Essential Questions:
How do attitudes towards immigrants, blacks, and other minorities reflect the intolerance of the decade?
The discrimination faced by the the immigrants, blacks, and other minorities showed the intolerance of the decade through the restrictions on immigration, the treatment minorities as second-class citizens, and the individual threats from nativists and white supremacist groups, such as the KKK.
How does the nostalgia and attitudes from the past conflict with modern ideas of the decade?
The nostalgia for discrimination and white supremacy, from as early as slavery and the viewing of Native Americans as savages, held strong in nativist groups, whereas modern views of the decade were to embrace diversity and heritage, as apparent through the Harlem Renaissance (a revival of African culture and African American heritage started in Harlem, New York).
How do attitudes towards immigrants, blacks, and other minorities reflect the intolerance of the decade?
The discrimination faced by the the immigrants, blacks, and other minorities showed the intolerance of the decade through the restrictions on immigration, the treatment minorities as second-class citizens, and the individual threats from nativists and white supremacist groups, such as the KKK.
How does the nostalgia and attitudes from the past conflict with modern ideas of the decade?
The nostalgia for discrimination and white supremacy, from as early as slavery and the viewing of Native Americans as savages, held strong in nativist groups, whereas modern views of the decade were to embrace diversity and heritage, as apparent through the Harlem Renaissance (a revival of African culture and African American heritage started in Harlem, New York).
Immigration
What caused Immigration restriction?
Some 800,000 stepped ashore in 1920-1921, about two-thirds of them from southern and eastern Europe.
How was immigration restricted?
Congress plugged the breach with the Emergency Quota Act of 1921—newcomers from Europe were restricted in any given year to a definite quota (set at 3 percent of the people of their nationality who had been living in the U.S. in 1910—favorable to southern/eastern Europeans)The Immigration Act of 1924 or the National Origins Quota Act of 1924. replaced the stopgap legislation of 1921—quotes were cut from 3% to 2% and the national-origins base was shifted from the census of 1910 to that of 1890. The Immigration Act of 1924 marked the end of virtually unrestricted immigration (by 1931). The door was shut absolutely against Japanese immigrants (hate rallies in Japan); exempt were Canadians and Latin Americans.
What caused Immigration restriction?
Some 800,000 stepped ashore in 1920-1921, about two-thirds of them from southern and eastern Europe.
How was immigration restricted?
Congress plugged the breach with the Emergency Quota Act of 1921—newcomers from Europe were restricted in any given year to a definite quota (set at 3 percent of the people of their nationality who had been living in the U.S. in 1910—favorable to southern/eastern Europeans)The Immigration Act of 1924 or the National Origins Quota Act of 1924. replaced the stopgap legislation of 1921—quotes were cut from 3% to 2% and the national-origins base was shifted from the census of 1910 to that of 1890. The Immigration Act of 1924 marked the end of virtually unrestricted immigration (by 1931). The door was shut absolutely against Japanese immigrants (hate rallies in Japan); exempt were Canadians and Latin Americans.
Ku Klux Klan
How strong was Nativism? “Americanism" or "Nativism" is the belief that native-born Americans, especially if of Anglo-Saxon extraction, have superior rights to the "foreign-born". Nativism intensified during the "Red Scare" of 1919-1920. Nativist emotions were compounded by the association of immigrants with anarchists, Socialists, and Communists. What was the KKK? The KKK is a group of white supremacists. They had a revival in the 1915 and increased in size in the 1920s in reactions to challenges to traditional culture. The Klan spread rapidly in the Midwest and the South—peak in the mid-1920s with 5 million members. What did the Ku Klux Klan stand for? It was anti-foreign, anti-Catholic, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolution, anti-bootlegger, anti-gambling, anti-adultery, and anti-birth control. It was pro-Anglo-Saxon, pro-“native” American, and pro-Protestant (ultra conservative uprising) How did they show the intolerance of the decade? The KKK showed intolerance by campaigning against African-Americans, Catholics, Jews, and "immoral" women. Also, they terrorized those where were held different moral views than them. |
The Red Scare
What were the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids? The Red Scare was a post-WWI period of intense fear of communism and other extreme ideas, fueled by labor unrest and strikes that many people associated with radical ideas. The Palmer Raids was a federal government campaign, from 1919 to 1920, led by Attorney General Palmer, to arrest suspected “subversives” who posed a “clear and present danger” to the country by trying to overthrow the government. Federal agents imprisoned over 6000 people in 33 cities; 566 were deported, including anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and 247 others on the “Buford”, although none had been convicted of any crime. How does this fear add to the intolerance of the decade? It is said that there were over 150,000 anarchists or communists in USA in 1920 alone and this represented only 0.1% of the overall population of the USA. "The whole lot were about as dangerous as