The history of racism in North America requires recognition of the Indigenous genocide that took place throughout the Americas. The Indigenous Holocaust in the Western Hemisphere between 1492 and 1900 resulted in the deaths of multiple millions of people. The implementation of war and violence together with the practice of enslavement and the execution of forced marches and removals and the spread of smallpox and other diseases resulted in the death of millions of Indigenous people so that their land could be taken.
Harriet Tubman poses for the camera after escaping from slavery, circa 1868:
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery around 1820 on a plantation in Maryland. She endured abuse under her captors during her captivity which included a head injury she sustained while defending a runaway slave. This head injury resulted in her skull fracture and subsequent "headaches and narcolepsy" condition. In the mid-1800s Tubman obtained her freedom through the Underground Railroad. She went on to help escort more than 300 slaves to freedom.
Nat Turner leads a rebellion to fight for freedom in 1831:
Slavery started in the American colonies and Canadian territories during the 1600s when colonial authorities purchased African abductees to work on Southern tobacco and cotton plantations as enslaved laborers. Nat Turner led a revolt in 1831 with about 75 Black men who fought for their freedom against their slave owners. The battle resulted in 55 white deaths and the subsequent massacre of approximately 200 Black people, who experienced additional mistreatment.
Japanese American children on a train to an internment camp during WWII:
North America has experienced anti-Asian racism since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The American and Canadian governments executed their Japanese citizens from the United States to internment camps after Japan conducted a bombing attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. The government sold their properties and business assets to use the proceeds for their mandatory imprisonment.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in 1955:
The American Civil War (1861–65) was fought over slavery and ultimately led to the emancipation of all slaves in the United States in 1863. However, Blacks in America faced many hurdles in the years that followed. The Jim Crow laws established legal racial segregation which lasted for approximately 100 years after the Civil War while Black people lost their right to vote and access employment and education and other chances in life. The authorities responded to opposition with a range of punishments which included violent attacks and imprisonment and monetary penalties and execution.
A child’s dress on a cross near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School:
The residential schools which Canadian churches operated as government-funded institutions and the boarding schools which United States operated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries used torture methods to commit genocide against Indigenous peoples of North America. The schools took Indigenous children from their homes and brought them to the institutions where they experienced "physical, sexual, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect." The school system used severe punishment methods to discipline students who spoke their native language or practiced their traditional cultural customs.
Malcolm X speaks at a rally in Harlem in 1963:
Malcolm X served as a key figure who helped advance the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X opposed Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent methods because he supported Black nationalism and believed that Blacks must defend themselves against white violence using any available method. Malcolm X established the Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964 to promote a less extreme method of handling affairs. The assassination of Malcolm X occurred in 1965.
AIM leader Russell Means speaks at Wounded Knee in 1973:
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an Indigenous civil rights organization that was founded in 1968 to help revitalize Indigenous culture, promote economic independence, and restore Indigenous lands, among other goals.
Civil rights activist J. Lewis is beaten by state troops in 1965:
Lewis led the historic 600-person march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama at the age of 25. The state troops launched a violent attack against the peaceful marches. The violent attack which appeared in camera footage shocked many white Americans and it drove them to fight for justice.
A Canadian soldier and an Ojibway protester face off during the Oka Crisis in 1990:
Mohawk protesters fought against local police forces and RCMP officers and 4000 Canadian Army soldiers during the summer of 1990 in Kanesatake which is located near Oka Town north of Montreal Quebec. The Oka Crisis which lasted for 78 days began when someone proposed to build a golf course and townhouse development on land that included a Mohawk burial ground.
