Essential Question:
How do attitudes towards immigrants, blacks and other minorities reflect the intolerance of the decade? How does the nostalgia and attitudes from the past conflict with modern ideas of the decade?
The attitude towards immigrants, blacks, and other minorities clearly showed the intolerance of the decade. The old traditional values still lingered in the twenties causing much intolerance of those different from the traditional American. "Americanism" became widespread across the U.S. Modern ideas also conflicted with the old as seen in the Scopes Monkey Trial. The new idea of evolution conflicted heavily with the old views of creationism and fundamentalism causing tension to rise up in America between the old and new.
The attitude towards immigrants, blacks, and other minorities clearly showed the intolerance of the decade. The old traditional values still lingered in the twenties causing much intolerance of those different from the traditional American. "Americanism" became widespread across the U.S. Modern ideas also conflicted with the old as seen in the Scopes Monkey Trial. The new idea of evolution conflicted heavily with the old views of creationism and fundamentalism causing tension to rise up in America between the old and new.
Key Points:
Red Scare: The red scare was a time period after World War one were the country was in a political turmoil. Groups of socialist views were breaking out everywhere, with the rising of the Russian revolution and communist views. The country was in fear that communism would spread to the United States and start to corrupt our modern society. This showed how America was reluctant to enter into world affairs for fear of being changed. This fear added intolerance to the decade by causing many Americans to worry about their safety as a democracy.
Palmer Raids: The Palmer raids were raids and riots lead by A. Mitchell Palmer against resident aliens and socialist/communist views. His attacks were random, unwarranted, and unwarned. They smashed union offices and communist/socialist headquarters. Their most famous act was when the took 249 resident aliens and put them on a ship to Russia to be deported.
Sacco-Vanzetti: Sacco-Vanzetti Trial was a trial of two Indians claimed to have robbed and murdered someone on the basis that they had guns at the time, when they were found by a police trap. The trail was an example of suspicion and intolerance because of radical and racial prejudice. The two Indians were tried and given harsh sentences even with strong alibis. When the actually murderers were found they were given no sentence even though they were truly guilty.
Scopes Trial: The scopes trial was indicative towards the old ways because many people were very religious and didn't believe in evolution. When evolution was presented as an idea in classrooms and political areas many states began to pass laws banning the talk of evolution. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) started to act. The ACLU fought against the state laws banning discussions of evolution and brought them to the supreme court. This was a major controversy because many religious people who believed in creation now had an enemy who believed in evolution and went against the teachings of churches for years.
Immigration: Many different events led to the immigration restrictions found in the U.S. in the 1920s. These events led to the passing of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. This act limited immigration to three percent of the number of immigrants of any particular country that had been living in the United States in 1910. Most Americans believed that this was not enough. The passing of the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted new arrivals to just two percent of foreign-born residents according to the Census of 1890, almost totally stopping immigration into America. At this time, many Americans were Nativists or those who strongly oppose immigration due to new ideas of protecting the American culture and institutions. This strong Nativist influence was caused by Americans wanting to keep the "traditional American values" alive. Nativist groups such as the American Protective Association used eugenics to prove the that mixing old Europeans and Americans with the "backwards races" of Asia and Eastern Europe would be "race suicide" leading to the demise of America.
KKK: The KKK are advocates of white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, that have historically expressed themselves through terrorism. In the 1920s, the KKK stood for defending white, Christian civilization, promoting community activities, enforcing morality, and combating corruption and concentrated economic power. They also combated immigration and supported the passing of the 18th Amendment. The KKK were very intolerant of immigrants, Jews, and Catholics at the time as well as blacks.They thought Jews and Catholics were trying to turn America over to their respective religions. They did not want the American Culture to be corrupted or tainted by those inferior to them.
Palmer Raids: The Palmer raids were raids and riots lead by A. Mitchell Palmer against resident aliens and socialist/communist views. His attacks were random, unwarranted, and unwarned. They smashed union offices and communist/socialist headquarters. Their most famous act was when the took 249 resident aliens and put them on a ship to Russia to be deported.
Sacco-Vanzetti: Sacco-Vanzetti Trial was a trial of two Indians claimed to have robbed and murdered someone on the basis that they had guns at the time, when they were found by a police trap. The trail was an example of suspicion and intolerance because of radical and racial prejudice. The two Indians were tried and given harsh sentences even with strong alibis. When the actually murderers were found they were given no sentence even though they were truly guilty.
Scopes Trial: The scopes trial was indicative towards the old ways because many people were very religious and didn't believe in evolution. When evolution was presented as an idea in classrooms and political areas many states began to pass laws banning the talk of evolution. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) started to act. The ACLU fought against the state laws banning discussions of evolution and brought them to the supreme court. This was a major controversy because many religious people who believed in creation now had an enemy who believed in evolution and went against the teachings of churches for years.
Immigration: Many different events led to the immigration restrictions found in the U.S. in the 1920s. These events led to the passing of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. This act limited immigration to three percent of the number of immigrants of any particular country that had been living in the United States in 1910. Most Americans believed that this was not enough. The passing of the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted new arrivals to just two percent of foreign-born residents according to the Census of 1890, almost totally stopping immigration into America. At this time, many Americans were Nativists or those who strongly oppose immigration due to new ideas of protecting the American culture and institutions. This strong Nativist influence was caused by Americans wanting to keep the "traditional American values" alive. Nativist groups such as the American Protective Association used eugenics to prove the that mixing old Europeans and Americans with the "backwards races" of Asia and Eastern Europe would be "race suicide" leading to the demise of America.
KKK: The KKK are advocates of white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, that have historically expressed themselves through terrorism. In the 1920s, the KKK stood for defending white, Christian civilization, promoting community activities, enforcing morality, and combating corruption and concentrated economic power. They also combated immigration and supported the passing of the 18th Amendment. The KKK were very intolerant of immigrants, Jews, and Catholics at the time as well as blacks.They thought Jews and Catholics were trying to turn America over to their respective religions. They did not want the American Culture to be corrupted or tainted by those inferior to them.
Thinking Like a Historian: Change and Continuity
Since the 1920s, much has changed with dealing with intolerance and suspicion. Today, we are much more tolerant of other religions and ideas. No longer do we promote "Americanism" or trying to totally rid ourselves of those different from us. We are much more open about theories on evolution and even have them taught throughout our schools today. Many religions have benefited from the moving away from religious intolerance as they can now express their believes without being attacked.However, there still remains much intolerance to immigrants. Many Americans blame immigrants from taking their jobs away or taking over the country. Also the suspicion of communist and other foreigners has vastly increased due to the Cold War and 9/11. Immigrants today still have not been impacted positively by the changes since the 1920s.
APPARTS
This political cartoon by a man with the last name Hallhan was printed in the The Literary Digest, May 7, 1921. Not much is known about the artist but through the cartoon one can infer his viewpoint on American immigration. Hallhan believed that this act was necessary due to the vast amount of immigrants that wanted to come in. He believed that the act was the only way to handle to immigration issue. Hallhan drew this cartoon for The Literary Digest just after the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was passed. At this time, many Americans were afraid of the new incoming immigrants as they believed they would destroy the American culture leading to new hostility towards immigrants. This means that the artist had a clear idea of what he was drawing and a clear understanding of the issue at the time. He drew this picture for the adult population of America especially those who are Nativists as they have common views as he does. This cartoon was not meant for immigrants or young children as they would either oppose or not understand its meaning.This cartoon depicts how the attitude of intolerance was very prevalent during this time as the views of the past conflicted with those of the present.
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Vocabulary:
Immigrant - a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence
Anarchist - a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed
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 description of skin color or origin
Bolsheviks - a member of the Russian Communist party
Fundamentalism - a movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.
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 enroll in a college, join a club, immigrate to a country
Anarchist - a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed
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 description of skin color or origin
Bolsheviks - a member of the Russian Communist party
Fundamentalism - a movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.
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 enroll in a college, join a club, immigrate to a country