Roots of Racism in California

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"One of the most deplorable aspects of the history of California has been the persistence of discrimination directed against the state's diverse ethnic and racial groups." - James J. Rawls, California Historian, author of California: An Interpretive History

This site was created to give people a little bit of background information about the roots of racism in California.  California is known for being ethnically diverse, however in the 19th and 20th centuries minorities who settled here were greatly discriminated against.  Indians, Asians, African Americans and Latinos were the main minority groups who faced persecution by the white people who were already settled in California.  
 
Mistreatment of Indians was said to be by far the worst out of any of the other groups.  In fact, Indians of California were treated worse that any of the other American Indian tribes in the U.S. being that only a small percentage of them were ever placed on reservations.  Asians were flagrantly discriminated against with the use of laws such as the Alien Land Law, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the 1850 Foreign Miner's tax (which was mainly enforced against Chinese) and many more.  African Americans were the most active in protesting racism, attarcting the majority of the public attention.  Latinos were and are still today, the largest ethnic minority group in California. 
 
 

What is a primary resource?


Links for websites that contain primary and secondary resources are provided in order to to be able to do further research.

Resources:

UCBerkley

Library of Congress

Timeline by Race Ethnic Groups

The American Colonist's Library

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