How widespread was racism and intolerance in America during the 1920s?
How widespread was racism and intolerance in America during the 1920s? In the 1920s, it was widely believed around the world that the USA was a land of freedom and prosperity, in which an individual could escape from the poverty that plagued many parts of the world and build a better life for themselves and their family. In theory, America was a melting pot – immigrants would come into the country and lose their cultural identity to all fall under one label – American. However, the reality of life in America was quite different. Members of similar backgrounds tended to live together in certain areas of big cities, where there would be extreme poverty – an example of this is Harlem in New York. These would generally be people of eastern European or Asian descent and from Hispanic countries. Bitterness would be directed towards these groups from supposedly more “established” immigrants groups, such as western Europeans, as many believed that America’s “true” identity as a race of white Anglo-Saxons was being diminished. The war increased these feelings, and the Bolshevik Revolution brought anxiety about being swamped by immigrants who would bring communist and anarchist – supposedly “un-American” – ideas into the country. These people were generalised under the title “Reds”.3600 strikes involving 400,000 workers took place in 1919 which began the Red Scare that carried on until 1921, in which members of the American public were led to believe that “Reds” were trying to ruin their way of life. A Seattle strike in 1919 led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), nicknamed “the Wobblies” seemed to be evidence of a communist plot. Coal miners, steel-workers and even the police force all went on strike in Boston, leading to many other industries following suit. Employers used violent and intimidating tactics with Government approval during these disputes. The real reasons for the majority of these strikes were startlingly bad pay and working conditions. Despite workers in heavy industries often
having to work more than twelve hours a day, average wages between 1914-1919 were way below the cost of living. The public and government had no interest in this matter, though, and reacted to the strikes as the start of a communist revolt across America. A series of bombing incidents took place in 1919, one destroying part of the home of the Attorney-General, Mitchell Palmer. Mobs and the police attacked May Day parades and the press caused a sensation. Socialist organization were raided and pamphlets were seized. After his home was attacked, Mitchell Palmer became devoted to fighting against “Reds”. ...
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having to work more than twelve hours a day, average wages between 1914-1919 were way below the cost of living. The public and government had no interest in this matter, though, and reacted to the strikes as the start of a communist revolt across America. A series of bombing incidents took place in 1919, one destroying part of the home of the Attorney-General, Mitchell Palmer. Mobs and the police attacked May Day parades and the press caused a sensation. Socialist organization were raided and pamphlets were seized. After his home was attacked, Mitchell Palmer became devoted to fighting against “Reds”. Up to 6000 suspected “aliens” were rounded up across the USA, and 556 were deported. In the end, it was shown that most of the suspects were not advocates of communism. Some people used the Red Scare as an excuse to attack a particular ethnic group that they disliked – less established immigrants such as Jews or Black people. Trade unions were weakened in the 1920s by persecution. In 1921, the Republicans won the election, with Warren Harding as the President. They decided that problems thought to be caused by immigration, such as violence in large cities, had to be combated, so a series of new immigrations laws were introduced. The same year, the Immigration Quota Act was brought in. This law meant that the amount of immigrants allowed in to the country was in proportion to the amount of people of the same nationality that were in America in 1910. The figure was set at three per cent. This law was followed by the National Origins Act in 1924. This reduced the quota to two per cent of the 1890 census. As a result, more people descending from Northern Europe were introduced because there were more of them in America in1890. By 1929, only 150,000 immigrants were allowed in. Northern and Western Europeans took eighty five per cent of the places, and no Asians were allowed in at all. The idea of these quotas was to restrict immigration from eastern Europe, Japan and China, and by 1930, immigration from these areas had all but stopped. Despite the end of slavery with the Civil War, Black people still suffered a considerable amount of discrimination from white people in the 1920s. Many states passed laws for the segregation of black and white people in most public places, even cemeteries. These were named the “Jim Crow” laws after a famous minstrel song of 1830, which mocked black people and showed them as inferior. