 1800s was an era full of tremendous social change that ranged from the extension of women’s rights to the creation of the public school system to the abolishment of slavery (Mintz and McNeil). During the antebellum years leading up the Civil War, a shift in the perception of racial minorities and their role in the United States began to occur. Concern about the nation’s economic dependence on the slave trade grew as did concern about the morality of such an atrocity. Uneasiness permeated with significant prevalence throughout the northern states where, unlike southern states, the economy was not precariously dependent on the slave trade. Concerns were so deep that key legislation was passed to limit the role of slavery in the US economy as well as pave a way for moral high ground. Slaves were freed in nine states north of Maryland and Delaware by 1804, and by 1808, the transatlantic slave trade was made illegal (Mintz and McNeil).

As freed slaves in the north began to acclimate themselves into American society, their voices were a welcomed addition to the abolition movement, which was primarily led by white abolitionists and quickly gaining momentum. Protests were organized in churches and schools, and assistance was provided to the Underground Railroad as slave hunters’ efforts were often derailed and safe houses were provided for runaways. Still, the southern states held an influential stake both politically and economically, and slavery was very much prevalent. In fact, despite the federal ban on transatlantic slave trading, it is believed that slave trading in the southern states increased during this time period as its economic dependence on the enslavement of Africans became increasingly desperate (Mintz and McNeil).

Although the federal government felt immense pressure from southern states to preserve their livelihood, the creation of the Republican Party and the election of Abraham Lincoln ushered in a strong abolitionist sentiment that ultimately resulted in what became the United States’ first and only civil war. When the Civil War ended in 1877, the United States experienced what was arguably its most racially progressive era as it went through a transition of change in race relations (Mintz and McNeil). Great strides were made in integrating these newly freed Americans into society. This era, known as the Reconstruction Era, was the first time in US history where the government played an active and continuous role in the improvement of race relations. The time period ultimately helped set the tone and establish what the federal government’s role should be in encouraging full racial equality (Johnson 5).

During the Reconstruction era, the federal government added three amendments to the constitution. Ratified in 1864, the Thirteenth Amendment made abolition of slavery the law of the land in the United States. Four years later in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified and all US citizens, including its newly freed slaves, were given equal protection under the US Constitution. It was the first piece of civil rights legislation passed by the federal government. Furthermore, it was a response to the “black codes” passed by the Southern States, which was a resentful attempt to return freed slaves back to their conditions previously experienced in captivity. Limiting the mobility of freed slaves, denying them the right to purchase or rent land, and forcing them into indentured servitude were just some of the elements included in these “black codes” (Mintz and McNeil).

Finally, the Fifteenth Amendment granting the right to vote to all US citizens regardless of race was ratified in 1870. This amendment banned states from denying citizens a vote in elections based solely on their race or former status as slaves, important in the US political landscape at that time. The Fifteenth Amendment introduced an era in the US where a high number of African-Americans were elected to political office as this amendment also gave them the right to do so. While these amendments were progressive in its nature, tensions in race relations rose. Southern whites were against the active involvement of former slaves in government, or anything for that matter, and acted out violently to show their disapproval. The North all but abandoned its fight for the protection of former slaves and overall racial equality (Mintz and McNeil).

Tales of corruption and violence sabotaged the continuation of the Reconstruction Era. The increase in violent activity and unease about the transition allowed the argument that the government was acting in extreme, corrupt and immoral ways. This narrative fit perfectly into the agenda of the power-hungry south as it was used as a means of justification for racial segregation as well as a way to gain political support. The fear of civil unrest and the argument that it was caused by freed slaves and their integration into society, catapulted the rise of white supremacy in the south (Mintz and McNeil).

White resentment grew widespread throughout the nation after the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Southern Whites were especially resentful having witnessed the destruction of their entire economic system, and subsequent integration and advancement of minorities within society. In some ways, they felt that improving conditions for African-Americans would somehow worsen their conditions. This contempt was made clear after the establishment of the Colored Farmers Alliance when over a million Africans-Americans joined together to fight for public purchase and ownership of land for farming. This organization attempted to connect with poor whites farmers who expressed similar grievances. This message had the potential to resonate throughout the region and provide an opportunity for these two segments to join forces (Mintz and McNeil).

