History

Racism in the United States and in the British North American colonies has got along history. Racism, which allowed discrimination of the minorities always referred to as people of color, is noted to have started immediately after the abolition of slave trade. The constitution was amended severally to accommodate the African Americans who were initially slaves. The studies of Library of Social Congress (2009 Para 67)  reveal that, after the thirteenth amendment which abolished slave trade, fourteenth and the fifteenth amendment followed closely which provided the right to citizenship and voting respectively. Further studies of the same reveal that, between the year 1873 and 1883, these amendments were invalidated by the Supreme Court decisions that came up with more laws that separated the whites and the blacks.

Due to racism, the whites and the blacks had separate facilities in transport, public accommodation, prisons, recreation facilities and schools. Whites were superior while the blacks were inferior everywhere and in every way. To justify racism, laws, government policies and theories were developed to support the way the whites treated the blacks ( Denis,1995 pp 243) This paper shall therefore describe the trend of these laws, policies and theories that supported racism in the United States and in the British North American colonies. It shall also describe how they were justified, questioned, as well as those who questioned these laws. Finally, this paper shall trace how racism was distributed in the United States as well as in the British North American colonies.

Background Information
As described earlier, racism has a long history in United States right from the time of abolition of slave trade. Although there were other groups that were subjected to racism, the dominant group comprised the African Americans who gained citizenship after the abolition of slave trade. Due to this, the focus group in this paper shall be mostly the African Americans, also referred to as blacks or the people of color. One of the major racial laws was the education law, although it changed after some time. Initially the education law of Virginia prohibited any white person from teaching the blacks whether slaves or free how to read and to write, meaning that the blacks did not have any right to education. Moreover, in the City of Boston the segregation of schools was evident where by the whites used to attend different schools from the blacks. This segregation had big impact as it only increased racial prejudice.

Racial discrimination was however not generally accepted and was questioned by many people. This had a great impact because even if racism was not abolished, improvements were noted, and these laws continued to change. The continuous challenges to racism led to an era that was known as separate but equal. However, this was not the case in the education sector due to the fact that schools were different illustrating that it was separate but unequal. This is mainly because the government did not allocate enough funds to the schools of the blacks and they lacked major facilities (Menchaca  and Valencia 1990 pp 239 240).

Racial Laws and Racism in Florida
Racism was evident in Florida as from 1880s. The labor market was highly segregated because the whites were working in the industrial towns while the blacks were working in the agricultural sectors. The blacks were regarded as inferior to the whites and that is the reason why they were even never regarded as part of the Floridas community, but merely as workers. This was after 1865 because before then, blacks were merely properties of the whites (Shofner, 1981 pp.412). Further studies reveal that the racial laws were developed by the white legislatures so as to justify the way the blacks were being treated.

The famous Jim Crow laws worsened the situation because they allowed the continuous segregation and exploitation of the blacks. The Jim Crow system constituted the labor laws that exploited the blacks like the contract labor law that came in to being immediately after the slavery period. The blacks were able to acquire debts from the whites so as to work for them as a means of payment. In case they failed to pay, they were charged with fraud. With this law and the customs back up, racism continued to increase with time (Shofner, 1981 pp.413). The same studies reveal that, the blacks could be arrested by the police and charged with vagrancy without any prior cause. This was supported by the vagrancy legislation law.

Forced black labor in Florida was so severe that the blacks had no choice but to work for the whites. They were forced to work for very low wages because they only had a choice of accepting the low wages, or being charged with vagrancy incase they escaped. Sometimes the blacks were promised higher wages but on reaching at the work place, they were given lower wages.  In cases where they tried to escape, they were arrested and charged with vagrancy or with attempted strike and both entailed a jail sentence as well as a fine.

Work-fight- or-jail law was yet another law that affected only the blacks. This meant that all those blacks who were not working were regarded to as idle and they were taken to jail. To avoid going to jail the blacks were to accept any work offered to them even if the wages were low or the work condition was not conducive. This law was put in place to ensure that the whites continued to access cheap labor from the blacks. As Shofner puts it, it was not only forced labor that the blacks were exposed to but also the maltreatment. He records two cases of blacks who were brutally beaten by the Whites. Even when the authorities tried to investigate the case, the blacks were reluctant to witness because they feared the investigating authorities who were not any better (Shofner, 1981 pp.423).

