Before the civil rights movement, were black people the only group that faced significant discrimination in the US? Or were other minorities (like asians, hispanics, people of middle eastern descent) treated badly too? Its hard to say for sure that they were, because history textbooks and ethnic studies dont really mention it that much, but I wont rule out the possibility that it may have happened. Is there any hard evidence for it?
The San Francisco riot of 1877 was a two day pogrom waged against Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, California by the city's majority white population from the evening of July 23 through the night of July 24, 1877. The ethnic violence which swept Chinatown resulted in four deaths and the destruction of more than $100,000 worth of property belonging to the city's Chinese immigrant population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_riot_of_1877 The Seattle riot of 1886 occurred on February 6–9, 1886, in Seattle, Washington, amidst rising anti-Chinese sentiment caused by intense labor competition and in the context of an ongoing struggle between labor and capital in the Western United States. The dispute arose when a mob affiliated with a local Knights of Labor chapter formed small committees to carry out a forcible expulsion of all Chinese from the city. Violence erupted between the Knights of Labor rioters and federal troops ordered in by President Grover Cleveland. The incident resulted in the removal of over 200 Chinese people from Seattle and left 2 militia men and 3 rioters seriously injured.[note 1][1] [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_riot_of_1886 On the afternoon of October 31, 1880, a mob descended on Denver's Chinatown. Within hours the mob destroyed businesses, residences, and killed one Chinese resident. Denver's riot was one of 153 anti-Chinese riots that swept through the American West during the 1870s and 1880s. Because so few Chinese settled in the Great Plains during the nineteenth century, however, the Denver riot was one of two major anti-Chinese incidents to strike the region (the other was in Calgary in 1892). The Chinese had experienced discrimination and violence since 1849 when they first arrived in California. They were driven out of California mines by the "foreign miner's tax" and also experienced outright violence (a Los Angeles mob killed twenty-eight Chinese in 1871). By the late 1870s the anti-Chinese movement had entered national politics. Fearful that cheap Chinese labor would threaten the white working class, Denis Kearney, an Irish immigrant and founder of the Workingman's Party, led a campaign to ban Chinese immigration. During the presidential election of 1880 Chinese immigration became an important issue when Winfield Hancock, the Democratic candidate, supported a ban on Chinese immigration. http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.asam.011
The outcome of the civil rights movement included a lot of laws and rules against "discrimination on the grounds of race" which, theoretically at least, protects people of any race. I would have expected the wider social concept of treating people equally regardless of race would help other minorities, consciously or not.
For non-European immigrants, America's immigration law was quite similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act until the 1950s as it was almost impossible for Asian immigrants to come to the US and even Asian Americans could not gain US citizenship. The KKK also played a major role in national and local politics in the pre-war era and presidential candidates were often endorsed by the infamous pro-white group. The Democratic Party was in bed with the KKK from the late 19th century to the 1950s and white supremacy was entrenched in American society sometimes through violent measures such as the murder of civil rights activists. To make matters worse, the culprits of racially motivated killings were often acquitted because judges and police officers were KKK members or sympathetic towards their cause. [video=youtube;VXxnu1Buuik]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXxnu1Buuik[/video]
The short answer is YES, absolutely. This country and many others have a long history of discrimination and bigotry. To try to compare though I think is in error, as many like to claim America is the "worst" or among the "worst" We tend to judge history the way we want it, and in many cases when one circumstance can be explained in numerous ways, the one chosen often serves the purpose of the person (or group) doing the explaining. The Civil Rights Movement was not at all just the African American community, but heavily included Hispanics (or at least those of mixed decent) along with many Jews. All of these groups, along with Asians of all ethnicity, and other non-white Christians, but also including Catholics. In fact the only then recent Presidency of JFK was a huge deal with many US Citizens because he was Catholic. He might have been white, but Catholics were heavily discriminated against for a long time in this country (and in certain regions probably still are to some extent). This included many Italians, Poles, Irish and Latin Americans. Jews, while largely white, actually have similar and linking genetics (Both Ashkanazi and Sephardic) to both Asia and Africa. While they might have come in all different colors really, the majority were classified as white, however many Jews did not consider themselves "white" or at least how the term "white" was defined largely in society. There are certain genetic Jewish traits that are stereotyped, however these physical traits (like a hook nose) if obvious in ones appearance were and still are used to discriminate against individuals just as the color of one's skin may be used to discriminate. The Jewish