Immigration and religion + race

• Immigration


  People moving into a country from another country
• Open door policy


  US immigration policy that encouraged mass migration by making entry to the US easy
• Red Scare


  Period of public fear and anxiety over the supposed rise of communism
• Radicalism


  An ideology of complete political and social reform
• Anarchism


  People should not be ruled by organised government but by a system where everyone rules themselves through voluntary cooperation
• Rise in immigration as well as communism, radicalism and anarchism led to the 'Red Scare'
• All communists, radicals and anarchists were called 'reds'
• Often anyone in trade unions were also called 'reds'
• Larger working class made people fear a workers' revolution
• Palmer Raids

  US Attorney General, A Mitchell Palmer organised attacks against left wing organisations
• Palmer spread rumours about the Red Scare saying that there were around 150,000 communists living in the country (0.1 per cent of the population)
• As many as 6,000 were arrested and held in a prison without a hearing and hundreds were deported
• Eventually they were released and the Red Scare receded
• Left-wing politics


  Political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality
• In April 1920, robbers stole $15,000 from a shoe factory and shot two men at the factory dead
• Two Italian born immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested and found guilty
• In 1927 Sacco and Vanzetti were executed by electric chair
• The case showed clear bias and xenophobia of the judge
• The case was reported around the world and there were huge protests and demonstrations against it
• The case reflected the xenophobic nature and intolerance of the country at the time
• The case showed how the Red Scare was impacting decisions
• The case demonstrated racial discrimination and the unfairness of the US legal system
• Significance of the case

  • Clear bias and xenophobia of the judge
  • Reported around the world
  • Hugh protests and demonstrations against it
  • Reflection of the xenophobic nature and intolerance of the country at the time
  • Showed how the Red Scare was impacting decisions
  • Racial discrimination
  • Demonstrated the unfairness of the US legal system
• Xenophobia


  Prejudice towards someone based on their country of birth
• Intolerance


  Unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from one's own
• Religious fundamentalism


  Strong Protestant religious belief, that every word in the bible is true and must be strictly followed
• Most rural Americans were very religious
• Bible Belt


  Very religious states in the middle of the USA, eg Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee
• Impact of religious fundamentalism

  • Sought to prevent changes in the US
  • Against provocative clothing, dancing, gambling
  • Against the perceived decline in moral standards
  • Against the teaching of evolution
• Evolution


  All species are related and gradually change over time
• 1924 Tennessee passed the Butler Act, banning the teaching of evolution
• This spread to five other states in the Bible Belt
• Biology teacher John Scopes decided to challenge this and was taken to court
• Scopes was convicted and fined $100
• Impact of the Scopes Monkey Trial


  • Destroyed the public image of fundamentalists because of the wide media coverage
• Native Americans


  • Placed on reservations
  • Reservations were areas of poor land
  • 1924 Indian Citizenship Act gave Native Americans full US citizenship (the right to vote)
  • Attempt by the government to 'assimilate Native Americans
  • Separate children and send them to boarding school which oppressed their culture, language, history and traditions
  • Destroyed the identity of tribes
• 1928 Meriam Report suggest these schools were failing
• Assimilation through education had failed


  Report stated Native Americans should be provided with skills and education in their own traditional communities
• Segregation


  Keeping black and white people separate
• Black people had been brought to the US as slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries