Lesson starter Give this cartoon a title. Justify your choice.

‘Where the blame lies’ Who is being blamed for what?

Racism and prejudice

Introduction Immigrants faced racism and prejudice. In the post war years there was a surge in nativism, which can be defined as: “a policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.” Nativists were people born in America as opposed to abroad. K

100% Americanism Movement Was the desire in the 1920s of nativists and small - town Americans to restrict the numbers and types of immigrants. This was because there was a changing pattern of immigration and ‘older’, more established WASP immigrants and nativists worried about the ‘new’ immigrants. K

Changing pattern of immigration - recap 1914 the majority of immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. June 1920 to June 1921, 65% of people entering the USA were from southern and eastern Europe. Why did small – town Nativist Americans dislike ‘new’ immigrants? K

Americans had specific grounds for objecting to these newcomers They believed immigrants were a danger to the American way of life. These immigrants were also mostly unskilled and illiterate, and many Americans feared job competition and congested cities full of foreigners. Their physical appearance frightened many Americans: many immigrants were malnourished and with deformities caused by vitamin deficiency and poor diet, and also the immigrants sometimes continued to wear native clothing which was out of place in America. K

Americans had specific grounds for objecting to these newcomers Religion - Many were Catholic or Jewish, and so frightened predominantly Protestant America. American Protestant leaders regarded Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Jewish immigrants with alarm.” Roger Daniels K

Americans had specific grounds for objecting to these newcomers Politics – almost all immigrants had left undemocratic societies and viewed the law and government as institutions that catered to rulers and statesmen – to Americans, the unfamiliarity of the immigrants with democracy and the immigrants mistrust of democracy was seen as a threat to America. K

Americans had specific grounds for objecting to these newcomers Racism – the drive to limit immigration was also based on pseudo – scientific racism, where ‘new’ immigrants were seen as inferior. Men with little knowledge of science or race were accepted as experts on the issue. Examples are Madison Grant, who wrote in the Passing of the Great in 1916, and Kenneth Roberts who wrote articles for the Sunday Evening Post. False K

K Madison Grant wrote: “The man of the old stock is being crowded out of many country districts by foreigners, just as he is today being literally driven off the streets of New York City by swarms of Polish Jews. These immigrants adopt the same language of the Native American, they wear his clothes, they steal his name and they are beginning to take his women, but seldom adopt his religion or understand his ideals.”

Kenneth Roberts: Urged the revision of immigration laws: To prevent the production of ”a hybrid race of people as worthless and futile as the good – for – nothing mongrels…of south eastern Europe.” To admit fewer Polish Jews, who he described as “human parasites.” K

Historiography There was a “growing and pervasive racism, a racism directed not against non – whites, but against presumed inferior peoples of European origin.” Roger Daniels

Race riots and the KKK The acceleration of African Americans into cities after WW1 increased tensions further. July 1919 violence once again erupted in Chicago. Black boy drifted onto white only beach on Lake Michigan. Stoned to death Week of riots 23 black people dead 15 white people 537 injured.

The Ku Klux Klan Was reinvented as an anti – immigrant organisation appealing to 100% Americanism. Especially after film Birth of a Nation. K

Nativists and small – town Americans had big political influence. Small town values and nativism and changing attitudes to immigration in the 1920s Nativists and small – town Americans had big political influence. They campaigned to restrict immigration which led to changing attitudes to immigration, and restriction in the 1920s. A