Immigration/the Red Scare

Question 1

Key dates

Answer 1

1917 - Immigration Act 
1919 - Strikes across America
        - General Intelligence 
          Division created 
1920 - Pamler raids, Sacco and Vanzetti Trial 
1921 - Emergency Immigration Law 
1924 - Johnson-Reed Immigration Act

Question 2

• The trigger of the Red Scare: Industrial unrest after WW1 seemed to suggest that America was on the verge of a communist revolution

Answer 2

• During 1919, 4 million workers went on strike following high inflation (1913-20 prices doubled) after WW1.
• Many believed these strikes were led by communists who sought revolution in the USA

Question 3

Events during the Read Scare that increased tension

Answer 3

• Palmer Raids
• Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
• Federal Immigration policy

Question 4

The Palmer Raids

Answer 4

• In 1919, Palmer had created the General Intelligence Division to investigate revolutionary activities and any of those who were arrested had to be released within a few days due to the lack of evidence against them
• The ‘Palmer Raids’ of Jan 10290 saw mass arrests of suspected revolutionaries - 6000 arrested, arguably wrongfully arrested

Question 5

The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Answer 5

• Italian immigrants who were arrested and accused of carrying out an armed robbery in Boston in May 1920 were found carrying guns. The two were executed in 1927 and many people in rural America supported the executions, wanting to purge America of the ‘foreigners’ who would overthrow the American way of life

Question 6

Federal immigration policy in 1917, 1921 and 1924 further heightened tensions

Answer 6

• 1917 Immigration Act, the following people could not enter America: idiots, criminals, alcoholics, professional beggars, illiterate people, people from the ‘Asiatic Barred zone’
• 1921 - Congress passed an Emergency Immigration Law: imposed an annual ceiling on immigration from any European country, limiting it to 3%
• 1924 - Johnson - Reed immigration Act: banned immigration from Japan