updated 5:46 a.m. ET May 28, 2008

Race has had a tremendous impact on the course of U.S. history, from colonial times to modern days.

Learn more about some of the milestones in this timeline prepared by the American Anthropological Association for its public education project RACE ARE WE SO DIFFERENT? The project is a public education program exploring the science, history and lived experience of race and racism in the United States.

Click on the subheads below to learn more about what was happening during a specific time period.

Government: 1600 -1775 Colonial authority It was in Virginia that colonial governments first established slave codes, which became more extensive and were later adopted by other colonies. Society: 1600-1770 The colonial experience Seventeenth-century planters and colonial leaders developed a system of African slavery that survived for nearly two hundred more years. Science: 1680s-1800s Early classification of nature The age of Enlightenment provided the backdrop for eighteenth century European theories about human difference. Science: 1770s-1850s One race or several species? By the 19th century, the scientific debate focused on whether human biological difference was just a racial variation, or represented an entirely different species. Society: 1770s-1830s Slavery and the invention of race By the late eighteenth century, slavery in the U.S. was a firmly established social, political and economically lucrative institution. Government: 1776 -1800 The paradox of freedom and slavery While American colonists waged war against the British, some patriots recognized the irony of their struggle for independence amid widespread slavery. Government: 1800 -1850s Expansion of slavery in the U.S. By the beginning of the 19th century, slavery in the U.S. was firmly established with a series of statutes and penal codes enacted in various states to regulate the activity of slaves and all conduct involving slaves and free blacks. Society: 1800s-1830s Indian Wars and westward expansion Among the most detrimental policies for Native Americans in U.S. history began in the early 1800s. Society: 1800s-1850s Resisting slavery The Haitian slave revolt of 1791 caused concern for American slave owners, who feared similar rebellions. Government: 1830s-1850s Westward expansion post-Mexican American War Soon after Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836, the state legalized slavery. Science: 1850s-1880s Measuring race Charles Darwin believed that all humans were of the same species and found “race” to be a somewhat arbitrary distinction between groups. Science: 1830s-1890s Race science exhibitions Race science took a particularly insidious turn in the 19th century when non-Europeans were routinely the subject of so-called scientific exhibitions, carnivals and international fairs that purported to explore racial diversity and ethnicity. Society: 1840s-1890s The famine and the Irish race From 1841 to 1850, failing economies and political upheaval contributed to the immigration of more than 1.7 million Europeans, including 780, 000 Irish, who became “white” over time in the U.S. Society: Late 1840s-1850s Manifest Destiny and the California Gold Rush After the Texas War of Independence ended in 1836, tensions between the U.S. and Mexico increased. Government: 1850s-1870s Civil War, reconstruction and Jim Crow Following the Civil War, attempts to assist former slaves in the transition to freedom during Reconstruction gave way to black codes and then Jim Crow laws that restricted their economic and civil rights. Society: 1860-1870s Emancipation and the backlash By 1860, war was inevitable. Anti-slavery forces in the northern and southern slaveholding states were at an impasse over the balance of political power, with southern states threatening to secede from the Union with the election of Abraham Lincoln. Society: 1860s-1880s Transcontinental railroad & the Western Indian wars Using Chinese laborers who operated under dangerous conditions and endured mob violence, U.S. railroad companies advanced westward; often in violation of American Indian land treaties. Government: 1870s-1890s U.S. control of American Indians By the end of the 19th century, the federal government held virtually unlimited power over American Indians. Society: 1870s-1930s Immigration, black migration and U.S. colonialism Beginning in 1896, immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, mainly Italians, Jews and Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were the largest groups arriving in the U.S. They were often described as “racially” inferior to earlier northern European immigrants. Government: 1880s-1900s Anti-Chinese laws and the Spanish American War When President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the Chinese Exclusion Treaty in 1880, he effectively reversed the open-door policy set in 1868, and placed strict limits on the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into the U.S. as well as on the number allowed to become naturalized citizens. Science: 1890s-1930s Eugenics and physical anthropology The worldwide Eugenics movement gained strength in the U.S. at the end of the 1890s. A major influence was Herbert Spencer, who applied the evolutionist notion of “survival of the fittest” to human societies. Science: 1900s-1930s Race and intelligence Beginning in the 1900s, scientists began to develop different methods for measuring intelligence. These tests were used often to justify racial and ethnic discrimination. Science: 1900s-1950s Critiquing race During the early 20th century, anthropologists such as Franz Boas and William Montague Cobb challenged theories linking race to intelligence and athletic ability. Government: 1910s-1920s European immigration and defining whiteness As southern Europeans were gradually included as “whites,” Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and Native peoples were marked and measured as racially different. Science: 1920s-1960s Modern evolutionary perspectives Since the 1940s, evolutionary scientists have rejected the concept of race based on physical characteristics. Society: 1920s-1940s Nazism and World War II Between 1933 and 1945, Nazism in Germany gained currency, as people blamed others for the global economic depression. Factions also arose in the U.S. Government: 1930s-1940s The Great Depression and World War II The New Deal programs of the a1930s helped revive the U.S. economy after the Great Depression, but often were applied in racially restrictive ways. Society: 1945-1950s Post-War economic boom and racial discrimination Federal policies such as the GI bill spurred a population and housing boom, but redlining and discrimination in sales contributed to a racial wealth gap that persists today. Government: 1950s-1960s Civil Rights era and the Vietnam War While the federal government began to address centuries of racial discrimination through the courts in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson, Congress began to address the reality of institutional racism throughout the U.S. Society: 1960s-1970s Civil rights, Vietnam and a decade of protest The social and political unrest of the Civil Rights movement characterized and defined the decade of the 1960s. Government: 1960s-2000s The beginning and the end of Affirmative Action In 1961, President John Kennedy issued executive order 10925, which created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and mandated that federally funded projects take "affirmative action" to insure that hiring and employment practices were free of racial bias. Science: 1980s-1990s The debate over race and intelligence redux In 1996, Stephen Jay Gould updated The Mismeasure of Man to include a rebuttal of reemerging theories on race and intelligence. Society: 1980s-2000s Anti-immigrant movement and racial profiling Since the mid-1980s, U.S. immigration law and anti-immigration sentiment has largely been focused on illegal immigration from Central America Government: 1990s-2000s NAFTA, the Patriot Act and the new immigration backlash Since 9/11, racial profiling, which had targeted blacks and Latinos, was extended to other groups, particularly Muslim, Arab and south Asian immigrants Science: 1990s-2000 Ancestry, DNA and biotechnology According to current research, the African continent is the ancestral home of modern humans.

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