a flea on an elephant." (US journalist) However many Americans were scared of the communists especially as they had overthrown the royal family in Russia in 1917 and murdered them in the following year. In 1901, an anarchist had shot and killed American president McKinley. The fear of communism increased when a series of strikes occurred in 1919. The police of Boston went on strike and 100,000’s of steel and coal workers did likewise. The communists usually always got the blame. Americans viewed increasing immigration from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe as a threat to American political and social stability. How was the “Red Scare” an example of America’s reluctance to be involved in world affairs? Americans were exhausted after the war and wanted a return to Normalcy, Isolationism, Nativism, and Conservatism. The simple presence of something different became a threat. |
The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
What was the Sacco and Vanzetti Trial? In 1920, Italian immigrants and anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, were put on trial for the robbery murder of a paymaster in Massachusetts. Why was this an example of suspicion and intolerance? Although they both had alibis, they were tried, convicted, and executed. Their execution seven years later provoked controversy over the fairness of their trial, since many thought their radical political views had been held against them. |
The Scope Trial
What was the Scope Trial? The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was a famous American legal case in 1925 in which a high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. Why is this Trial indicative of the conflict of old vs. new in the 1920s? The trial publicized the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy, which set Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion, against Fundamentalists, who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on whether modern science regarding the creation-evolution controversy should be taught in schools. |
Vocabulary
Immigrant ~ a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.
Anarchist ~ a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.
Communism ~ a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state
Race ~ a group of persons related by common descent or heredity
Bolsheviks ~ members of the Russian Communist Party
Fundamentalism ~ strict adherence to any set of basic ideas or principles
Evolution ~ change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift
Quota ~ the number or percentage of persons of a specified kind permitted (to immigrate to a country)
Immigrant ~ a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.
Anarchist ~ a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.
Communism ~ a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state
Race ~ a group of persons related by common descent or heredity
Bolsheviks ~ members of the Russian Communist Party
Fundamentalism ~ strict adherence to any set of basic ideas or principles
Evolution ~ change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift
Quota ~ the number or percentage of persons of a specified kind permitted (to immigrate to a country)
Thinking Like a Historian ~ Using the Past
As a society, there is still racism today, although often it is more discrete. The KKK still exists although much less popular. There are no longer race riots. There are not burning crosses put up in African American families' lawns in the middle of the night. But we still struggle with immigrants, no longer from southern and eastern Europe, but rather from Mexico. Immigration laws are still being debated, whether to make them stricter or not. Using the past, we should learn to be more open minded and learn to live with each other peacefully, as we certainly will be living together regardless of prejudices.
As a society, there is still racism today, although often it is more discrete. The KKK still exists although much less popular. There are no longer race riots. There are not burning crosses put up in African American families' lawns in the middle of the night. But we still struggle with immigrants, no longer from southern and eastern Europe, but rather from Mexico. Immigration laws are still being debated, whether to make them stricter or not. Using the past, we should learn to be more open minded and learn to live with each other peacefully, as we certainly will be living together regardless of prejudices.
APPARTS
Author- Alfred Frueh, caricaturist for The New Yorker Place and Time- July 25, 1925 New York (spread to the entire country through The New Yorker) Prior Knowledge- The Scopes "Monkey" Trial had to deal with the question of evolution and its teachings. Creationists/Fundamentalists believed in creation, not in evolution from a common ancestor as apes. An uproar arose over what should and shouldn't be taught in school. Audience- The audience is the general public. All people involved in the argument of evolution should look at this and see how others view it. Reason- There is so much arguing about how people came to be that we lose how people appear to be. The author wants to depict how clear our resemblance to permittivity is. Main Idea- People not only derived from a common ancestor with monkeys, but behave like them. This is picking fun at how humans are still "monkeys", no longer genetically but in way they act. Significance- The message of this cartoon still carries over into today in a more abstract sense that it doesn't really matter where we came from, if we look at how we really are we realize we have not changed much. |