Upper-class southern whites, threatened by the alliance of African-Americans and poor southern white farmers, used racism as a tool in preventing this union (Mintz and McNeil). With calls to maintain white supremacy throughout the south, elite white southerners convinced their poorer counterparts to vote against their best interests and support the anti-abolitionist and anti-racial equality Democratic Party who introduced reforms that would segregate and discriminate against African Americans. Discriminatory voting requirements, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, were provided as a means to disenfranchise African-American participation in the voting process. Ironically, these reforms would also affect poor white southerners, who often could not pay a poll tax or pass any literacy test themselves (Mintz and McNeil).

After several attempts at passing a series of discriminatory laws that were meant to terrorize African-Americans into not participating in politics and society as a whole, the south was finally successful when it finally regained power in government towards the end of the nineteenth century. The end of the Reconstruction era marked a new era riddled with more racial terrorism and discrimination (Mintz and McNeil).

The ostracizing of people of color was ultimately achieved during the landmark case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that the destructive and discriminatory “Separate but Equal Law” enacted in Louisiana, which stated that people of color in the state be separated from society, was deemed constitutional under the stipulation they are still afforded the same equal rights as their white counterparts. Soon other states followed Louisiana’s lead in implementing segregation laws and introduced even more severely discriminatory laws, known as the Jim Crow laws, a collection of laws aimed at further segregating people of color from society. In other words, two societies were created: a white society and a colored one, separated from one another but hardly equal (Mintz and McNeil).

During this half-century, race relations in the country reached its lowest point since the era of slavery. With the emergence of white supremacist terrorist organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the federal government did little to further protect or advance the lives and rights of its African-American citizens. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Jim Crow laws were deeply ingrained in American social culture and for large swaths of the United States, racial segregation was the norm (King 1). The inaction of the US federal government continued until the 1950s when racial strife began to bubble to the surface.

The first significant challenge to these discriminatory practices occurred in the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education. It led by the nation’s first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, who made the argument that equality cannot exist in a segregated society. In the wake of the unanimous 1954 Supreme Court decision, which stated that the doctrine of “Separate but Equal” was, in fact, unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, a new era of social justice was born (King 5). The ruling brought about the federal enforcement of school integration with the first instances of racial integration occurring in the state of Arkansas (Mintz and McNeil).

With the support of local newspapers and the governor at the time, Orval Faubus, Arkansas’s racial progressiveness made it an important focal point in the Civil Rights Movement. Buses and public buildings were desegregated, and the governor was rewarded with high African-American support in the voting polls, a key reason for his reelection. Despite Governor Faubus’s acceptance of other desegregation measures, he remained apprehensive about the racial integration of his state’s school system. When Central High School in Little Rock was chosen as the place where the first racial integration of schools would take place, he worked to block the nine selected African-American teenagers from enrolling. The Central High Nine, as they were called, was met with such fierce opposition and deeply rooted vitriol, that federal troops were summoned to the school to physically escort the African-American students safely into the building. This dramatic scene served as a backdrop to more extreme acts of resistance as the inevitability of a racially integrated society became more apparent (Mintz and McNeil).

The Civil Rights Movement began in the early 1950s and lasted throughout the 1960s. Peaceful protests and marches were met with injustices and violence, and the unsavory sights that accompanied them were witnessed around the world. Embarrassed by the social unrest, the federal government was forced to take drastic measures in providing civil rights to its citizens of color. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 followed by the Voting Rights Act in 1965, this time period was the most active the federal government had been in the advancement of minorities since the post Civil War Reconstruction era. The Civil Rights Act banned the use of discrimination in employment, public establishments, and businesses based on a person’s race, religion or sex (Mintz and McNeil).

These changes were met with strong resistance, especially in certain areas in the south. Just as they did after their defeat in the Civil War, some southern whites were not particularly receptive to the further integration of these descendants of slaves. Still weary and untrusting of any federal involvement, there was a strong belief that state’s rights were being infringed upon for the rights of a select group of people they deemed were not worthy. Places of businesses and numerous school districts continued to practice racial discrimination forcing the federal government to bring about legal suits against these establishments (Mintz and McNeil).

In spite of the violent and insubordinate attitudes of some southerners towards the Civil Rights Movement, the federal government stood firm in ensuring the successful implementation of corresponding legislation. Additional federal programs were also put in place to fight discrimination. One of the most controversial programs was Affirmative Action, a measure meant to eliminate discrimination of any kind in the workplace (Mintz and McNeil).

