History Analytical essay

Great Depression, World War II, Cold War, & Civil Rights

Week 5

Agenda ➢ Lecture “Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, & Civil Rights”

○ Xenophobic 1920s ■ Immigration from Western Hemisphere

○ Eugenics ○ Great Depression

■ Mexican Americans ■ Refugees ■ Filipinos

○ World War II ■ FDR, War, & Immigration ■ German Immigration ■ Mexican Immigrants & Mexican Americans ■ Italian Immigrants

Xenophobia in the 1920s

Immigration, by period & region, 1921-1945

Source: Roger Daniels, Coming to America, 289

Period Number of Immigrants

Europe Percentage Americas Percentage Other Percentage

1921-1924 2,344,599 1,541,008 65.7% 720,393 30.7% 83,198 3.6%

1925-1930 1,792,610 936,845 53.7% 796,323 45.2% 29,442 1.7%

1931-1945 669,283 401,355 57.4% 289,741 38.8% 28,177 4%

Total 4,806,492 2,879,208 59.9% 1,786,467 37.2% 140,808 2.9%

Immigration, by period & region, 1921-1945

Source: Roger Daniels, Coming to America, 289

Period Number of Immigrants

Europe Percentage Americas Percentage Other Percentage

1921-1924 2,344,599 1,541,008 65.7% 720,393 30.7% 83,198 3.6%

1925-1930 1,792,610 936,845 53.7% 796,323 45.2% 29,442 1.7%

1931-1945 669,283 401,355 57.4% 289,741 38.8% 28,177 4%

Total 4,806,492 2,879,208 59.9% 1,786,467 37.2% 140,808 2.9%

Filipinos

➢ US territory 1901-1946 ➢ Filipinos US Nationals

○ Unrestricted immigration ➢ Migrant Laborers

○ California agriculture ■ 1909 50% of fruit

and vegetable crops

Indigenous Americans ➢ 1900 250,000 Indigenous

Americans in US census ➢ Lacked official citizenship

○ Acquired through marriage, military service, allotments, and treaties

Indian Citizenship Act "BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and house of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all non citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property. (Approved June 2, 1924)"

Eugenics ➢ Negative

○ Control reproduction to eliminate “genetically unfit”

➢ Positive ○ Promote the reproduction

of the “genetically fit”

Charles M. Goethe ➢ Founded Eugenics Society of

Northern California ➢ Warned against “non-white”

immigrants in US

Eugenic Arguments ➢ Argued “Nordic” and “Anglo”

races losing “ground” to “lower” races

➢ Race Betterment Exhibit, 1915 ○ San Francisco

Panama-Pacific International Exhibition

➢ Eugenics Society of Northern California ○ Value of sterilization ○ “Constitutional right” and

“moral responsibility” of the state, not the indivdiual

Laws ➢ California

○ 1909 ■ Medical superintendents of asylums

& prisons power to “asexualize” ○ 1913, 1917

■ Expanded to protect physicians from retaliation

○ 1935 and 1937 ■ Proposed the establishment of a

State Board of Eugenics ■ Expand applicability of sterilization ■ Failed but had support of doctors,

philanthropists, journalists, academics, and other professionals

➢ 1939 - 848 men and women sterilized in California

➢ 1909-1960 ○ California sterilized 20,000 people ○ US sterilized 60,000 people

Immigration & Great Depression ➢ 1932: 35,576 immigrated to US;

103,295 emigrated (difference of -67,719)

➢ “Likely to become a Public Charge” (LPC) Clause

Mexican Americans During the Great Depression

➢ 32 million Mexican Americans living in US ○ 85% in Southwest ○ 40% in Texas ○ 30% in California

➢ Before Depression ○ Worked in agriculture, mines, and railroad

➢ Depression ○ Cut number of incoming Mexicans to 30,000

in the 1930s

Mexican Deportation ➢ 500,000-1.8 million Mexicans

deported ➢ 60% of which were US citizens ➢ Not only Mexicans

○ Filipinos also forced to return “home”

Filipinos & Great Depression ➢ 1929 violence erupts in heavily

Filipino communities ○ Watsonville, Salinas

➢ Tydings McDuff Act 1934 ○ Granted Philippines

independence ○ Ended Filipino

immigration to the US

World War II

Refugees

Refugees

Source

Refugees

Rogers-Wagner Bill 1939 ➢ Would have brought 20,000 German

refugee children to US ➢ Died in committee

Saint Louis 1939 ➢ Effort by refugees to enter US ➢ Unsuccessful & returned to

Europe ➢ Many passengers died in

Holocaust

Geeman Refugees ➢ German Quota

○ 150,000 German refugees did enter US, most were Jewish

○ Well under quota ■ 1933-1940: 211,895

German spaces ○ German visas extended after

Kristallnacht ➢ War Refugee Board (Jan. 22, 1944 ➢ Refugees in US

○ Contributions exceeded their numbers

○ Manhattan Project ○ Professionals, academics, &

politicians

Mexican Americans in World War II ➢ Opportunity to enter mainstream

life ➢ Higher rate of enlistment ➢ Used Fair Employment Practices

Commission (FEPC)

Bracero Program ➢ 1942: Emergency Labor Program ➢ 200,000 Mexicans during WWII period ➢ No program from 1947-1951 ➢ Returned in 1951, lasted until 1964

Bracero Program ➢ 1957: 192,000 Mexican workers in

California ➢ 1959: 450,000 bracero workers

came to US ➢ 80% employed by state-owned

farms ➢ Non-Bracero Immigration

○ 1940s: 60,000 ○ 1950s: 275,000 ○ 1960s: 440,000 ○ 1970s: 640,000

Sleepy Lagoon Murder ➢ Murder of José Diaz on night of

Aug. 1-2, 1942 ➢ Sensationalized by press ➢ 22 arrested

○ 17 indicted ○ All convicted ○ Convictions reversed on

appeal October 1944 ○ First victory of the

community over Anglo American community

Zoot Suiters

➢ Young Mexican American men ➢ Suit represented bold

self-assertion, protest of social struggles

➢ Disconnected from older Mexican American men who joined the armed forces

Zoot Suit Riots

➢ June 3, 1943 two white sailors flirted with Mexican American girl, resulting in a brawl

➢ 11 white sailors get in a fight with Mexican Americans downtown

➢ Press exaggerates ➢ June 4, 1943

○ 29 taxicabs with 200 sailors and marines

○ Attacked “zooters” ○ Lasted through weekend

➢ Navy threatened court martial of any serviceman who did not immediately return to his unit.

Italian & German Americans WWII ➢ Propaganda of “good” and “bad’

Germans and Italians ➢ 1940 law required unnaturalized

Germans and Italians to register annually

➢ Enemy Aliens ○ Germans, Italians, and

Japanese

Executive Order 9066 ➢ 10,000 Italian Americans

forcibly relocated ➢ 600,000 Italian Americans

movements restricted