 In Florida, racism had taken root to such an extent that it was not easy to do away with it. Shofner states that until Second World War the peculiar attitude of whites towards the blacks persisted. (Shofner, 1981 pp.426). The increase of human rights groups in the late 1950s helped alleviate the problem though slowly. In conclusion, he observes that, since racism developed over a long period of time it was going to take more time to abolish it.

Justification of the Laws, the Policies and the Theories that Supported Racism,
The racial laws and the policies were often justified by the whites so as to validate their inhuman treatment to the blacks. According to Denis, science has often been used as justification to propose, project and enact racist social policies, (1995, pp.243). The education policy that allowed for the segregation of the white and the black schools was justified by the whites. They argued that it was better for the blacks to attend their own schools because they would be served better there and also reduce the racial prejudice. The argument was that although separate, the facilities in both schools were the same. However, this was only to justify segregation since the white schools were always better.

In Florida, where racism was on the peak in the 1930s, even those who were found guilty of maltreating the blacks went away with it without any action being taken. This was clearly represented in one case where in Madison County a senior man by the name Sheriff Lonnie Davis, though guilty of maltreating one black person to a point of death, got away with it without any action being taken. The governor then, termed it as mere stupidity and ineptitude (Shofner, 1981 pp. 425). In addition, a white Florida citizen was recorded to have said that the Niger has only gotten what he deserved. Both the citizens and the governing authorities justified the way the blacks were being treated.

The ideology that the whites were superior to blacks and especially the African Americas was justified by the IQ tests.  In the test, according to Menchaca Valencia (1990, pp.247), the Anglo Saxons only emerged to be better because of their class which enabled them to enjoy good life as well as better education. The fact that the Anglo Saxons were noted to have a better IQ than the whites, led to a conclusion that they were justified in their maltreatment to the African Americans because the IQ test had revealed that the blacks had a low IQ. The same studies reveal that, in the year 1969, a psychologist by the name Jensen declared that not only were the African Americans intellectually inferior, but there would always be a 15-point difference between the two groups (Menchaca Valencia 1990 pp.247).

The Questioning of the Racial Laws, Policies and Ideologies
In his article on Social Darwinism, Denis Rutledge questioned the ideology that the whites were superior because they have a higher IQ compared to blacks. He urges that, the characteristics of the people are shaped by the genetic characteristics and not environment. This meant that the IQ of both the whites and the blacks was supposed to be the same because genetically they were the same. The only difference that existed was as a result of exposure and culture differences (Denis, 1995 pp.249).

In his study, Wallis  Wilson (1926 pp 316), declares that each race has got its own unique characteristics and that is why some races are superior to others. These qualities are supposed to be inherited and that is the reason why it is possible for people to live in the same location and still have the racial differences. Some races are therefore superior to others not primarily because of their race but because of social heritage. This was clearly illustrated in yet another intelligence test that was conducted in the United States army camps. The results of the test showed that the Negroes were on the lower level than the whites. However, Wallis  Wilson continue to argue that the intelligence level of the Negroes was dictated by the country of origin. To conclude, they say that the difference between the whites and the Negroes is to be credited to social heritage rather than to race (1926 pp.316). Their study was to question the ideology that intelligence depended so much on the race of origin.

How was Racism in the United States before 1950s
Racism was dominant in almost all regions of the united states in that time. Horsman, in her study, Origins of Racial Anglo-Saxonism in Great Britian before 1850, states that --- a belief in Anglo-Saxon racial superiority was vital ingredient in English and American thought of the 19th century (1976 pp.387). In every region where African Americans were found, racism existed because all the whites thought that they were superior to the blacks. Menchaca  Valencia points that, a review of the American history illustrates that there were very few moments when racism was not a major issue in the United States of America (1990, pp.248). Moreover, as Smedley records, race ideology was so convenient and functional that its components literally spread around the world, often displacing older understandings of ethnic and class differences, especially where there were major conflicts (2008, pp.162). This clearly illustrates that racism was widely spread and it was the main cause of concern.

Although racism was rampant, in some parts it was more severe than in others. In the South and the West parts of America, blacks did not experience the famous Jim Crow Laws. They not only enjoyed their rights but they also had access to education and they could also vote unlike the situation in the North. The prevailing racism in America led to emergence of civil right movements, which were established to fight for the rights of the blacks.