Unit 16 Lesson 3: Backlash Against Change

Question 1

At the end of the nineteenth century, immigration into the United States increased to never-before-seen heights. Where were these immigrants coming from

Answer 1

Many of these new immigrants were coming from eastern and southern Europe.

Question 2

How did the imigrants from eastern and southern Europe make Ameircans feel

Answer 2

This growing diversity of new languages, customs, and religions created unease among many native-born Americans, sometimes even resulting in racial hostility.

Question 3

What was the red scare

Answer 3

e Red Scare, a pervasive American fear of Communist infiltrators prompted by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution,

Question 4

What 2 things led Americans to become suspicious of immirgants

Answer 4

Instabilities in other countries and the Red Scare

Question 5

What is nativism

Answer 5

. Some Americans embraced nativism, a policy of favoring native inhabitants over immigrants. These nativists rejected outside influences in favor of their own local customs.

Question 6

The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 introduced limits on European immigration for the first time in U.S. history. What did this act do

Answer 6

These limits restricted annual immigration to three percent of the residents from a particular country.

Question 7

What did the National Origins Act of 1924 do

Answer 7

National Origins Act of 1924 went even further, lowering the level to two percent.

Question 8

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Prior to 1924, only the following groups of Native Americans were recognized as full U.S. citizens:

Answer 8

• women who married white men
• men who served in World War I
• those with one-half or less Native American blood

Question 9

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

Answer 9

After President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, all Native Americans born within the country were granted citizenship.

Question 10

Indian Citizenship Act of 1924; Did Native Americans now have the same rights as Americans

Answer 10

But even as official citizens, many privileges were still denied to Native Americans, including the right to vote.

Question 11

How did Native Americans feel about the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

Answer 11

By accepting citizenship, many Native Americans felt they were abandoning their heritage and losing their culture.

Question 12

A growing sense of fear and anxiety in some Americans over rising immigration was put on display with the Sacco-Vanzetti case What happened during this case

Answer 12

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants who were accused of being part of a robbery and murder in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1920. It was widely believed that both men were anarchists who wanted to destroy American capitalistic society through violence

Question 13

anarchist

Answer 13

An anarchist is a person who believes in complete freedom without any form of government

Question 14

What was the verdict in the 1921 trial of Sacco and Vanzetti?

Answer 14

Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty and sentenced to execution despite later motions and appeals.

Question 15

How did the public react to the verdict?

Answer 15

Opinions on the trial and judgment tended to divide along nativist-immigrant lines, with immigrants supporting the innocence of the condemned pair. The verdict sparked worldwide protests and criticism from public figures such as John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Albert Einstein, Felix Frankfurter, and Upton Sinclair.

Question 16

The Ku Klux Klan, which had been mostly inactive since the end of Reconstruction in 1877, experienced a resurgence during the

Answer 16

1920s

Question 17

Who was behind the Second Ku Klux Klan

Answer 17

This Second Ku Klux Klan was established at Stone Mountain, Georgia, under the leadership of William Simmons.

Question 18

Who did the Klan target

Answer 18

The Klan targeted African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and others.

Question 19

Why were many nativists draw to the Klan

Answer 19

Many nativists were drawn to the Klan’s appeals for stricter immigration policies. By 1924, the Klan had around five million members in the South, West, and the Midwest.

Question 20

What were the members of the klan like

Answer 20

While this new Klan publicly rejected violence, its members continued to use intimidation, violence, and terrorism, particularly in the South. Membership in the Klan was not limited to males; many women participated in chapters of the Klan in locations across the country.

Question 21

Several states effectively combatted the Klan’s power and influence through various legislation. Elaborate

Answer 21

As the Klan faced a series of public scandals, prominent citizens became less likely to openly express their support for the group. The Klan was also condemned by organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Such opposition contributed to Klan’s eventual decline.

Question 22

The Immigration Act of 1924

Answer 22

The Immigration Act of 1924 established lower quotas for the numbers of immigrants allowed from various countries, and prohibited Asian immigration altogether.

Question 23

impact of Alien land laws on Asians

Answer 23

. Alien land laws limited the ability of Asians and other immigrants to own land in the United States. One such law in California specifically prevented Japanese immigrants from purchasing land in the names of their children who were natively born American citizens.

Question 24

Interest in both positive and negative eugenics also grew. Elaborate

Answer 24

Positive eugenics involves encouraging the reproduction of people with desirable traits, such as high intelligence or physical strength. In the United States in the 1920s, it also included being racially white. Negative eugenics, on the other hand, involves discouraging or even prohibiting the reproduction of people with undesirable traits. For many people at that time, this included those with disabilities, those who were members of races other than white, and those who did not meet the heterosexual norm.

Question 25

Ozawa v. United States

Answer 25

Ozawa v. United States received a Supreme Court ruling in 1922. Takao Ozawa had been born in Japan, but he had lived in the United States for 20 years and had applied for citizenship. At the time, the law allowed only whites and African Americans to become citizens. Ozawa’s argument was that, as a person of Japanese descent, he fit into the “white” category. The court ruled that Japanese were not whites and did not qualify for citizenship.

Question 26

The next year, the Supreme Court ruled on Thind v. United States.

Answer 26

Bhagat Singh Thind had argued that, as someone from India, he was of the Aryan race, just as whites were. On that basis, he said, he was racially white and qualified for citizenship. Again, the court ruled against this argument, saying that most people would not consider him white, so he could not become an American citizen.

Question 27

Many immigrants and other individuals of color did not give up easily, however. Some of them started to gather and organize. Elaborate on the one for Latin Americans

Answer 27

Three different organizations arose to provide support among Mexican Americans. In 1929, these organizations merged into the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC. The organization became more active and important as time went on, but its beginnings were in the 1920s.

Question 28

What did Tennessee’s Butler Act do

Answer 28

Tennessee’s Butler Act prohibited the teaching of any theory that contradicted the story of creation taught in the Bible.

Question 29

How did the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) react to Tennessee’s Butler Act

Answer 29

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the Butler Act as an infringement of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech. The ACLU enlisted teacher John Scopes, who had taught evolution, as a defendant.

Question 30

Why was John Scopes on trial?

Answer 30

John Scopes was on trial because he had violated the Butler Act when he taught evolution to Tennessee public school students.

Question 31

Who were William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow?

Answer 31

William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor in the Scopes Trial. A former politician, Bryan had spoken across the country about the declining role of religion in education. Clarence Darrow was a prominent lawyer from Chicago who led the defense team in the Scopes Trial.

Question 32

What happened when Darrow questioned Bryan as an expert witness?

Answer 32

In his testimony, Bryan struggled to provide coherent, evidence-based answers to Darrow’s questions. The result was that those who approved of teaching evolution saw Bryan as foolish, whereas others considered the cross-examination an attack on the Bible and their faith.