On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2025, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social his intention to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” in response to the National Guard shooting two days earlier. The announcement, using terminology widely considered …
Donald TrumpJoseph EdlowDepartment of Homeland SecurityUSCISCouncil on American-Islamic Relations+2 moreimmigrationracismcivil-rightsexecutive-powerrefugees+5 more
VP nominee J.D. Vance amplified a baseless conspiracy theory claiming Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were ‘abducting and eating’ pets. Despite being informed by city manager Bryan Heck that the claims were unfounded, Vance continued to spread misinformation, leading to community …
During the 2016 presidential campaign, widespread rumors emerge of damaging outtakes from “The Apprentice” showing Donald Trump using the n-word and other racist and sexist language. Producer Mark Burnett, through his company now owned by MGM, refuses to release any footage, citing …
Donald TrumpMark BurnettTom ArnoldOmarosa Manigaultthe-apprenticemark-burnettracismndamedia-cover-up+1 more
Donald Trump launched racist attacks against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was presiding over the Trump University fraud lawsuits, falsely claiming the judge’s Mexican heritage created bias against him. At a San Diego rally in late May and in subsequent media interviews, Trump …
Donald TrumpGonzalo CurielPaul Ryantrump universityracismjudicial independencewitness intimidationpaul ryan+1 more
NBCUniversal announces on June 29, 2015, that it is ending its business relationship with Donald Trump, firing him from “The Apprentice” and cancelling the Trump-produced Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants in response to Trump’s racist comments about Mexican immigrants during his …
Donald TrumpNBCUnivisionthe apprenticenbcracismimmigrationpresidential campaign+1 more
Twelve years after DNA evidence conclusively proved the innocence of the Central Park Five, Donald Trump published an opinion piece in the New York Daily News calling the city’s $41 million settlement with the wrongfully convicted men “a disgrace” and continuing to assert their …
Donald TrumpYusef SalaamKorey WiseAntron McCrayKevin Richardson+1 moreracismcentral park fivedonald trumpcriminal justice
Donald Trump launched his political career by promoting the racist “birther” conspiracy theory, publicly questioning whether Barack Obama—the nation’s first Black president—was born in the United States and therefore eligible to serve as president. In a March 23, 2011 appearance on …
Donald TrumpBarack Obamaracismbirtherismdonald trumpbarack obamaconspiracy theory
Justice Charles J. Tejada of the New York State Supreme Court vacated the convictions of all five men wrongfully imprisoned for the 1989 Central Park jogger case, ending one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in American legal history. The exoneration came after Matias Reyes, a convicted …
New Jersey casino regulators fined Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino $200,000—at the time one of the largest civil rights penalties ever imposed on an Atlantic City casino—for systematically removing Black employees and women from craps tables to accommodate the racist demands of Robert LiButti, a …
Donald TrumpRobert LiButtiKip Brownracismtrump businesscasinoemployment discrimination
Two weeks after five Black and Latino teenagers were arrested for the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park, Donald Trump spent $85,000 to place full-page advertisements in four major New York newspapers calling for their execution. The ads, which appeared in The New York Times, New …
Donald TrumpYusef SalaamKorey WiseAntron McCrayKevin Richardson+1 moreracismcentral park fivecriminal justicedeath penalty
Interior Secretary James Watt announces his resignation after describing a department panel as having “a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple,” mocking affirmative action. Watt resigns within three weeks of the September comments amid bipartisan condemnation. His controversial 33-month …
James WattRonald ReaganDepartment of InteriorBeach Boysinterior-departmentenvironmental-deregulationracismregulatory-capturepublic-lands
President Ronald Reagan issues Executive Order 12324, authorizing the U.S. Coast Guard to interdict vessels carrying undocumented migrants in international waters and return passengers to their country of origin without asylum screening. Though framed neutrally, the order specifically targets …
Ronald ReaganU.S. Coast GuardImmigration and Naturalization ServiceJean-Claude DuvalierDepartment of Stateimmigrationasylumracisminterdictiondetention+1 more
Between April and October 1980, approximately 125,000 Cubans flee to the United States in the Mariel Boatlift after Fidel Castro opens the port of Mariel to emigration. Simultaneously, thousands of Haitians fleeing the brutal Duvalier dictatorship arrive in Florida by boat, creating a natural …
Jimmy CarterFidel CastroCuban refugeesHaitian refugeesImmigration and Naturalization Service+1 moreimmigrationrefugee-policyracismdetentioncold-war+1 more
Just three years after settling the landmark housing discrimination case with a court-supervised consent decree, the Department of Justice returned to federal court with new allegations: the Trump Organization had violated the settlement terms and continued systematic discrimination against Black …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy Cohnracismhousing discriminationtrump familycivil rightsdoj
After nearly two years of aggressive legal combat, Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump signed a consent decree settling the Department of Justice’s landmark housing discrimination lawsuit. The settlement included the standard legal disclaimer that it was “in no way an admission” …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy Cohnracismhousing discriminationtrump familycivil rightsdoj
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a major civil rights lawsuit against Donald Trump, his father Fred Trump, and their real estate company, Trump Management Inc., for systematic racial discrimination in housing. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, …
Donald TrumpFred TrumpRoy Cohnracismhousing discriminationtrump familycivil rightsdoj
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in American history, inundates 27,000 square miles across seven states and displaces approximately 700,000 people, disproportionately affecting African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. The disaster response, coordinated by …
Herbert HooverLeRoy PercyRed CrossNational Guardracismlabor-exploitationdisaster-capitalisminstitutional-racismfederal-policy
Between 25,000 and 40,000 Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a massive demonstration of the organization’s political power at its peak. Marchers wear white robes but not masks, proudly displaying their faces in an assertion of mainstream respectability. …
Ku Klux KlanHiram EvansD.C. KlanState Governmentsracisminstitutional-capturewhite-supremacypolitical-corruption
President Calvin Coolidge signs the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), establishing the first permanent comprehensive restrictions on immigration in American history through a national origins quota system explicitly designed to preserve white racial dominance. The law reduces annual …
Calvin CoolidgeAlbert JohnsonDavid ReedMadison GrantHarry Laughlin+1 moreimmigration-policyracismeugenicsxenophobiainstitutional-capture+1 more
The Ku Klux Klan under Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson completes its takeover of Indiana state government, controlling the Governor’s office, the state legislature, and numerous local governments. Stephenson, a charismatic organizer who built the Indiana Klan from a few thousand members to an …
President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant federal law restricting immigration into the United States based on race and nationality. The law prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese …
Chester A. ArthurU.S. CongressChinese immigrant workersLabor unionsWest Coast employersimmigration-policyracismlabor-suppressiongilded-agescapegoating+1 more
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, taking effect January 1, 1863, declares enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free, transforming the Civil War from a conflict to preserve the Union into a crusade against slavery. The proclamation faces immediate and violent opposition from …
Abraham LincolnNorthern DemocratsCopperheadsFrederick DouglassGeorge McClellanemancipationracismcopperheadsresistancewhite-supremacy+1 more