African-Americans are not the only identifiable minority group to demand equality through pressure for the federal government to act. Native Americans, forced to live on reservations, began to draw attention to the dismal conditions of their living conditions through militant protests in the 1960s and 1970s. These protests resulted in the enactment of several federal laws. The Indian Education Act, passed in 1972, allowed for parents of Native American children to possess greater control over the welfare of their schools. In 1976, the Indian Health Care Act was passed to improve efficiency in health care, and the 1978 Indian Child Welfare act gave control to the tribes in disputes involving the custody of Native American children (Mintz and McNeil).

Federal courts also played a role in the advancement of Native Americans. Supreme Court decisions like the 1950 case of Williams v. Lee upheld tribal court’s authority to self-govern and the 1968 case, The Meniminee Tribe v. United States, banned states from invalidating the fishing and hunting rights of Native Americans that were obtained through treaties. Political outrage continued to grow within this population who, at that time, were the poorest and most neglected of all minority groups. In 1969, hundreds of Native Americans commandeered Alcatraz Island located in San Francisco for nineteen months in protestation (Mintz and McNeil).

Numerous tribes filed lawsuits against the federal government to recover land that was stolen from them over the last century. In 1980, a settlement was agreed upon where the federal government paid $81.5 million to the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes of Maine as well as a $105 million the Sioux tribe of South Dakota. Federal courts also ruled with the Natives in their request to sell cigarettes, run casinos and impose taxes on its citizens (Mintz and McNeil).

Japanese Americans have also had to pressure the federal into reversing discriminatory practices made against them. In 1924, the Japanese were banned from migrating to the United States by way of the Immigration Act of 1924. As a result, by WWII, Japanese Americans only made up a small number of minorities in comparison to African Americans and Latinos. Nearly all Japanese Americans resided in Hawaii or the West Coast where they worked in business or as migrant farmers (Mintz and McNeil).

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, anti-Japanese sentiment began to grow in the country. With the belief that Japanese-Americans were conspiring with Japanese enemies in planning more attacks with the ultimate goal of invasion, President Roosevelt authorized the Department of War to take military action against all persons of Japanese descent. Limited action could be taken against Japanese Americans in Hawaii as they were essential to the sustainability of the Hawaiian economy, but those who lived on the West Coast were ordered to leave. After realizing this plan was not feasible as they had no place to go, the War Relocation Authority was created and approximately 100,000 Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps that spanned across seven states along the West Coast. These camps, also referred to as relocation camps, were enclosed by barbed wired and filled with shoddy buildings that resembled army barracks. Families were often bunched into one room, and schools and medical care in the camps were inadequate and sparse (Mintz and McNeil).

Although tens of thousands of Japanese American men were released to help the American cause in the war, their families remained in the camps. Appalled by this blatant act of racial discrimination, Japanese Americans began to file legal suits against the United States government in an attempt to end their internment. In the 1944 case, Korematsu v. U.S., the Supreme Court in a six to three vote ruled internment of Japanese Americans constitutional on the basis of national security. However, towards the end of that year, the Supreme Court ruled that the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency, did not have the right to detain citizens who had committed no crime and in the weeks following, the federal government proceeded to close down the camps for good (Mintz and McNeil).

The Latino community, the fastest growing community in the United States, has also made their causes heard. Latinos, specifically Mexicans, were some of the United States’ first immigrants. As the United States entered a time of prosperity in the early 1900s, it was met with a surge of Mexican immigrants. Fearing the loss of job opportunities for natural-born citizens, the US government was pressured by the American Federation of Labor and state and municipal governments to reduce the amount of Mexicans entering the country. Immigrations laws that were already in existence began to be strictly imposed (Mintz and McNeil).

Unable to pass the required yet difficult literacy tests, Mexicans resorted to illegally crossing into the United States. A second surge of Mexican immigrants, this time illegal, caused the federal government to act once more, and in 1930, the Bureau of Immigration began to conduct raids in order to relieve the country of undocumented workers. As a result, tens of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants were either deported or left the United States voluntarily out of fear of retribution (Mintz and McNeil).

