The 500-year history of Racial Relations Events and Dynamics in America
Back to the proposition that government should support and implement the Neo-sociopsychological model on the whole of American society. Externally imposed solutions to social problems, and in particular, to problems relating to black slavery, prejudice and racism have not fared well historically. As a single, personal example of this historical perspective, I have reviewed a total of more than 1,500 racial relations events going back to 1494 in the New World. Why 1494? Because that is the year in which European racial prejudice, slavery, and injustice were introduced to the Americas by none other than Christopher Columbus, the Spaniards, and the Portuguese.
Within less than 20 years of that date, the first recorded activism against the evils of European slavery began. According to www.blackpast.org , in an effort to create a better society by communication and by legislation, Bartolomeo de las Casas, then bishop (in what is now Haiti) petitioned the king of Spain to end the abomination of slavery. Bishop Bartolomeo initially had asked the king to cause black slaves to be sent to Hispaniola to replace the previously enslaved (and subsequently freed) native Indian population but had a change of heart and conscience. He spent the rest of his life advocating for the end of black slavery in every forum available to him.
An analysis of the patterns of racial relations events in America makes it possible to discern the changing relationship of four key dynamics: Legislation, Litigation, Violence, and Individual Initiative.
By way of minimal definition:
* Legislation – Monarchical mandates and governmental Legislation
* Litigation – Lawsuits in support of prejudice and lawsuits in opposition
* Violence – White on Black Violence and Black on White Violence
* Individual Initiative – Personal acts of achievement which individually and in their totality have made, and are making, a positive difference in prejudice and race relations. These range from personal achievements by minorities in conventional situations to individual “brave” acts of majority population members on behalf of minority advancement.
The analysis divides the relevant history into significant meaningful eras:
* The Colonial Era to American Independence (1494-1775)
* Revolution through Civil War (1776-1865)
* Reconstruction to World War II (1866-1941)
* World War II to the Rise of the Civil Rights Movement (1942-1960)
* The Civil Rights Movement Matures (1961-1990)
* The Rise of Black Power in Politics (1991-2010)
* The Ascendancy of Violent Public Demonstrations (2011-2021)
