How widespread was intolerance in the USA in the 1920's.

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How widespread was intolerance in the USA in the 1920’s.

The vast majority of Americans were either immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants. In theory, groups lost their ethnic identity and blended together with other groups to become model American citizens.In practise, however,this was not the case.In the big USA cities such as New York, the more settled immigrants such as the Irish and the Germans competed for the best housing and the most  prestigious jobs.These groups tended to look down on the more recent Italian immigrants; they in turn had nothing but contempt for the black Americans and the Mexicans who were at the bottom of the scale.  

 

 The racism towards immigrants took another turn for the worse by an increased fear of communism. The USA watched with fear as Russia became communist after the Russian revolution in 1917. It worried the Americans that the more recent European and Russian immigrants were bringing similar drastic ideas with them to their USA communities. There was numerous  reasons to be fearful when almost 400,000 American workers went on strike . Even the police in Boston went on strike ; looters and theives  raided the city’s  stores and houses; there were 25 riots in towns. Many Americans saw these strikes as worrying signs of Communist interference.

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 Fear of communism combined with prejudice against immigrants was a very powerful and dangerous mixture. Two well known victims of ‘the red scare’ were Sacco and Vanzetti, they were arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and murder. Word  quickly spread that they were self confessed anarchists. Anarchists hated the American system of  Government and wanted to destroy it by creating social disorder. Their case was turned into a trial for their radical ideas. The case against them was shaky and it relied on their dubious Italian backgrounds. The Judge referred to them as “Those Anarchist bastards”.They were sentenced to ...

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