Providing chronologies of important events, historical narratives from the first settlement to the present, and biographies of major figures, this work offers readers an unseen look at the history of racism from the perspective of individual states. From the initial impact of European settlement on indigenous populations to the racial divides caused by immigration and police shootings in the 21st century, each American state has imposed some form of racial restriction on its residents. The United States proclaims a belief in freedom and justice for all, but members of various minority racial groups have often faced a different reality, as seen in such examples as the forcible dispossession of indigenous peoples during the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow laws' crushing discrimination of blacks, and the manifest unfairness of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Including the District of Columbia, the 51 entries in these two volumes cover the state-specific histories of all of the major minority and immigrant groups in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. Every state has had a unique experience in attempting to build a community comprising multiple racial groups, and the chronologies, narratives, and biographies that compose the entries in this collection explore the consequences of racism from states' perspectives, revealing distinct new insights into their respective racial histories.

The deeply entrenched patterns of racial inequality in the United States simply do not square with the liberal notion of a nation-state of equal citizens. Uncovering the false promise of liberalism, State of White Supremacy reveals race to be a fundamental, if flexible, ruling logic that perpetually generates and legitimates racial hierarchy and privilege. Racial domination and violence in the United States are indelibly marked by its origin and ongoing development as an empire-state. The widespread misrecognition of the United States as a liberal nation-state hinges on the twin conditions of its approximation for the white majority and its impossibility for their racial others. The essays in this book incisively probe and critique the U.S. racial state through a broad range of topics, including citizenship, education, empire, gender, genocide, geography, incarceration, Islamophobia, migration and border enforcement, violence, and welfare.

Are antisemitism and white supremacy manifestations of a general phenomenon? Why didn't racism appear in Europe before the fourteenth century, and why did it flourish as never before in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Why did the twentieth century see institutionalized racism in its most extreme forms? Why are egalitarian societies particularly susceptible to virulent racism? What do apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany, and the American South under Jim Crow have in common? How did the Holocaust advance civil rights in the United States? With a rare blend of learning, economy, and cutting insight, George Fredrickson surveys the history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present. Beginning with the medieval antisemitism that put Jews beyond the pale of humanity, he traces the spread of racist thinking in the wake of European expansionism and the beginnings of the African slave trade. And he examines how the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century romantic nationalism created a new intellectual context for debates over slavery and Jewish emancipation. Fredrickson then makes the first sustained comparison between the color-coded racism of nineteenth-century America and the antisemitic racism that appeared in Germany around the same time. He finds similarity enough to justify the common label but also major differences in the nature and functions of the stereotypes invoked. The book concludes with a provocative account of the rise and decline of the twentieth century's overtly racist regimes--the Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, and apartheid South Africa--in the context of world historical developments. This illuminating work is the first to treat racism across such a sweep of history and geography. It is distinguished not only by its original comparison of modern racism's two most significant varieties--white supremacy and antisemitism--but also by its eminent readability.

In 1954, the Supreme Court rejected the notion of "separate by equal" facilities in the famous BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION decision. Highlighting the efforts of both blacks and whites to promote racial equality in the face of violent attempts to preserve white supremacy, Author David K. Fremon shows how segregation made the South a caste system. He traces the history of racial discrimination from the end of the Civil War through the Jim Crow era of segregation. After years of enduring separate facilities—including water fountains, telephone books, hospitals, and cemeteries—for whites and blacks, Fremon shows how African Americans and their white supporters were eventually able to win the battle for equal rights. This book is developed from THE JIM CROW LAWS AND RACISM IN AMERICAN HISTORY to allow republication of the original text into ebook, paperback, and trade editions.

How is race defined and perceived in America today, and how do these definitions and perceptions compare to attitudes 100 years ago... or 200 years ago? This four-volume set is the definitive source for every topic related to race in the United States. In the 21st century, it is easy for some students and readers to believe that racism is a thing of the past; in reality, old wounds have yet to heal, and new forms of racism are taking shape. Racism has played a role in American society since the founding of the nation, in spite of the words "all men are created equal" within the Declaration of Independence. This set is the largest and most complete of its kind, covering every facet of race relations in the United States while providing information in a user-friendly format that allows easy cross-referencing of related topics for efficient research and learning. The work serves as an accessible tool for high school researchers, provides important material for undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of humanities and social sciences courses, and is an outstanding ready reference for race scholars. The entries provide readers with comprehensive content supplemented by historical backgrounds, relevant examples from primary documents, and first-hand accounts. Information is presented to interest and appeal to readers but also to support critical inquiry and understanding. A fourth volume of related primary documents supplies additional reading and resources for research.