AMERICA 1920-1973: Immigration, Segregation & The Red Scare

IMMIGRATION

Before WWI, there was no restrictions on immigrants coming to the US, as the country was the “melting pot” of races and nationalities. Some Americans became alarmed at the increasing amount of immigrants in cities. Many immigrants were catholics and spoke languages that the Americans could not understand. They started to feel that they were inferior and less educated, forming racial prejudices. In 1917, a law was passed that made immigrants take literacy tests when arriving. This favoured those from Northern and Western Europe, who were white and Protestant. This law was uneffective. In 1921, Emergency Quotas Act was passed which meant the number of people emigrating to the US, was limited to 3%. Again, this favoured countries in Northern and Western Europe as they were those who had emigrated in the largest numbers in the previous 200 years. The National Origins Act was passed in 1924, which put further restrictions on immigration and reduced the 3% to 2%. The overall number of European immigrants was restricted to 150,000.

SEGREGATION

Although slavery was abolished in the 1860s, there was still racial discrimination towards black people, as white people saw them as inferior. Segregation was legal in Southern states, and black people were kept apart from the white people. They usually had the worst jobs and houses. Conditions were somewhat better in the North, however there were still discrimination. Black people had the lowest paying jobs. In 1896, The Jim Crow law was approved by the US Supreme Court, which made segregation legal. Black people were…