Racial Discrimination in America During the 1920's
The motto of the United States of America is "E Pluribus Unum" meaning 'Out
of one, many'. It neatly recognises that although America may be a single na
tion, it is also one originally made up of immigrants who arrived not only f
rom Europe and Asia, but forcibly as slaves from Africa and of Native Americ
ans. It's population is the most racially and culturally diverse in the worl
d and for that reason is often referred to as a "Melting Pot".
During the 1920's, racial tensions in American society reached boiling point
. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arrived in
their masses from south-east Europe since early on in the century. Together
with Orientals, Mexicans and the Black population these minorities suffered
the most at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long establishe
d White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) values that were an integral part
of American life. Prejudice and racism reared its ugly head in many areas of
society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, lit
erature and towards organisations like the Ku Klux Klan. Also the language,
living and working conditions and Government legislation that ethnic minorit
ies were subjected to is further evidence that the twenties was an openly di
scriminatory decade. It was also during this period of grave hostility direc
ted at ethnic groups that America's 'open door' attitude of "Give me your ti
red, your poor" towards immigration, officially became a part of history.
In the 1920's Anti-Immigration Organisations that had been founded in the la
tter parts of the first decade of the twentieth century began to receive muc
h larger and an increasingly influential following. The Immigration Restrict
ion League was one such group, it claimed to have 'scientific' evidence that
the new immigrants from Southeast Europe were racially inferior and therefo
r posed to threaten the supremacy of the USA. They believed strongly in WASP
values and certainly did not wish to see them become polluted by other reli
gions from minorities like Catholics and Jews. This Social-Darwinist belief
was not just popular with the masses, but it's appeal spread to people of co
nsiderable eminence. For example the principals of important American univer
sities like Harvard, Stanford and Chicago were numbered among the Leagues su
pporters. Another similar organisation looking to conserve the American way
if life was the American Protective Association. A leading member, William J
.H. Tranyor spoke for their cause when arguing against giving the vote to "e
very ignorant Ago and Pole, Hun and Slav" and all other "criminal riffraff o
f Europe" that arrive on Americas shores. During the 1920's the growth and c
ontinually support of anti-immigration fraternities from the American people
serves to highlight the increasing resentment and concern over foreign infl
uences. The influential author Madison Grant, whose book "The Passing of a G
reat Race" became a best seller in its time, echoes such sentiments. Grant,
another Social-Darwinist, called for absolute racial segregation, immigratio
n restrictions and even forced sterilisation of "worthless race types". In h
is book he described ethnic minorities as "human flotsam" and that the "whol
e tone of American life, social, moral and political has been lowered and vu
lgarised by them". Madison Grant, together with authors that shared a simila
r perspective on ethnic groups, influenced many people in America, the fact
that this type of literature was popular shows this.
The language that native-born Americans adopted to describe those of ethnic
minorities can be used as an indicator of their dislike of them. To begin wi
th nicknames for minorities were only mildly abusive, but as time went on th
e terms became uglier. For example the term used to describe a person of Lat
in background was "Spic", said to originate from the expression "No Spic Ing
lis". Also Italians had a number of names, 'Dogo', Guinea, and 'Greaser'. Ot
her nicknames for minorities that became popular in the twenties were kike,
Chink, Polack, Hun and numerous others. Black people around this time were s
till being referred to as either Negroes or more commonly Niggers. Although
these colloquial terms are fairly mild compared with those used today, their
sheer presence in American vocabulary at the time tells us that people were
becoming much more intolerant of the ethnic minorities they encountered.
In reaction to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, came widespread fears that
a similar communist revolt might sweep through America. This so called 'Red
Scare' was the accumulative belief that it was the foreign influences, espec
ially those immigrants from eastern Europe that were to blame for the 'Bolsh
evik inspired' incidents throughout the USA, such as labour strikes and riot
s. On the 20th January 1920, at the height of the Red Scare, the Justice Dep
artment co-oridinated federal marshals and local police in raids on the home
s of suspected communists and anarchists. With no search warrants, they arre
sted more than 6000 people, grossly violating civil rights and simple decenc
y. These "Palmer Raids" named after the then Attorney General, Mitchell Palm
er, who arranged them, reflected the paranoiac mood within the nation toward
s foreigners. Even though the Red Scare died out by the end of 1920, it did
leave an acrid aftertaste on the USA. Throughout the twenties there was an u
psurge of nationalism with the term 100 % Americanism coined at this time an
d more people began to clamour for tougher restrictions on immigration. For
example in a letter to the New York Times in 1922, the writer stated "Americ
a for Americans, I say" and in referring to the immigrant issue, "Keep 'em o
ut, at least until folks here get a better life."
The foreign connections of so many radicals strengthened the belief that the
state was in danger from 'alien' influences and celebrated cases like that
of Sacco and Vanzetti merely enforced this idea. They were two Italian immig
rants, arrested for robbing a paymaster in Massachusetts on the 15th April 1
920. The evidence against them was extremely weak, but they were found guilt
y and sentenced to death in 1921. The judge was openly hostile to the defend
ants, calling them "those anarchist bastards" in private and made it clear t
hat they must be guilty because of their national origin. Many in rural Amer
ica supported the executions, they believed that cities were full of foreign
ers determined to overthrow the existing America way of life. The Sacco and
Vanzetti case is an example of how racial prejudice can cause justice to suf
fer.
In response to the call for further restrictions on immigration, Congress pa
ssed two laws. Firstly the Emergency Immigration Act in 1921, which restrict
ed new arrivals to 3% of the foreign born of a nationality. In 1924 the John
son-Reed Act stiffened these terms, limiting the number of people from any n
ationality to 2% of the total number of that national origin living in the U
SA in 1890. This law also set a permanent limitation of 150,000 people a yea
r coming into the USA. This new act, which came into effect in 1929, virtual
ly ended immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and excluded Asians al
most entirely. A historian Paul S Boyer refers to the act: "Fed by wartime s
uperpatriotism, the long standing impulse to turn America into a nation of c
ulturally identical likeminded people culminated in 1924 act." Calvin Coolid
ge, the then President, observed when he signed the law: "America must be ke
pt American". However the quota systems did not place any restrictions on im
migration from the Western Hemisphere, and consequently from immigration fro
m Mexico and French Canada soared during the 1920's. The fact that the US Go
vernment was now officially acting on the wide spread fear and dislike of th
ose from ethnic backgrounds reflected the national mood of the twenties.
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