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“When Mormons settled in Missouri in the 1830s, local residents found Mormon beliefs and practices not simply strange, but wrong. … The Mormons, the Missouri governor declared, must be removed—if not by expulsion, then by extermination.”

In this essay, the author gives a short history of race riots, showing how they were originally organized by whites in an effort to show dominance over African Americans, particularly in the South.

This chapter details the Chinese involvement in building the transcontinental railroad and the friction it caused between them and white workers, whom Chinese workers displaced from their jobs due to their willingness to work for less and not join labor unions.

In 1830, the government began systematically removing all Native Americans from the Eastern United States. The removal of Cherokees from Georgia in 1838 has become known as the Trail of Tears. But there were, in fact, many such trails, as the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and other tribes were forced to abandon their homelands.

On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and prompted the United States to enter World War II. While many Americans were concerned about the war abroad, they were also paranoid about the “threat” of Japanese Americans at home. As a result, many Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps on American soil.