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed after the Civil War in 1864, aiming to terrorise, among others, newly freed black slaves. It had a revival in 1915 and, by 1925, it had a membership of around five million. The members of the organization were fanatics who thought that true Americans were WASPs (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. They were anti-communist, anti-negro, anti-Catholic, anti-Jew and against all foreigners, and believed they were protecting basic American values. In the South, it was specifically black people who were terrorised. The Klan had some powerful political members in the South, such as the Governor of Texas and a senator from Alabama. After 1925, Klan membership began to decline, particularly because of the abuse of power by some leaders. In Indiana, the ‘Grand Dragon’, D.C Stephenson, was accused of raping and mutilating his female assistant, Madge Oberholzer, who later took and overdose and gave her evidence against Stephenson in a statement from her deathbed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. As black people continually suffered intolerance and extreme poverty in the Southern states, many began to move further North in hope of a better life – the black population in New York doubled from 150,000 to 300,000 up until the end of the 1920s. Life in the cities, though, was still difficult. Many black people ended up living in squalid tenements in the ghettos, and suffered hostility from other ethnic groups. In Chicago, black people were set upon by so called “athletic groups” from Polish and Irish districts when they tried to use public facilities. In 1919, race riot drove thousands of people from their homes. Despite this, a so-called “Black Renaissance” flourished in cities. Harlem in New York was central to this movement. Black poetic and artistic talent gathered there, led by Weldon Johnson. They expressed their experiences of alienation by white people and of poverty in their work. Black theatre attracted big audiences as singers, comedians and dancers became more successful. Black music, such as jazz, blues and soul, became extremely influential and are still enjoyed today. Black political movements also rose to fame in the 1920s, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), led by W.E.B DuBois, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), founded by Marcus Garvey. Newspapers such as the Baltimore Afro-American and magazines like the Messenger helped to spread their views. These movements, especially the UNIA, encouraged black people to set up their own businesses and boycott stores which would not employ black people. As a result of this, a new black middle class began to emerge. A fall-out between Garvey and DuBois followed. Garvey accused middle-class blacks in the NAACP of losing touch with their ancestry and integrating with white people. The NAACP in turn accused Garvey of promoting separatism and that the Black Star steamship line that he had set up to carry black migrants to Africa was cheating it’s customers. After some violence between the groups, Garvey was arrested on charges of fraud and deported to Jamaica. Despite this, the basic principles of black political beliefs had now been established. Native American Indians were another group to suffer discrimination at the hands of white people. A law was passed in 1924 declaring that all Indians born in America where full citizens of the country, but white officials began to force Indians to conform to the white way of life and abandon their traditions and culture. Children were sent to boarding schools where they would be taught Christian values and would be separated from their tribes to destroy a sense of tribal identity. They would be beaten for speaking in their native language, would be encouraged to mock their parents for holding traditional values. Indian traditions such as the Sun Dance were banned and boys were forbidden from having long hair. Whole tribes would be made to convert to Christianity. The Monkey Trial, as it became known, was a clear example of division between the traditional South and Midwest of America and the more urban North, and of the deep-rooted intolerance to other beliefs and values to those of Christianity held in the aforementioned areas. In these states, often called the “Bible Belt”, church attendance was high and many laws were passed against “city vices” such as wearing supposedly indecent bathing costumes, petting, giving contraceptive advice and gambling on Sunday. These would encourage morality and clean living. Six states also banned the teaching of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools because it contradicted the teaching of the bible, saying than man evolved over millions of years, rather than God creating the universe in six days. To challenge the anti-evolution law in Tennessee, a science teacher named John Scopes answered an advertisement from the American Civil Liberties Union, who wanted the public to know it’s views on the law and to champion the freedom of speech. Scopes agreed to be tried for teaching the evolution theory in his classroom. The trial took place in July 1925 to a packed courtroom, and was broadcast over the radio. He was defended by the famous criminal lawyer, Clarence Darrow, and the prosecution was headed by fundamentalist, William Jennings Bryan. Scopes was found guilty of breaking the law and fined $100, but the focused on presenting the argument for the theory of evolutions and was regarded as a victory for the modernists and a blow to the fundamentalists. Darrow succeeded in undermining the beliefs of this group by asking questions such as “Did Eve really come from Adam’s rib?” to which Bryan replied “Yes”. In conclusion, we can say that there was a serious degree of racism and intolerance in America, but it would be unfair and inaccurate to say that all American were racist. Such major periods as the Black Renaissance and events like the Monkey Trial mean that the 1920s can be viewed as a turning point in American history and in the public’s attitudes to ethnic people in America
