| 
Explore 1905-1935 | 1905 | African Americans demand equal rights | Founded under the leadership of W.E.B. DuBois, the Niagara Movement marks an important turning point in the African American struggle for equality. The group sets an aggressive agenda demanding equal rights and an end to racial discrimination: "We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social; and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America. The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone but for all true Americans." The Niagara group gives rise to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, whose legal efforts culminate in the watershed Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, marking the beginning of the end of Jim Crow and legal segregation. | | 1911 | Universal Race Congress held | A thousand people from 50 nations convene at the University of London to counter the work of the budding eugenics movement. Among the prominent scientists and scholars in attendance are Americans W.E.B. DuBois and anthropologist Franz Boas. Lead organizer Gustav Spiller sums up the group's findings as follows: "We are then under the necessity of concluding that an impartial investigator would be inclined to look upon the various important peoples of the world as, to all intents and purposes, essentially equal in intellect, enterprise, morality and physique." However, their work falls on deaf ears and has little impact. | | 1913 | Land laws discriminate against Asians | California passes the first alien land law, prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from owning or leasing land. Although the language isn't explicitly racial, the law only applies to Asian immigrants and it gives white farmers an unfair advantage by keeping Japanese and other competitors out. Loopholes in the law allow Japanese to continue farming until a 1920 ballot initiative bars them from leasing land altogether. Arizona passes a similar law in 1917, followed by Washington and Louisiana in 1921, and nine other states by 1950. California's alien land laws are rescinded in 1956. Wyoming and Kansas finally repeal their statutes in 2001 and 2002, while two states, Florida and New Mexico, still have alien land laws written into their state constitution. | | 1922 | Courts decide who is white | The 1790 Naturalization Act restricts naturalized American citizenship to whites. In the early 20th century, many new arrivals petition the courts to be legally designated white in order to gain citizenship. Armenians, known as "Asiatic Turks," succeed with the help of anthropologist Franz Boas, who testifies as an expert scientific witness. Others are not so fortunate. In 1922, the Supreme Court concludes that Japanese are not legally white because science classifies them as Mongoloid rather than Caucasian. Less than a year later, the court contradicts itself by concluding that Asian Indians are not legally white, even though science classifies them as Caucasian, instead declaring that whiteness should be based on "the common understanding of the white man." Racial restrictions on naturalization are not removed until 1954. | | 1924 | Changing definition of who is Black | In 1705 Virginia defines any "child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a Negro" as a mulatto. In 1866, the state decrees that "every person having one-fourth or more Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person." In 1910, the percentage is changed to 1/16th. Finally in 1924, the Virginia Racial Purity Act defines Black persons as having any trace of African ancestry - the infamous "one-drop" rule. Practically speaking, most people cannot prove their ancestry and the rule is applied inconsistently. Other states also define Blackness differently. As historian James Horton notes, one could cross a state line and literally, legally change race. | | 1924 | Immigration quotas favor "Nordics" | The 1924 Johnson-Reed Act overhauls U.S. immigration and creates the first quota system based upon national origin. The act favors immigrants from northern and western Europe over "the inferior races" of Asia and southern and eastern Europe. Following the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act, the Quota Act of 1921, and other exclusionary measures, the act represents the culmination of several decades of racialized, anti-immigration sentiment and policy. This explicit preference system continues to shape American demographics and immigration policy until the 1960s. | | 1930 | Mexicans added to census | Mexicans, like other minority groups, are defined differently at different times. In the 19th century, they are classified as white and allowed to naturalize, based upon the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1930, nativists lobby for them to be classified separately on the census, to limit their immigration and reinforce their distinctness from whites. During World War II, as demand for Mexican labor grows, Mexicans are again classified as whites. In the 1970s, they are reclassified as "Hispanics." As census historian Hyman Alterman notes, the definition often depended on political climate: "It was not an accident that in the census of 1930, persons of Mexican birth or ancestry were classified as 'nonwhite'. This was a policy decision, not a mistake." | | 1934 | Indians base membership on "blood" | The 1934 Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act ends land allotment and encourages tribal self-government, but it also helps entrench race as the basis for tribal membership. Despite their sovereign power and historic openness to others, tribes wanting federal recognition are forced to adopt constitutions following government guidelines, including membership based upon "blood" degree. A 1991 Bureau of Indian Affairs inventory of 155 federally recognized tribes in 48 states shows that 4 out of 5 condition membership on proof of blood, ranging in amount from 1/2 to 1/64th. In recent years, more tribes are basing their membership on lineal descent (ancestry without regard to percentage) rather than blood degree, but some have lost federal recognition as a result. | | 1934 | U.S. housing programs benefit whites only | Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, the federal government creates programs that subsidize low-cost loans, opening up home ownership to millions of Americans for the first time. Government underwriters also introduce a national appraisal system tying property value and loan eligibility to race, inventing "redlining," and effectively locking nonwhites out of homebuying just as many white Americans are getting in. The growth of restricted suburbs, especially after World War II, helps European "ethnics" blend together as whites, while minorities are "marked" by urban poverty. Discriminatory policies and practices help create two legacies that are still with us today: segregated communities and a substantial wealth gap between whites and nonwhites. | | 1935 | Minorities denied social security and union protection | In 1935, Congress passes two laws that protect American workers and exclude nonwhites. The Social Security Act exempts agricultural workers and domestic servants (predominantly African American, Mexican, and Asian) from receiving old-age insurance, while the Wagner Act, guaranteeing workers' rights, does not prohibit unions from discriminating against nonwhites. Nonwhites are locked out of higher-paying jobs and union benefits such as medical care, full employment, and job security. As low-income workers, minorities have the greatest need for these provisions, yet they are systematically denied what most Americans take for granted. |
|
| | ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2BnrqSxjmlnaZdxl7y2wI5pZ2uXYGisqnnGqJuenaCav2%2B006Y%3D