Racial prejudice and discrimination against ethnic and racial groups has been an ongoing issue throughout the history of the United States. Discriminatory laws and social practices, including collective violence, have long disenfranchised and oppressed non-white Americans. In most aspects of sociopolitical life, white Americans have held privileges and rights, excluding members of other racial groups.

Slavery is a pivotal issue in the history of the United States. The forcible transportation of Africans in America during the colonial period resulted in the established enslavement of Black people primarily in the South, which lasted until the 19th century. Simultaneously, abolitionism, which advocated for the abolition of slavery, emerged as an American movement in the early 19th century. In 1863, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, who was then president, issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This signaled freedom and the end of slavery for Black people. During Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War, slavery was officially abolished in the South and African Americans obtained constitutional rights.

From the late 19th to early 20th century, racial conflicts continued. Institutional racism promoted a series of anti-Black policies and practices. The disenfranchisement of African Americans resulted in the loss of the civil rights obtained during Reconstruction.