Racial Inequality: the Changing Role of American Federal Government

Throughout history, our country has faced one problem - Racial inequality. From the very beginning, our country has been built on immigration, but we as a nation tend to forget that. With time has been proven that white male supremacy is one of the oldest and the most prominent foundation our country has.

The European settlers colonized in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. White European families traveled by boat for days, weeks, and even months with illness and starvation. They almost about died on the new land, but thanks to the Native Americans who were oftentimes seen as “savages” they could survive. Throughout this period, the white settlers began to see themselves as superior. As if they were better than the rest just because they’re white. It could be said that it is likely that the way the European settlers treated the natives is what set the stage for racial inequality that has been plaguing this country since the beginning.

However, to make peace with the Natives the American government made peace treaties with each Native tribe that gives them only so much land, and in 1871 after the civil war was fought and won congress basically ignored the whole treaty system; saying that it was impossible to negotiate with tribes because they didn’t count as independent nations. During the westward expansion, the Dawes Act came into place in 1887. The act was to break up most of the native land and either give pieces of it to Native American families or auction it off to white buyers. Native Americans wouldn’t sit by while their home was taken away. So, in 1876 when George Custer invaded and broke into Sioux territory where 3,000 native Americans were waiting to attack; a fight broke out killing 300 men including Custer.

Native Americans couldn’t fight off diseases that settlers brought with them; who had which already developed immunity to such diseases. “Indians were tragically vulnerable to eastern diseases”. Widespread diseases like smallpox usually killed off many natives along with the fights with settlers they had over the land. Sarah Winnemucca recalls from her childhood that when the disease started to infect her people that many people blamed the white men for it. “One and all said that the river must have been poisoned by the white people, because that they had prayed, and our spirit-doctors had tried to cure the sick; they too died while they were trying to cure them.” Many natives had never experienced such diseases before and if they had then no one knew or remembered it. They were scared and needed someone to blame, and the white European settlers arrived were the perfect cause for what they didn’t understand.

Natives Americans were forced into small reservations and murdered innocent men, women, and children just to get what we wanted. It isn’t always widely known about what the natives went through. We don’t usually hear about the hardship the Native Americans were put through. You don’t see many changes or involvement with the federal government that betters the people. Indian reservations are severely poor and encased in poverty that it’s almost like the government forced them into these little communities of land and left them to fend for themselves where the government turned a blind eye forgetting all about them.

To this day in age, we still have a problem with the mistreatment of people of national origins. In 1860, the first wave of immigration hit; bringing people from Ireland, Germany, Scotland, and Whales. Many of them moved to the rural areas of the country, and many of them were Protestant. The second wave of immigration was different from the start; this time they were primarily Catholic, Jewish, and/or eastern orthodox, and many of them settled in urban areas.

In 1862, the Homestead Act came into place, bringing with it thousands of immigrants wanting to take advantage of it. The Homestead Act encouraged western migration, providing that if anybody, black or white, paid a filing fee they can receive up to 160 acres of federal land. Immigrants came to the U.S. to make an improved life for themselves and their families, but during this time groups such as the Know Nothing Party came around which was an anti-catholic and immigrant group who liked stripping immigrants of their rights. Not only were these types of groups common, but many were concepts like nativism which opposed to immigrants because of the fear that they will affect our cultural values badly. There wasn’t much of a change with the federal government between 1865-1960 other than laws being set into place because of the growing number of not only immigrants but illegal immigrants as well.

One of the most commonly acknowledge is African Americans. Africans were first captured then brought to America in 1619; where they were forced to endure years upon years of slavery and torture. African Americans were not allowed to read or write for fear of what they could do. Slaves were sometimes beaten for fun and other times for punishment, and it didn’t matter whether they were old, young, and/or innocent.

The American Civil War started in 1861 and ended in 1865. During this time the Confederates who had consisted of the southern states; broke away from the Union planning to make their own country. After the war, the 13th amendment was passed abolishing slavery the black codes were passed. The Black Codes were a set of laws passed in 1865 by southern states. Basically, if a colored person was to break any of these laws they would either have to pay a fine or go to jail. During this time going to jail was a death sentence almost all the people who went in never made it out. People didn’t want to go and no colored person had enough money to pay the fine so white plantation owners use to sit outside of the courthouse offering to pay the fine as long as the African American would come and work on their land to pay it off. The black codes were frequently used as a way to enslave people.

From the early years of the reconstruction era African Americans had to fight for their rights; eventually bringing about things like the 15th amendment which allowed them to vote, like being able to go to school, and even desegregating schools. People like Martin Luther King jr. and Rosa Parks gave people the will and the guts to stand up, fight, and say that this was wrong and needed to be changed.

In conclusion the American federal government had to change whether they wanted to or not. African Americans fought for the right to be able to have everything they have today and even in today’s day in age immigrants are trying to fight for themselves. It wasn’t until the reconstruction era that people started to fight for themselves and that the government started to become a more active role in normal everyday society.