Chart: A Time-line of U.S. Laws Affecting African-Americans

This chart was prepared as a supplement to, and from the data gathered in, my paper on my website, "Incrementalist Animal Law: Welcome to the Real World." The new chronology provides useful visual perspective on the history of racist and anti-racist law in the U.S. It is very revealing, reinforcing the fact that progressive laws take time and that the forces of oppression can be very strong at the legislative level. As I argued in the essay, animals would only have an easier time of it if U.S. legislators will have valued nonhuman animals more than African-Americans, as a matter of history both past and future.