Nativism VS Immigration in the 1920s
The 1920s was a time of cultural and political change. The dynamic chaos was too much for some people, and they rejected foreign influence in their own ways, often through violence.
The "Red Scare" of 1919-1920
The Red Scare was a hysterical response to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Americans connected them to labor troubles at the end of the war, and used it as an excuse to aggressively beat down labor strikes. A general strike in Seattle in 1919 was broken by federal troops because the mayor wanted to prevent "the anarchy of Russia."
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was a crusader against Leftists who were suspicious of anti-Americanism.. He was dubbed the "Fighting Quaker" because of the 6,000 suspects he rounded up. The Scare was by multiple bombings by radicals, including one at Palmer's home. Other events, such as the deportation of 249 accused alien radicals were deported on the Buford.
Many local and state governments passed laws that restricted even the support of violence for social reform. Critics regarded these laws as a restriction of their basic rights, and claimed that speeches were a far cry from bombs and riots, and even violent words were protected under the first amendment.
The court case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti against the state of Massachusetts is a famous example of the attitude of the times. Sacco and Vanzetti, who were common laborers, were convicted of Murder, and the Jury and Judge were biased against the because the convicted were Italians, atheists, anarchists, and draft dodgers. Many liberals and radicals sympathized with them. The Atlantic has reprinted on their website an article from 1927 on the subject. Click here for more information.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1927/03/the-case-of-sacco-and-vanzetti/306625/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1927/03/the-case-of-sacco-and-vanzetti/306625/
The Klu Klux Klan
The 1920's atmosphere of Nativism created the prefect conditions for the KKK to regain it's footing. This new Klan was less ride-out-into-the-night-and-terrorize than previously. It was anti - foreign, -Catholic, -black, -Jewish, -pacifist, -communist, -evolutionist, -gambling, -adultery, -birth control, -alcohol. They were Pro-American, Pro-Nativist, Pro-Prohibition, Pro-Protestant, and Pro-Anglo-Saxon. The then-modern KKK was an extremist group that resisted that political and social change of the time, rejecting the new diversity.
During its height, the Klu Klux Klan had more than 5 million members. It attracted people through promises of adventure, camaraderie, and secret ritual. They also kicked back money to recruiters as an incentive, using the money from dues and initiation fees. The organization lost momentum after it was exposed as a thieving money racket, and as people began to realize how horrible it was.
Immigration
From 1920 - 1921, 800,000 immigrants came to America to escape war torn Europe, many from southern and eastern Europe. "One-hundred-percent Americans" were worried that the country would be flooded by this new tide of immigrants, who weren't as good as Natural born Americans or northern Europeans.
In Response to this outcry against new immigration, Congress enacted a series of immigration acts. The First was the Emergency Quota act of 1921. It stated that only 3 percent of the people of a nationality who had been living in the United States in 1910 could come each year. Many Southern and Eastern Europeans were already living in America at this time.
It was replaced by the Immigration act of 1924, which dropped the quota from 3 percent to 2 percent, and shifted the origins base to 1890. Relatively few southern and eastern Europeans lived in America, whereas man northern and western Europeans did. This caused a large divide in the amount of immigrants who could come from different parts of Europe. The Act also completely cut off Japanese immigrants. Outraged, "Hate America" rallies were staged all over Japan, one man even going so far as to commit suicide outside the American embassy in Tokyo.
THE FLOW OF IMMIGRATION UNDER THE PROPOSED 2 PERCENT LAW.
Under the current law, which expired June 30, 357,801 immigrants are admitted. Under the proposed law 161,990 would be admitted. The smallest quotas would come from the lightly shaded countries and those shown in white, such as Austria, Romania, Turkey, and Spain.
The Act of 1929, which used 1920 as it's base, cut immigration in half, limiting the total number of immigrants to 152,574 a year.
The Quota system began what would become to decades of American Isolationism. It was spawned by the Nativist and Isolationist attitudes that resulted at the end of WWI. Many recent Immigrants became more closely knit with less of their ethnicity arriving each year. They developed their own communities, Markets, and even theaters. The cultural and language barriers this created made it harder for unions to successfully organize.