Unit 2

• The USA today is a multicultural society - this is largely due to the fact that a large number of people migrated there, mostly from Europe, in the early 1900s
• Melting pot


  The USA encouraged immigration with an Open Door policy. They hoped America would be a melting pot and the immigrants would be workers that would make the country richer
• By 1919, more than 40 million people had arrived in the USA
• Mixture of people living in America during this period

  • The early immigrants
  • Native Americans
  • Black Americans
  • Eastern and southern Europeans
  • Hispanics
  • Asian people
• Push factors


  Factors that made people want to leave their own countries
• Pull factors


  Factors that attracted people to the USA
• Most of the immigrants travelled by sea, and more than 70 per cent arrived on Ellis Island near New York
• During the busiest periods, as many as 5,000 people a day arrived at Ellis Island
• In 1900 the average age of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island was 24
• The first view the immigrants saw as they arrived in America on their way to Ellis Island was the Statue of Liberty
• During 1907, 1.25 million people were processed on Ellis Island
• Traditionally, the immigrants had tended to come from northern and western Europe – Britain, Ireland, Germany - and were White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs)
• Between 1900 and 1914, 13 million arrived, mainly from southern and eastern Europe – Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Western Poland and Greece
• Reasons why some Americans became angry towards the 'new' immigrants

  • They were often poor
  • Many were illiterate and could not speak English
  • Many were Roman Catholics or Jews, therefore from a different cultural and religious background
  • The fear of communism spread following the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, and the trauma of World War One, worried many Americans and contributed to the Red Scare in 1919
• Literacy Test, 1917


  Immigrants had to pass a series of reading and writing tests. Many of the poorer immigrants, especially those from eastern Europe, had received no education and therefore failed the tests and were refused entry
• The Emergency Quota Act, 1921


  A law which restricted the number of immigrants to 357,000 per year, and also set down a quota - only 3 per cent of the total population of any overseas group already in the USA in 1910 could come in after 1921
• The National Origins Act, 1924


  This law cut the quota of immigrants to 2 per cent of its population in the USA in 1890. The act was aimed at restricting southern and eastern Europeans immigrants. It also prohibited immigration from Asia and this angered the Chinese and Japanese communities that were already in the USA
• Immigration Act, 1929


  This made the quotas of the 1924 act permanent and restricted immigration to 150,000 per year
• Many Americans were frightened by the Communist Revolution that had happened in Russia in October 1917
• There were over 3,000 cases of industrial strikes in 1919, including the Boston Police force
• In September 1920, a bomb exploded on Wall Street killing 38 people, and another bomb destroyed the front of the Attorney General, A Mitchell Palmer's house
• These events gave rise to the Red Scare and fear that communism was a real danger that threatened the American way of life
• The Palmer Raids


  United States 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
• The Palmer Raids were a response to imaginary threats. Eventually they were released and the Red Scare receded
• Sacco and Vanzetti


  Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants. The two men acknowledged that they were radicals and that they had avoided serving in World War One. In May 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and accused of armed robbery on a shoe factory, during which a significant amount of money was stolen and two people were killed
• Although 61 witnesses said they had seen them, the defence had 107 witnesses alleging that they had seen them somewhere else when the crime was committed
• During the court case in May 1921, Judge Webster Thayer was prejudiced against the two men. Although a man named Celestino Madeiros later admitted that he had committed the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti lost their appeal. In August 1927 they were both executed by electrocution in Charlestown prison
• This case highlighted the attitudes and discrimination immigrants experienced
• Religious freedom came to America in 1791, when the First Amendment to the Constitution was passed. This stated that America should not be dominated by one Church
• Fundamentalism


  A new kind of conservative Christianity that emerged after World War One. The Fundamentalists believed strongly and literally in everything the Bible said, and in the Bible Belt they condemned any other beliefs
• In such areas, laws were passed to prohibit short swimming costumes, and gambling on a Sunday
• Native Americans


  Native Americans' attitudes about land and ownership were in complete contrast to the consumerism of 1920s USA. By the end of the 19th century they had been forced to live on poor quality land in specified reservations, where they were encouraged to reject their own culture and integrate into the prevailing white Christian culture
• The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act recognised native Americans as citizens of the United States and enabled them to vote
• Difficulties faced by Native Americans

  • They were one of the poorest groups in the country
  • They were treated as second class citizens
  • They were victims of racial intolerance
  • They were often barred from voting, due to issues such as literacy tests
• The Monkey Trial


  In 1925 the ideas of the Fundamentalists gained much publicity in America. A new law was passed in six states, including Tennessee, prohibiting the teaching of Charles Darwin's evolution ideas in schools because those ideas contradicted the story of the Creation in the Bible
• John Scopes took the decision to teach his pupils about Darwin and evolution in his biology lessons in order to make a political point. He was arrested for breaking the law
• Scopes was found guilty of teaching the theory of evolution to his pupils and was fined $100 (approximately $1,400 in today's money)
• By 1929, six states in the Bible Belt, in the most southern parts of the country, had passed laws against teaching the theory of evolution
• At the beginning of the 20th century, there was more racial prejudice and animosity towards those who were not considered 'real' Americans
• In 1900 there were 12 million black people living in the USA and 75 per cent of them lived in the south