A Time Line of Systemic Discrimination

Early America – Slavery of Africans

Early America – Salem Witch Trials

Early America – Native Americans moved to Reservations

Early America – Debtors Prison

1846 – Mexican American War

1866 – Slaves are freed and have the right to buy property in the U.S.

1870 - 1965 - Racial Segregation is required by law (Jim Crow laws)

1870 – It becomes against the law in the U.S. for men to beat their wives but almost impossible to enforce and rarely charged

1870 – Black men can vote

1920 – Women can vote

1939 - World War II – Internment Camps forced on people of Japanese descent

1930 – 1968 – Redlining – systemic discrimination against African Americans. Even after the Federal Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1866, between 1930 and 1968, it was a widely held belief in America that if a black family moved into the neighborhood, it would lower the value of the property. Hence, the Federal Housing Administration created a map system of areas where they would lend black people money to buy houses, and where they wouldn't. Although it is illegal today, it affected generations of black Americans ability to build wealth through property ownership.

1960's – Time of racial tension due to beatings of African Americans

1960’s - Equal pay for farm labor workers mostly Hispanic

1963 – Equal Pay Act – makes it illegal to pay women less than men.

1964 – Civil Rights Act – makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

1967 – Interracial marriage is no longer illegal

1970 – Girls no longer required to wear dresses to school. Women may not be forced to wear dresses to work.

1974 – Women are allowed to have credit cards without a man's signature on it

1980 – It's against the law to sexually harass women at work

1980 – Women get protected rights against domestic violence that is enforceable.

1990's – Time of racial tension due to beatings of African Americans

1990 – People with disabilities get some legal protections against discrimination

2020 - Unions disguised as protecting employees prevent police officers from being held accountable for their abusive racism. 

2020 - "Good Ole Boys Clubs" protect each other even when bystanders know about harassment and discrimination in a company.

2020 - Organizations can and do have policies of not hiring someone just because they have too much experience, also known as age discrimination

2020 - Our government locks up children whose parents have illegally crossed the border.

2020 - Children are taught in church, the place that should be the safest for them, that being gay is a sin.

2020 – Time of racial tensions due to beatings of African Americans.

2020 – Women are still sexually harassed at work.

 In the United States, redlining is the systematic denial of various services by federal government agencies, local governments as well as the private sector either directly or through the selective raising of prices. Neighborhoods with high proportion of minority residents are more likely to be redlined than other neighborhoods with similar household incomes, housing age and type, and other determinants of risk, but different racial composition.  While the best known examples of redlining have involved denial of financial services such as banking or insurance, other services such as health care or even supermarkets have been denied to residents. In the case of retail businesses like supermarkets, purposely locating stores impractically far away from targeted residents results in a redlining effect.

Reverse redlining occurs when a lender or insurer particularly targets minority consumers in a non-redlined area, not to deny them loans or insurance, but to charge them more than would be charged to a similarly situated white consumer.

In the 1960s, sociologist John McKnight coined the term "redlining" to describe the discriminatory practice of fencing off areas where banks would avoid investments based on community demographics.  During the heyday of redlining, the areas most frequently discriminated against were black inner city neighborhoods. For example, in Atlanta in the 1980s, a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by investigative reporter Bill Dedman showed that banks would often lend to lower-income whites but not to middle-income or upper-income blacks.

The use of blacklists is a related mechanism also used by redliners to keep track of groups, areas, and people that the discriminating party feels should be denied business or aid or other transactions. In the academic literature, redlining falls under the broader category of credit rationing.

VARIOUS - Please let us know if you can find a more detailed historical list.