How Tolerant Was American Society During The 1920s?

               Evidence shows that the USA was prejudiced against some political views. This is shown when the Americans begin to fear Communism. They feared communism because it means that the state would control agriculture and the industry, which meant taking it away from the owners. An example of America’s intolerance of the communist was shown in 1920 when 10,000 individuals were deported from the USA to reduce the threat of the government being overthrown. There is no evidence that shows that the USA was tolerant of the communist and their political views.

               Part of the reason political views were not tolerated was because the people who had them were foreign. America was particularly intolerant of foreign races and their views. For example black people were looked down on by the rest of American society and found it difficult to gain employment. A prime example of intolerance is the Sacco and Venzetti case in which two Italians were accused of a crime which they may not have committed and although they may not have done anything they were executed because they were Italian and disliked the American system of government. In the north of America black people were shown more tolerance than in the south, In the north black people received better education and jobs than the south.

Native Americans were another race in which the Americans appeared tolerant of, but in fact they were not tolerated as the Americans took their homeland. This caused the Native Americans to live in extreme poverty. It was also extremely difficult for them to gain employment. Those that could get a job were very poorly paid. They also had very poor education and were sent to boarding schools to be assimilated into American culture. The government appeared to show tolerance for the Native Americans as they had sympathy but no important changes were actually made. They were given citizenship in 1924 from the U.S. government but as the Americans took their land the US citizenship was rightfully theirs as the country belonged to them in the first place. Ten years later a new was introduced which improved the lives for Native Americans.

               There was also an intolerance shown to scientific thought. In the 1920s a theory was introduced called the theory of evolution. This was a scientific theory that promoted the idea that humans evolved from monkeys. However many Americans were religious and believed they were created by God. So when the Evolution theory was introduced to schools it was not tolerated by the fundamentals. The Fundamentals got a law passed in six stated which banned the teaching of Evolution. A teacher then brought a court case against the fundamentalists and won. This showed tolerance of the US courts of Scientific thought.

               Finally think that the American society was mainly intolerant as there was movement made but no drastic measures, which changed the status of women, different races, scientific thought, politics, and the Native Americans. Although things appeared to be getting better they weren’t because while the Americans were giving in one hand they were taking in the other. For example with the Native Americans they were being given US citizenship but they were also loosing their land. Another example is with black people, although things appeared to be getting better there were still many blacks that didn’t have civil rights such as voting education and lived in poverty. When they didn’t like the different political views they tried to block them out by exporting people out of the country. All these examples prove how American society was prejudiced during the 1920s