A timeline of the racialist movement in the United States: A teaching tool*

Abstract

Since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, academics and the general public have shown increased interest in white racial extremist and other right-wing radical groups. The interest in understanding any form of extreme intolerance requires locating the historical development of the ideas, beliefs, and actions espoused through the legislation of miscegenation in our nation's history and by extremist organizations. A chronology, used as a teaching tool, reviews the unique strands of extreme beliefs and actions and connects these understandings to the growth of racialist and extremist ideologies in the United States. This timeline provides a tool for instructors and other interested individuals in gaining an understanding of such groups by locating key developments within the laws as well as within the white racial extremist movement. Thus this chronology focuses on legislative acts and Supreme Court decisions that mirror our nation's early white racialist history. Additionally, this timeline also provides information about other social movement forces that may have affected the white racial extremist movement.