Race Relations in the United States, 1980-2000

In the 1980s, many Americans began to believe that racial problems and institutional discrimination were a thing of the past, but the race issue turned out to be as divisive and powerful as it had ever been. Major events related to race included the Reagan/Carter presidential race, Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign, the Tawana Brawley case, and President George H. W. Bush's manipulation in his 1998 presidential campaign of convict Willie Horton. The 1990s saw the Immigration Act of...