The Not So Roaring 20 s Nativism and

The (Not So) Roaring 20 s: Nativism and the Red Scare Pee Dee TAH Institute Fall Meeting 2009 Dr. Witherspoon

Nativism H 1900, new anti-immigrant sentiment H The “new immigrants” H H H Not educated Religious conflicts Slow to adopt American ways Crime Radical political groups H Economic arguments H Depressions, 1893, 1897 H Racism

Nativism Ascendant H 1894, Immigration Restriction League H H Harvard graduates Important pressure group Henry Cabot Lodge, MA Rep. 18871924 Literacy Test H 1917 Immigration Act - Literacy H Results of literacy test: H Deterred a few immigrants H 1920 -21: 800, 000 admitted; 1400 denied H 1903, political opinion test

The United States at War H The Committee on Public Information* H George Creel H Propaganda H Super-patriotism H Condemned all things German H Espionage Act 1917, Sedition Act 1918 H 1500 Americans arrested

The Red Scare H Communism H Bolshevik Revolution, 1917 H Paranoia = Red Scare H Fear of communism = labor

The Red Scare H Soldiers returning home = turmoil H Problems for workers: H H H Injury No regulation Natural problems Day and seasonal labor Unemployment

The Red Scare H 1919 Seattle shipyard strike H Oly Hanson H May-Day plot H Investigations, bombings, strikes H A. Mitchell Palmer bombed, June 1919

The Red Scare H Palmer Raids H Lusk Committee H Boston police strike, Sept. 1919

The Ku Klux Klan, reborn H “Birth of a Nation, ” 1915 H The new Klan: H H H anti-black anti-Catholic anti-Jewish 4. 5 million members peak 1924 H Decline of the Klan, 1924 -28 H David Curtis Stephenson

The Red Scare H Ends May, 1920 H Sacco-Vanzetti case, executed 1927

The Red Scare

Nativism Triumphant H Anti-immigration bill, 1920 H H Passes House, 196 -42 Senate, Dillingham Quota Bill H Limit total # of immigrants H Determine a % for each ethnic group H Europeans at 5% of Census, 1910 (about 600 k) H H House again, 3% of Census (about 350 k) Signed by Harding

Nativism Triumphant H Immigration Act of 1924: H 1924, nativists to revise Dillingham H Even fewer immigrants H Based on 1890 Census: effects? H Italians drop from 42, 000 to 2, 000 H Polish drop from 31, 000 to 6, 000

Nativism Triumphant H Immigration Act of 1924: H H H H H Uses 1890 Census Reduces totals from 3% to 2% About 300, 000 annually Japanese “aliens ineligible to citizenship” Tightened administration Deportation easier Albert Johnson Was it a good thing? Replaced by Immigration Act, 1965