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Islam not only recognizes absolute equality between men irrespective of any distinction of color, race or nationality, but makes it an important and significant principle, a reality. 

Qur'ân

Sûrah al Hujurât 49. 13
"O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you" 

Sûrah ar Rum 30:22
"And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colors. Verily, in that are indeed signs for those who know".

Ahâdîth

"No Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab. Nor does a white man have any superiority over a black man, or the black man any superiority over the white man. You are all the children of Adam, and Adam was created from clay" (al-Bayhaqi and al-Bazzaz). 

'O people, Remember that your Lord is One. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a black has no superiority over white, nor a white has any superiority over black, except by piety and good action (Taqwa).  Indeed the best among you is the one with the best character (Taqwa). Listen to me.  Did I convey this to you properly?  People responded, Yes. O messenger of Allah, The Prophet then said, then each one of you who is here must convey this to everyone not present'. (Excerpt from the Prophet’s Last Sermon as in Baihiqi)

Let people stop boasting about their ancestors. One is only a pious believer or a miserable sinner. All men are sons of Adam, and Adam came from dust (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi).

A man once visited the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah. There he saw a group of people sitting and discussing their faith together. Among them were Salman (who came from Persia), Suhayb who grew up in the Eastern Roman empire and was regarded as a Greek, and Bilal who was an African. The man then said: "If the (Madinan) tribes of Aws and Khazraj support Muhammad, they are his people (that is, Arabs like him), but what are these people doing here?" The Prophet became very angry when this was reported to him, he went to the mosque and summoned people and addressed them saying: "O people, know that the Lord and Sustainer is One. Your ancestor is one, your faith is one. The Arabism of anyone of you is not from your mother or father. It is no more than a tongue (language). Whoever speaks Arabic is an Arab." 

'Whoever has pride in his heart equal to the weight of an atom shall not enter Paradise'. A man inquired about a person who likes to wear beautiful clothes and fine shoes, and he answered: 'Allah is beautiful and likes beauty'. Then he explained 'pride means rejecting the truth because of self-esteem and looking down on other people' (Muslim).

You should listen to and obey your ruler even if he is an Ethiopian slave  (Bukhari).

In 629 CE when the Muslims conquered Makkah, victorious after years of persecution, then war with the non-believing Quraysh, the Prophet went straight to the Kaaba. This was the height of the victory of Islam. He brought some other Muslims with him. He could have chosen only Muslims from the Quraysh, people of his own ethnic and tribal background. He also could have chosen only Arabs or only those of the old noble classes. But two of the people who entered the Kaba with the Prophet were Bilal ibn Rabah and Zaid ibn Haritha. Bilal, an African and a former slave.  Zaid was also not of high status from the tribal Quraysh point of view. Then entered a Quraysh, Abdullah bin Omar (may Allah be pleased with all of them). On this day of victory, success and happiness was for all Muslims, no matter who they were or where they came from.

In 634 CE when the Muslims conquered Egypt at the time when Omar ibn al Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was Khalifa, a Muslim leader who happened to be a black man named Ubaydah ibn Thamit, took a party of the Muslims to meet Muqawqis, the Christian leader of Egypt.   When the Muslims came to Muqawqis, with Ubaydah in the lead, Muqawqis was frightened by the color of his skin.   'Get this black man away from me and bring someone else,’ he demanded. The Muslims refused. They insisted that Ubaydah was the best among them and was their leader who they obeyed and whose judgment they deferred to. They told Muqawqis that the color of a person does not matter to them. Finally Muqawqis had no choice but talk to the leader of that Muslim delegation.   These Muslims were practicing an Islamic principle that individual character is the base of preference not color of skin.

It was during the Caliphate of Omar ibn al-Khattab (634-635) that Muslims first gained leadership Jerusalem.  He walked in with not he, the Caliph, but his servant comfortably riding on a camel. They had been taking turns walking and riding. At one point, the Christians asked him to pray in their church but he declined. He refused saying that he is afraid that in the future Muslims could use it as an excuse to take over the Church for building a Masjid. The Christians gave the key of the Church of Resurrection to Muslims to be responsible for its safety. This key is still with the Muslims today.

Note: The division of human beings into nations, races, groups and tribes is for the sake of distinction, so that people of one race or tribe may meet and be acquainted with the people belonging to another race or tribe and cooperate with one another. This division of the human race is neither meant for one nation to take pride in its superiority over others nor is it meant for one nation to treat another with contempt or disgrace, or regard them as a mean and degraded race and usurp their rights.

In this manner Islam established equality for the entire human race and struck at the very root of all distinctions based on color, race, language or nationality. According to Islam, God has given man this right of equality as a birthright. Therefore no man should be discriminated against on the ground of the color of his skin, his place of birth, the race or the nation in which he was born.  

The superiority of one man over another is only on the basis of God-consciousness, purity of character and high morals, and not on the basis of color, race, language or nationality,
and even this superiority based on piety and pure conduct does not justify that such people should play lord or assume airs of superiority over other human beings.  Assuming airs of superiority is in itself a reprehensible vice which no God-fearing and pious man can ever dream of perpetrating. Nor does the righteous have more privileged rights over others, because this runs counter to human equality, which has been laid down in the beginning of this verse as a general principle. From the moral point of view, goodness and virtue is in all cases better than vice and evil.

Muslims for Human Dignity  Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi  
Unity & Diversity: Islamic Perspective   Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi 
Forgiveness: Islamic Perspective  Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi