Intolerance in US Society (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Intolerance in US Society
During the 1920s, American society experienced widespread intolerance directed at various groups. Racism, xenophobia, and religious divisions created an atmosphere where foreign-born immigrants, African Americans, and those whose beliefs challenged traditional American attitudes faced discrimination, violence, and legal persecution. This intolerance manifested through restrictive immigration laws, notorious court cases, the resurgence of violent organisations, and conflicts between religious and scientific viewpoints.
Immigration and growing hostility
Why opposition to immigrants increased
In the years following the First World War, hostility towards immigrants intensified for several interconnected reasons. Immigrants provided direct competition for jobs, particularly troubling as veterans returned from Europe seeking employment. Many newcomers brought customs, languages, and traditions that differed markedly from established American practices, causing cultural anxiety among native-born citizens.
The war itself fuelled anti-German sentiment. Several states banned the teaching of German in schools, reflecting widespread suspicion of anything associated with Germany. Americans increasingly blamed European rivalries for dragging the United States into the conflict and wanted the nation to isolate itself from further European entanglements.
Economic factors also played a role. Many new arrivals were poor labourers with limited formal education. Immigrant communities formed in northern cities, areas that often experienced high rates of drunkenness and violence. Native-born Americans attributed these social problems directly to the immigrant population, ignoring broader economic and social causes.
The 'WASP' ideal emerged as the standard against which newcomers were judged. Many Americans believed the ideal citizen should be White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. Asian immigrants were not white, many recent European immigrants were Catholics, Greeks were Orthodox, and numerous Eastern European Jews were neither Christian nor racially acceptable to those who held these prejudices. The 'Red Scare' intensified these fears, as many Americans became convinced that immigrants brought dangerous political beliefs, particularly Communism, that threatened American society.
Restrictive immigration legislation
Between 1917 and 1924, the federal government enacted increasingly severe restrictions on immigration:
The 1917 Literacy Act required all foreigners wishing to enter the USA to pass a literacy test. They had to demonstrate they could read a short passage in English. This measure particularly disadvantaged people from poorer countries, especially in Eastern Europe, who could not afford English lessons and consequently failed the test.
The Immigration Quota Act of 1921 introduced a quota system that fundamentally changed American immigration policy. New immigrants were allowed in as a proportion of the number of people of the same nationality who had been in America in 1910. The figure was set at three per cent per year. For example, if there had been 100 Italian immigrants in the USA since 1910, then three were allowed in. This system deliberately reduced the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe because relatively few had emigrated before 1910.
The 1924 National Origins Act tightened restrictions even further. The quota was reduced to two per cent of the 1890 census. Since there had been far more people from Northern Europe in 1890, proportionately more of these groups were allowed to enter. Five years later, the Immigration Act restricted immigration to 150,000 per year. Northern and Western Europeans were allocated 85 per cent of places. By 1930, immigration from Japan, China and Eastern Europe had virtually ceased. There were to be no Asians at all.
These immigration laws reflected and reinforced racial hierarchies in American society. By basing quotas on historical census data and explicitly excluding Asian immigrants, the legislation codified discrimination into federal law and dramatically reshaped the ethnic composition of American immigration.
The Sacco and Vanzetti case
On 5 May 1920, two Italian labourers, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested and charged with the murder of Fred Parmenter. Parmenter worked as the paymaster of a factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts. He, together with a security guard, was shot by two armed robbers on 15 April 1920. The security guard and Parmenter died, but not before Parmenter had described his attackers as slim foreigners with olive skins.
The trial and its conduct
The Trial Process
The trial began in May 1921 and lasted 45 days. Finding an impartial jury proved extremely difficult, taking several days, as twelve men had to be accepted by both the prosecution and defence. The strong publicity surrounding the case meant that 875 potential jurors were called to the court. On 14 July 1921, the jury delivered a verdict of guilty.
The case generated demonstrations throughout the USA in support of the two men. Their case was taken to appeal in higher courts but all appeals failed. The last appeal was in 1927. The two men were executed by electric chair on 24 August 1927.
Why the case mattered
The Sacco and Vanzetti case gained international attention and exposed deep intolerance within US society. As Italian immigrants, the two men were victims of racial discrimination and were denied rights entitled to them. The trial exposed the unfairness of the American legal system at this time. The two men were convicted on flimsy evidence, although subsequent evidence suggests that Sacco may have been guilty.
The case demonstrated how prejudice could influence legal proceedings. The trial was reported worldwide and showed how racial discrimination operated in American courts. In the 1970s, the Governor of Massachusetts granted Sacco and Vanzetti a formal pardon and agreed that a mistrial had taken place, acknowledging the injustice that had occurred decades earlier.
The Ku Klux Klan
Revival and growth after 1915
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had been established in the 1860s by former soldiers after the American Civil War. It was revived in 1915 and grew rapidly during the years after the First World War for several specific reasons.
The release of a film, The Birth of a Nation, in 1915 provided powerful propaganda for the organisation. Set in the South after the Civil War, the film portrayed the Klan saving white families from gangs of African Americans intent on raping and looting. The film attracted huge audiences and seemed to reinforce the idea of white supremacy, presenting the Klan as heroic defenders of white society.
After the First World War, labour tensions rose as veterans tried to re-enter the workforce. In reaction to new groups of immigrants and internal migrants, the membership of the Klan increased substantially. Increasing industrialisation brought more and more workers to towns and cities. The Klan grew rapidly in cities such as Memphis and Atlanta, which had high growth rates in the years after 1910.
Many of these workers were immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe or African Americans migrating from the Southern states to the urban centres of the North. Between 1925 and the outbreak of the Second World War, between 750,000 and 1,000,000 African Americans migrated northward. Southern whites resented the arming of African American soldiers during the First World War, viewing it as a threat to established racial hierarchies.
Organisation and activities
The new Klan was founded in Atlanta by a Methodist preacher, William Simmons. Klan members were WASPs fighting for 'native, white, Protestant supremacy'. They were anti-Communist, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic and against all foreigners.
Members dressed in white sheets and wore white hoods to hide the identity of the original Klan members who often attacked their victims at night. The white colour symbolised white supremacy. They carried American flags and lit burning crosses at their night-time meetings. Their leader was a dentist called Hiram Evans, who was known as the Imperial Wizard. Officers of the Klan were known as Klaliffs, Kluds or Klabees.
In 1920, the Klan had 100,000 members. By 1925, it claimed to have over 5 million. It attracted members throughout the USA, but especially in the Southern States, and generally white, Protestant and racist individuals. Oregon and Oklahoma had governors who were members of the Klan.
Members of the Klan carried out lynchings of African Americans and beat up and mutilated anyone they considered to be their enemy. They stripped some of their victims and put tar and feathers on their bodies. For example, in 1921 Chris Lochan, a restaurant owner, was run out of town because he was accused of being a foreigner. His parents were Greek.
Decline after 1925
The Klan declined after 1925 when one of its leaders, Grand Wizard David Stephenson, was convicted of a sexually motivated murder. When the Governor of Indiana refused to pardon him, Stephenson produced evidence of illegal Klan activities. This discredited the Klan and led to a decline in membership.
There were also divisions about tactics among Klan leaders. Some politicians, who had originally supported the Klan, were quick to dissociate themselves when public opinion began to turn against the activities of the KKK. The organisation's violent methods and the exposure of criminal behaviour by its leadership damaged its reputation and caused membership to fall sharply.
The Monkey Trial, 1925
The Monkey Trial demonstrated the great differences between the beliefs of rural and urban Americans at the time, particularly regarding religion and science.
Background: evolution versus fundamentalism
Most people living in the towns and cities of the USA accepted Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which suggested that over a period of millions of years human beings had evolved from ape-like creatures. However, these views were not accepted by many people in rural areas, especially in the so-called 'Bible belt'.
Bible belt refers to an area of southern USA where strict fundamentalist Protestant (particularly Baptist) Christianity is strong. Many in these areas were known as Fundamentalists, who held strong Christian beliefs, including the belief that the biblical account of the creation, in which God created humans on the sixth day, was literally true.
Six US states, led by William Jennings Bryan, a leading member of the Democrats, decided to ban the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in their schools. A biology teacher called John Scopes decided to challenge this ban. He deliberately taught evolution in his class in Tennessee in order to be arrested and put on trial.
The trial and its outcome
The Trial and Its Impact
Both sides hired the best lawyers for a trial, which took place in July 1925, and captured the imagination of the public. Scopes was convicted of breaking the law. However, the trial was a disaster for the public image of the Fundamentalists. Bryan was shown to be confused and ignorant while the media mocked the beliefs of those who opposed the theory of evolution.
The trial highlighted the cultural divide between urban, educated Americans who embraced scientific progress and rural, religious Americans who maintained traditional biblical interpretations. While Scopes lost the legal battle, the Fundamentalists lost credibility in the wider American society, as they appeared unable to defend their position intellectually against modern scientific thinking.
Gangsters and organised crime
While not directly a form of social intolerance, the growth of organised crime during Prohibition reflected broader issues of law enforcement, corruption, and social disorder in 1920s America.
Criminal gangs existed in the USA before Prohibition. However, there is no doubt that Prohibition led to a huge growth in gangsters and crime. Mobsters controlled territories by force and established monopolies in the manufacture and sale of alcohol. The gangs bought out hundreds of breweries and transported liquor in armoured lorries.
Gang leaders saw themselves as businessmen and, when faced with competition, took over their rivals. However, these takeovers were often carried out violently and usually ended with the murder of the opposition. Gangs also became involved in rackets such as protection, prostitution and 'numbers' (illegal lottery).
Key figure: Al Capone
The son of Italian immigrants, Al Capone left school at an early age and became involved in small-time criminal activities. He was given the nickname 'Scarface' following a fight when he was a bouncer at a New York club. He eventually succeeded John Torrio, who had run the illegal alcohol business in Chicago. Capone soon established his position as one of the leading gangsters in Chicago by bribing local officials. He controlled the mayor and senior police officers and was able to fix local elections. He also controlled speakeasies, gambling houses, brothels, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries.
Capone was also a man of violence. He built up an army of 700 gangsters who committed over 300 murders in Chicago. On 14 February 1929, five of his men dressed as policemen, arrested seven of the rival 'Bugs' Moran gang and machine-gunned them to death. This became known as the 'St Valentine's Day Massacre'. Capone himself was in Florida with the perfect alibi.
When Capone finally went to jail in 1932, for income tax evasion, it was estimated that his gang had made over $70 million worth of illegal business. Gangsters were easily able to control politicians. For example, 'Big Bill' Thompson, the Mayor of Chicago, did little or nothing to control the activities of gangsters in his city.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
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The 1920s saw intense intolerance towards immigrants, driven by job competition, cultural differences, and fears of Communism. The 1921 Immigration Quota Act and 1924 National Origins Act drastically reduced immigration, particularly from Eastern Europe and Asia.
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The Sacco and Vanzetti case (1920-1927) exposed racial discrimination in the American legal system. Two Italian labourers were convicted of murder on flimsy evidence and executed, becoming symbols of injustice against immigrants.
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The Ku Klux Klan experienced a major revival after 1915, growing to over 5 million members by 1925. The organisation promoted white, Protestant supremacy and carried out violent attacks against African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews before declining after 1925 due to scandal and internal divisions.
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The Monkey Trial of 1925 highlighted the cultural divide between rural fundamentalist Christians and urban Americans who accepted Darwin's theory of evolution. While teacher John Scopes was convicted, the trial damaged the credibility of Fundamentalists in wider American society.
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Prohibition led to a massive growth in organised crime. Gangsters like Al Capone built criminal empires, controlled politicians through bribery, and carried out violent acts such as the St Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.