The US Constitution protected religious minorities but offered nonwhite races no shield against discrimination.

Evidence

While the First Amendment established a relationship between religious minorities and the state that was beyond the reach of governmental authorities, the Constitution did not guarantee any citizenship rights to nonwhite races. It left decisions related to race to state and local governments. Consequently, racial minorities developed varying relations with the governing institutions of this country, depending on where and when they lived. They also could not define their place in America by fighting for their constitutional rights since it offered them no specific shield to guard against discrimination such as the protection that the First Amendment gave to religion; unlike religious freedom, racial equality was not part of America’s national narrative prior to the passage of civil rights legislation. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 289

Categorization

• XREF: This explains precisely why American Muslims could mobilize as a religious minority (building on a First Amendment shield) but African-American Muslims like the Moorish Science Temple could not — dovetails with the chapter’s racial-vs-religious integration distinction. — connects to: Constitutional revenue-sharing promises for minorities were never honored — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 298