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Young - Born a Crime / Apartheid

State and Federal Laws

Most laws in the United States that discriminate against racial minorities have been state and local laws, not federal laws. The federal government's role is mostly seen in Supreme Court decisions that struck down state laws as unconstitutional, such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Loving v. Virginia, and Brown v. Board of Education. Southern states in particular enacted, and continue to enact, many discriminatory laws, especially against African Americans. Current laws have yet to be brought before the Supreme Court.

When searching in the databases, use search terms such as segregation, Jim Crow, voting rights, "separate but equal", miscegenation (restrictions on interracial marriage), Dred Scott (1857),  as well as state names.

Discriminatory laws against other groups are part of American history as well, often at the federal level. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to The Trail of Tears; The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 blocked immigration and naturalization; The internment of Japanese Americans and surveillance of German- and Italian Americans stemmed from Executive Order 9066 in 1942.