First Red Scare
● Anti-communist movement
● People were scared that after World
War I, communism might become
popular because of Russia’s
influence
● This fear was triggered by the
massive influx of people from
Europe
● Governmental actions of
removing/attacking suspected
communists violated many civil
liberties
● Ultimately led to a decrease in
support for the government
Quota Laws
● In the 1920s, senator Dillingham
created a bill that limited the
number of vetoes given out
annually to 350,000, President
Harding passed it.
● The 1924 Immigration Act created
stricter quotas that increased the
number of visas for British and
Western Europeans, while
decreasing the number for
Southern and Eastern Europe.
● It also made immigration from
Asia, excluding the Philippines,
impossible
Sacco & Vanzetti
KKK
● Two Italian immigrant anarchists
that were convicted of murder in
1920
● They were sentenced to the
electric chair
● The trial was influenced by anti-
Italianism, anti-immigrant, and
anti-anarchist bias
● Led to protests around the world
● The Ku Klux Klan existed in the
nineteenth century until 1870,
when they were effectively shut
down
● A new organization started in
the 1910s with more emphasis
on discrimination against black
people, Jews, Roman Catholics,
foreigners and organizaed labor.
Important Ideas of Nativism
1920s Nativism
Maizie C., Kevin R., Abigail B.
When President Coolidge signed it into law, he
declared, “America must be kept American.”
Nativism: The policy of protecting the interests of native inhabitants
rather than those of immigrants
Nativism in the 1920s looked like…
● Immigration was at its highest
● The emergence of many modern technologies
○ Those in populated areas embraced these changes
○ Those in rural areas opposed these changes