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Fear of Immigration and Radicalism

Fear of Immigration and Radicalism. The KKK was one of many nativist organizations opposed to the cultural changes that immigration brought.

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Fear of Immigration and Radicalism

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  1. Fear of Immigration and Radicalism

  2. The KKK was one of many nativist organizations opposed to the cultural changes that immigration brought. • The Ku Klux Klan attempted to resist challenges to traditional morality by enlisting native, white, Protestant Americans who exhibited character, morality, Christian values, and "pure Americanism." • The 1920s witnessed the coming of the "Second Wave" of immigrants to  the United States. • The immigrants came  to the U.S. seeking better economic opportunities for their families, but very often they came across  strong feelings of prejudice and nativism from the Americans. • Racial tensions were high and quotas were set for immigrants coming into America

  3. Immigration laws drastically cut the number of foreigners allowed in the U.S. to prevent further overcrowding in cities and to raise wages. Fear and intolerance led to further cuts aimed at southern and eastern European and Asian immigrants. • From Frederick Douglass to Booker T. Washington, those who were considered national black leaders spoke out only against the discriminatory aspects of immigration policy. They did not speak out against restriction in the 1920s.

  4. The fear of radicalism had some objective basis: The electoral strength of the Socialist party had grown, not declined, during the war years and the Socialists had made headway in the labor movement. • The real source of the Red Scare of 1919-20 was the fear of an idea, not a movement. • The AFL lost one third of its membership between 1920 and 1923 as a direct result of the Red Scare. • AFL= American Federation of Labor unions. • As a local immigration official inadvertently put it: "A man cannot have radical ideas and become the kind of citizen we want in this country" (Buffalo Enquirer, Jan., 1920).

  5. In the late 'teens an Americanization crusade was launched as a "constructive" anti-radical measure, designed primarily to assimilate the immigrant • As an Americanism speaker told an immigrant audience in Buffalo: "If you have not found your share of happiness here [in America] something is wrong. Our history proves that there is nothing wrong with our institutions, so the individual must be wrong" (Buffalo Express, Jan., 1920).

  6. Bibliography (not MLA, sorry) • www.cis.org • www.lib.msu.edu • www.buffalonian.com

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