Nadir of American race relations: A mob of white Americans killed eight people in Oconee County, Georgia, as part of a mass lynching.

The end of the Reconstruction era marked a period in African-American history and the history of the United States until the early 20th century when racism in the country, particularly anti-black racism, was more open and pronounced than during other periods in the nation's history. During this period, African Americans lost access to many of the civil rights which they had gained during Reconstruction. Anti-Black violence, lynchings, segregation, legalized racial discrimination, and expressions of white supremacy all increased. Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans were also not spared from such sentiments.

White Americans are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as "[a] person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa". Individuals within this group tend to have light skin tones and various hair colors, mainly brown or blonde and to a lesser extent black or red due to their primarily English and German origins, although Irish, Italian and White Hispanic origin are also prominent. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States, although their proportion of the overall population has been gradually declining. As of the latest American Community Survey in 2023, the US Census Bureau estimates that 60.5% of the US population, or 202,651,650 people, are White alone, while Non-Hispanic Whites make up 57.1% of the population. Overall, 72.3% of Americans identify as White alone or in combination. European Americans are by far the largest panethnic group of white Americans and have constituted the majority population of the United States since the nation's founding. Middle Eastern Americans constitute a much smaller demographic of white Americans, making up around 1.1% of the US population in 2020.

Oconee County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,799. The county seat is Watkinsville.