History Final Essay
allendong
Ch.8TheNativistReaction.pptxThe Nativist Reaction
History Brief: Nativism in the 1920s
Post WWI: Nativist Story
Red Scare - promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism or anarchism by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to the period after the Bolshevik Revolution where the United States entered into a heightened fear of communism.
Nativism - the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants, including by supporting immigration-restriction measures.
Sacco-Vanzetti Case - a case held during the 1920s in which two Italian-American anarchists were found guilty and executed for a crime in which there was little evidence linking them to the particular crime.
To many Americans, this case exemplifies xenophobia, racism, treating immigrants as second class people, and unfair trial practices.
Opinions of the trial divided amongst nativist-immigrant lines.
Felix Frankfurter, a Harvard Law School professor and eventual U.S. Supreme Court member wrote this six years after the trial…
“By systematic exploitation of the defendants’ alien blood, their imperfect knowledge of English, their unpopular social views, and their opposition to the war, the District Attorney invoked against them a riot of political passion and patriotic sentiment; and the trial judge connived at—one had almost written, cooperated in—the process.”
The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti and fear of Immigrants
An Italian “Dry” Land
Prohibition - a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. Prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic beverages during the 19th century.
Brought about by the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the manufacturing, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors.
Brought about heavily by lobbyists from female temperance groups tired of husbands coming home drunk, spending what little money the family had, and the deterioration of the nuclear-family-dynamic.
Al Capone - sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33.
His operation earned him more than $100 million annually.
Had numerous police on payroll and led his crime organization in activities like:
Bootlegging with speakeasies, prostitution, gambling, loan sharking, murder, etc.
The “Italian Mafia” stereotype emerges!
Prohibition in the United States: National Ban of Alcohol
Culture Wars
What happens when society becomes modern, diverse, religiously open, ethnically plural, and sexually risque? → A religious counter!
Fundamentalism, 1900-1930s - Anti-modernist Protestant movement started in the early twentieth century that proclaimed the literal truth of the Bible; the name came from The Fundamentals, published by conservative leaders.
Many Evangelical Protestants felt threatened by the decline of traditional values.
Wanted to have a resurgence of morality, Christian views, and family-dynamics.
They were convinced that the literal truth was found in the Bible, basing their entire worldview and religious belief.
Scopes Trial, 1925 - trial of John Scopes, Tennessee teacher accused of violating state law prohibiting teaching of the theory of evolution. Became nation/worldwide case surrounding religious fundamentalism vs. civil liberties.
Prohibition - nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.
Was another issue Fundamentalist Christians had during this time. Deeply divided nation.
Scopes Monkey – Rare Footage of the "Trial of the Century" | Flashback | History
Second Klan
“100 percent Americanism” became a term used in the 1920s by those who felt America’s melting pot was becoming too diverse.
1915, Lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager accused of killing a teenage girl.
Was sentenced to death for rape-murder but then lowered to life in prison. A mob known as the “Knights of Mary Phagan” broke into prison and publicly lynched him.
1922, Oregon required all students to attend public schools. Meant to stop any bolshevists, syndicalists, and communists from starting their own schools.
Mid 1920s, more than 3 million joined the reborn Klan.
This second wave spread past the South. Was now present in the North and West.
Society was endangered by Jews, Catholics, blacks, immigrants, feminism, unions, immorality, and corporations.
Although their power waned in the following years, their ressurance occurred again in the late nineteenth century and till today.
Illegal Alien, 1924 - a new category established by the Immigration Act of 1924, referring to immigrants crossing U.S. borders in excess of new immigration quotas.
Originally given to southern and eastern Europeans. Today, given to Latinos.
Art Meets Racist Propaganda
Birth of a Nation - landmark silent film, released in 1915, that was the first blockbuster Hollywood hit. It was the longest and most-profitable film then produced and the most artistically advanced film of its day.
It secured both the future of feature-length films and the reception of film as a serious medium.
An epic about the American Civil War (1861–65) and the Reconstruction era that followed, it has long been hailed for its technical and dramatic innovations but condemned for the racism inherent in the script and its positive portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Socio-Racial Theories
Social Darwinism - a theory that evolution was a natural process in human society as well as in nature, meaning that some individuals are inherently superior/more intelligent/better suited toward a better life than others.
Underlying socio-economic as well as racial prejudice.
Borrowed from Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, where his work on evolution was revolutionary for science.
The Second Era Klan | KKK: Beneath the Hood
Harlem Renaissance: The Essence of the Jazz Age!
The Jazz Age - a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz.
Harlem Renaissance - African-Americans literary and artistic movement of the 1920s centered in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood; writers Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen were among those active in the movement.
Negro Nationalism - proposed that African Americans had a distinct and separate national heritage that should inspire pride and a sense of community.
Proponents were African American intellectuals like W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey.
McKay’s poem, “If We Must Die”, 1919. Response to race riots.
“If we must die, let it not be like hogs; Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot...Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”
Harlem Renaissance - Black History Moment of the Week
Modern U.S. Nativism
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, nativism remains alive. Not unique to the United States, seen in each country of the world.
Rhetoric ramps up typically when…
Immigration numbers increase.
Native populace feels the “threat” from work, culture, integration, etc.
Native populace wants to “protect” their own interests over others.
Liberal Perspective:
Conservative Perspective:
End of chapter 8!
Midterm coming up this weekend. Best of luck studying!