acceptance into the broader sense of our culture is a much more recent occurrence and largely has to do with the the Civil Rights movement, of which they were a major part. To this day you can still say there is discrimination against Jews, all though to a far lesser degree. However prejudice against Jews goes back so far in history it is heavily rooted in the Christian world and to an extent the Christian psyche. This will probably make it so there will be a President of the USA of most other vocal minorities before there ever will be a Jewish President. There are other factors effecting this of course but this seems very probable. Interestingly enough, the Jewish world and the Muslim world did not display the level of discrimination we see today until far more recently. In fact the creation of the State of Israel in the fashion it was created is the major cause of the rift between Muslim and Jews today and the bigotry we see coming from both sides. I do not think it is the fault of the Jews or the fault of the Eurasian Muslims (as they have a very very close genetic background and it can be argued they are very much of the same people, but having a large mix of Asian, African and European DNA, largely effected by the Turkish, Roman, Greek empires and the influx of Persia and Arabs from the south). Ultimately, I think England and France are mostly to blame for that situation. As far as politically, I will just add this, I think both Israel and Palestine are guilty of "atrocities" as they are at war and have been for some time. Make no mistake about that. I do not believe Israel should lose their nation over this but I do not think the Palestinians should be segregated to the corners of the land. I don't think either side is actually wrong. I do find it curious though that numerous other Muslim countries surrounding Israel refused to take Palestinians in at different times. If they had allowed this early this issue might not be what it is. But there is also the problem of population and Israel being a nation created to "protect" the Jewish people, therefor making it a "Jewish" state. If the majority of Palestinians were allowed to become part of the nation, Israel would cease to be a protective state for the Jewish people and this is a real problem. However, the tactics both sides have used scream of fanaticism and unfortunately religious fanaticism has ruled the order of both sides of this battle. Which is kind of weird because Judaism itself is not the Zionistic institution it has seemingly become. The same can be said of Islam though. As both of these religions are seriously misunderstood by their OWN practitioners. I can honestly say I believe I understand both Judaism and Islam and the texts that they revere better than most Jews and most Muslims in that part of the world. If they actually understood what they were reading they would not have this issue, at all as they really didn't have this issue for the majority of their existence. Ok sorry for that, back to the main issue. Muslims were also discriminated against in the 60s, but that was largely do to the Nation of Islam and not the Islam we know of today necessarily. It can be said that all of these groups are still discriminated against depending on where you are in some form or fashion. Seemingly the African American community was the spearhead of this movement out of necessity. In truth African Americans have a very troubled history with this country, but they are more "American" than many white people and other foreigners who's ancestors largely only arrived here within the last 150 years. African Americans (not all African Americans but those who's ancestors go back to slavery) and those white's descended from the original European stock (mostly English, Irish, Scotch, German, Welsh etc...), have lived here together for hundreds of years most of which forged this terrible relationship. That relationship with this nation, and the issue of past slavery made it mostly their cause as the other members of the Civil Rights movement were largely much newer to this country and their ancestors did not have the love/hate relationship with this country. Meanwhile, just as the Jewish people today really don't know their entire history because of exiles, genocides and other mistreatments that forced their migration many times, original African Americans are in a similar boat because of the institution of slavery that existed. This makes tracing any individuals history very difficult and connecting with ones past nearly impossible except for recognizing your roots in long written fables and myths mostly. This means that many African Americans (prior to DNA testing at least) could only trace their ancestry as far back as the boat that brought those ancestors here if even that. Discrimination at its heart actually has nothing to do with appearance however, all though appearance is often used to signify differences which are then used for discrimination. Some ethnicities were accepted far more quickly, but only, or mostly after they proved their economic value. That is to say, it was not until these minorities had enough financial power to basically buy their acceptance into American society and this can be seen in modern immigration and how the rich are easily accepted even if they are awful people and the poor get rounded up and sent back home as we see at the Mexican border. So basically, every none Protestant, none "white" group who came to this country were discriminated against until they were financially viable. It's the sad truth. The remnants of these bigotries can still be seen in certain areas and regions of this country, all though this is decreasing as more old farts bite the dust and thanks to the internet more information is made available about science, genetics, historical facts and culture.