Still, hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants remained in the United States. Many of them, working for extremely low wages as migrant farmers, lived in destitution. During WWII, a significant number of Mexicans left farming jobs for better paying war-related jobs causing the need for farmworkers to rise sharply. In order to fill the demand, the federal government established the Bracero Program in 1942. Instead of limiting the entry of Mexican immigrants into the country as they were pressured to do two decades prior, this program was designed to encourage it. By 1945, several hundred thousand Mexican immigrants settled primarily in the Southwest region of the United States. While farmers welcomed the cheap labor, unions were not as receptive. Viewing them as competition, resentment grew, and threats and acts of discrimination against anyone of Mexican descent, Mexican or American born, began to occur with more frequency (Mintz and McNeil).

After WWII, the Latino community continued to grow. An influx of Cubans immigrants arrived in the US as exiles and Puerto Ricans continued their steady stream to the mainland (Mintz and McNeil). In the latter part of the twentieth century, immigrants from other Latino nations, like the Dominican Republic, began to make the United States their home. As the Latino community grew, so did its influence. Latino issues, like immigration reform, have been a staple in political discussions for decades and Latinos have expressed their frustration with the lack of job opportunities and substandard education. The growth and strength of the Latino vote have gained the attention of legislators who are now actively courting their votes. As a result, a comprehensive immigration bill, the first of its kind, has been brought before a vote in Congress. Although the bill was ultimately defeated, the fact that a bill was written and voted upon was some of the most progress this community has seen in years.

Although the LGBT is not a part of any racial minority group, it still represents a segment in society that has been discriminated against and, in some cases, condemned. Throughout US history, homosexual acts were criminalized on the state level and illegal immigrants who were homosexuals were not included in any federal immigration laws. Postal authorities were banned from delivering any publications pertaining to homosexuals by way of the 1873 Comstock Act and due to their “immorality” homosexuals were considered security risks that resulted in a ban from working federal jobs and or serving in the military (Mintz and McNeil).

An era of activism for the LGBT community commenced after the raid on Stonewall Inn in 1969. Raids at such establishments often occurred as the result of state laws that were intolerant of “gay acts” like cross-dressing or homosexuals dancing together. These establishments were often threatened with the termination of their liquor licenses if they tolerated and promoted such behavior. During this particular raid, homosexuals decided to fight back and a standoff between police and gay patrons lasted three days. This awakened an urge for political action within the LGBT community and soon they began to protest laws that considered their lifestyle an act of crime (Mintz& McNeil). Decades of activism have yielded favorable results for the LGBT community. In recent years, the LGBT community has managed to make great strides in their quest for equality with the legalization of gay marriage in dozens of states and the overturning of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, a policy allowing homosexuals to serve but not openly.

Women are another non-racial minority to benefit from federal action on discrimination and inequality, with pressure beginning as soon as the pre-Civil War era. In the decades following the war and after numerous demonstrations and protests that included various forms of civil disobedience, women were finally granted the right to vote with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920 (National Archives). Legislation from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not only geared toward racial minorities. It also made discrimination on the basis of sex illegal and it helped garner in a wave of feminism that resulted in other federal laws like Title IX. This education amendment, imposed in 1972, protected women from discrimination in education programs and activities based solely on their sex (National Archives). One of the most controversial rulings in the history of the United States happened because of the feminist movement. In the 1973 landmark case of Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as women have the right to privacy when deciding on whether or not to have an abortion (National Archives). Affirmative action was also a federal policy that benefited women as disallowed discrimination in the workplace on the basis person’s sex, among other things(Mintz and McNeil).

Race relations in the United States have always been a controversial subject. The impact of race’s role in the progress of minority groups is often debated but there is one common agreement: without pressure on the federal government to act, racial inequality would be in a much worse state. Government intervention by way of war, constitutional amendments, policy changes, and the altering of social norms has been key in the progress of racial minority groups. Although there is still much work to be done, the US has come a long way in promoting racial equality and improving the relationship among the different racial groups, who together, contribute to the overall identity of a nation.

Works Cited

Johnson, Walter. “The Racial Origins of American Sovereignty.” Raritan 31.3 (Winter 2012): 50-59,158. Web. 21 March 2014.

King, Desmond. “The Racial Bureaucracy: African Americans and The Federal Government in The Era of Segregated Race Relations.” Governance 12.4 (1999): 345. Business Source Complete. Web. 21 March 2014.

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. Digital History. 2014. Web. 21 March 2014. The National Archives. 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920). March 2014. Web. 21 March 2014.