Final answer:
The U.S. government and state governments opposed special treatment for African Americans by enforcing Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising them, providing substandard healthcare, and perpetuating pseudo-scientific claims of racial inferiority.
Step-by-step explanation:
Throughout history, the U.S. government and various state governments opposed special treatment for African Americans in multiple ways. During the era of segregation, Jim Crow laws institutionalized a two-tiered system that enforced racial discrimination by mandating separate, and most often unequal, public facilities for blacks and whites. In healthcare, this discrimination was evident in the establishment of different hospitals for blacks and whites, with those serving black communities being underfunded and under-resourced, leading to poorer care.
Furthermore, state legislatures disenfranchised African Americans through voting restrictions, and laws were passed that prohibited blacks from serving on juries or living in certain neighborhoods. African Americans were subject to pseudo-scientific claims of racial inferiority, which were used to justify their poor treatment and to resist their integration into society. Government-funded eugenics programs disproportionately targeted people of color for forced sterilizations, exacerbating the distrust in healthcare among African Americans.
In essence, the government played a significant role in upholding and reinforcing systems that denied African Americans equal rights and access to healthcare, which contributed to broader social and economic inequalities.