Were groups like Asians and Hispanics segregated? If not, which rights did the 60s movement give them?
Well, they were segregated in the sense that they tended to live in packed communities and often chose to live in their own communities. But most segregation and most discrimination in this country at that time were not legal segregations or discrinations but social ones. Aside from the Jim Crowe laws in the South. But yes, all of these groups were, including orthodox Jews who's appearance could not be hidden and including Hispanics of darker skin color who could not hide their color. Each state had its own specific laws and each town would have had its own specific customs regarding this. The majority of segregation was broken up into "white" and "colored". As far as I know, Chinese, Asians in general, and Hispanics with darker or Indian skin coloring, Native Americans and in many areas Orthodox Jews were not allowed to use the "white" portions of bathrooms, buildings, drinking fountains etc... Again it was different in each state and specific location so there may have been areas where the Chinese or perhaps those of Mexican decent were more accepted, but as whole I would have to say they were all discriminated against but not specifically. The SOUTHERN laws at the time effected all people of color or at least all those who could not hide their minority ethnicity. The Civil Rights movement did the same thing for every minority and made it illegal to make laws against a minority of any type. I don't believe there was "legal segregation" outside of those States with Jim Crowe laws though. Everywhere else the discrimination and segregation was expressed through social pressure and under threat of violence. The majority of discrimination in this country at that time was not of the legal kind but it was also not illegal to use the tactics they used to segregate and discriminate. That is a huge reason all of these groups were involved in the Civil Rights movement, but again by shear number it was mostly African Americans, Jews and Hispanics. However all minority groups were discriminated against similarly in the fact that if you had a Jewish last name, dark skin or were asian many employers would not hire you, many bars and eateries would not serve you and often small mobs would actively remove the minority from the premises of say a movie theatre or bowling Alley. Of course in the South this segregation was largely legal, but in the case of many lighter skinned Hispanics and Jews, since the law didn't directly effect them because they weren't seen as "people of color" necessarily, often times violence and threats were used to keep them out of establishments. If you are looking for LEGAL discrimination you would have to read over all the laws of all the states that had these laws. I don't really know those details. But if you want to know if they were generally discriminated against then the answer is definitely yes. The means to the discrimination varied again by group and location, but it absolutely was the case. This goes back pretty far, as you probably know the Chinese were used as cheap labor to build much of the West and would often die with no rights on the job, later on during WW2 the US Government actually rounded up American Citizens of Japanese decent and put them in internment camps. That is the only legal segregation of a specific Asian people I can think of, but they were broadly discriminated against beyond the law and I believe were considered to be a people of color in many parts of the south. And that poster above made a good post about the Chinese that I didn't even realize. The KKK were discriminating against all minorities however they were mostly located in areas where other minorities didn't exist in mass except for African Americans. That is another reason the Civil Rights movement is largely looked at as a part of "Black History" when in reality it is a very big part of the history of many minorities that have been mentioned. http://www.myjewishlearning.com/his...-Jewish_Relations/Civil_Rights_Movement.shtml http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/RevisitingtheYellowPowerMovement.htm http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/05/14/31dauphine.h33.html http://northerncity.library.temple.edu/people-and-places/jewish-african-american-relations http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=214833622 http://www.tolerance.org/latino-civil-rights-timeline
