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Why did immigration become such a major issue in American society 2.1-2.6 …
Why did immigration become such a major issue in American society
2.1-2.6
2.1
Restriction to Immigration Pt 1
There were
4 important measures
introduced to restrict immigration into America, each one being stricter than the previous one
The first 2 important measures
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%
of the total population of each ethnic group already in the USA in
1910
could come in after
1921
2.2
Restriction to Immigration Pt 2
The next 2 important measures
The National Origins Act 1924:
This law cut the quota of immigrants to
2%
of its population in the USA in
1890
. The act was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigrants. It allowed more people from northern Europe to enter
Immigration Act 1929:
This restricted immigration to
150,000
per year. No Asians were allowed. Northern and western Europeans were allocated
85%
of the places
The Open Door was now closed as the USA did not think that the new immigrants were enriching the culture and lives of those already living in the USA
2.4
The Palmer Raids
In
1919
there was a series of bombings by extreme anarchist groups
In one famous attack the home of
michell Palmer
, the Attorney-General
(Head of the US Department of Justice)
was bombed
The press stirred up public feeling and insisted that the attack was further evidence of a widespread communist take over plot
The Palmer Raids were organised by the Attorney-General
The police attacked socialist parades on
May Day 1920
and raided the offices of socialist organisations
Many innocent people were arrested because of their supposed dangerous political beliefs
It was a response to the Red Scare and it involved the arrest of over
6000
suspected communists in
36
cities across America
Trade unionists, Catholics, Jews and black people
were particularly targeted
The Palmer Raids were illegal, but there were few that protested against them
These people were held for several weeks without charge and several hundred Russian immigrants were sent back in a ship nicknamed the
Soviet Ark
2.3
Americanisation
In addition to the restrictions on the numbers of immigrants, measures were introduced to
Americanise
them
The Federal Bureau of Nationalization organised patriotic 'Americanisation Day' rallies. The Americanisation Day was designed for citizens to reaffirm their loyalty to the USA and the heritage of freedom
People were invited to put on appropriate ceremonies in schools and similar places
Courses on politics and democracy were organised by the Federal Bureau of Education to prepare immigrants for the citizenship examination
2.5
The Sacco and Vanzetti Case
On
May 1920
, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested and charged with carrying out a robbery at a shoe factory in Massachusetts in which 2 people died
They had radical anti-government pamphlets in the car when they were arrested and both owned guns
Their trail started in
may 1921
and lasted
45 days
. There were
61 eye witnesses
against them, however the defence produced
107 eye witnesses
saying they were elsewhere
The case aroused mass media attention and the Judge,
Webster Thayer
, seemed determined to find the 2 men guilty
On
14th July 1921
the jury delivered a guilty verdict and they were sentenced to death
Sacco and Vanzetti took their case to appeal in several higher courts but all attempts failed
Another man named
Celestino Medeiros
later admitted to the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti still lost their appeal. The last appeal failed in
1927
and they were executed in
August 1927
The treatment of the 2 anarchists immigrants highlights the hysteria of the
Red Scare
and the attitudes of discrimination towards immigrants
2.6
The importance of the trial
The trial was reported all over the world and showed the intolerance of American society. As Italian immigrants they were victims of racial discrimination and were denied their rights
It exposes the unfairness of the American legal system. The 2 men were convicted on flimsy evidence, although subsequent evidence suggests that Succo might have been guilty
In the
1970's
the Governor of Massachusetts granted Sacco and Vanzetti a formal pardon and agreed that a mistrial had taken place