1 gen 1924 anni - 1924: Biased immigration quotas become law with KKK support

Descrizione:

United States immigration laws reflect a long history of debate over who should be included and excluded in differing visions of American identity. In 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act or the Immigration Act of 1924, “a measure which was a legislative expression of the xenophobia, particularly towards eastern and southern European immigrants, that swept America in the decade of the 1920s.”[1] This legislation drastically limited immigration to the United States through a quota system that targeted specific groups for exclusion. While the annual quota for German immigrants was set at over 51,000 people, the quota for Syrian immigrants, for example, was 100 people. [2] Thus, U.S. policy officially distinguished between races and backgrounds of people included or excluded as future Americans. The Ku Klux Klan influenced the passage of this legislation, which had dire consequences for those seeking asylum in the U.S. over the following decades in which the quota system remained in place....

The Klan’s championing of white supremacist principles had real world consequences. To many Indiana politicians, the people had spoken. The Indiana Republican Party was the most sympathetic, but there were Democratic supporters as well. Most politicians were complicit in their failure to denounce the Klan for fear of losing votes, as opposed to any direct participation in the organization. But the Klan did influence Indiana elections. Stephenson openly revealed that the Klan would distribute sample ballots to members with candidates who were favorable to the organization clearly marked. [29] And the Klan created “information sheets” that listed each candidate’s race, religion, and immigrant status. The sheet clearly denoted whether a candidate or even a member of his family was “Roman Catholic,” “Negro,” or “Foreign Born.” [30] Several candidates won seats directly because the Klan proclaimed their support. ...

Primary Sources on the 1920s Klan in Indiana

Because the Klan published their newspaper, the Fiery Cross, for several years in Indianapolis, historians know a lot about who joined, what exactly they believed and feared about immigration and race, and what they did to prevent people from certain countries from becoming Americans. The Fiery Cross served both as an official mouthpiece of the national organization and as a source for local Klan news. The Indiana State Library also has a large collection of Klan documents. In conversation, these sources paint a clear picture of Klan beliefs and influence on both Indiana and national policy.

The Klan on Religion and Race

In an early KKK handbook, called the Kloran, the national organization suggested ten questions that must be answered satisfactorily before “naturalizing” a new member. [5] Most of them asked about the potential member’s allegiance to the U.S. government and Christian principles with questions such as:

“Do you esteem the United States of America and its institutions above any other government, civil, political or ecclesiastical, in the whole world?”

The word “ecclesiastical” in this context referenced the Roman Catholic Church. The Klan claimed that Catholic immigrants to the U.S. served the Pope who headed a conspiracy to undermine American values. Thus they were not loyal American citizens. This anti-Catholic sentiment and rhetoric was especially strong in the Midwestern Klan, as seen in the pages of the Fiery Cross. However, not all of the membership questions veiled their hateful message. One question asked potential members bluntly:

“Do you believe in and will you faithfully strive for the eternal maintenance of white supremacy?”

In their minds, the white supremacy the Klan valued so dearly was presently under attack. Like the earlier Reconstruction Klan, the 1920s Klan viewed African Americans as members of an inferior race. In Indiana, members worried about the mixing of white and black races, especially as young Hoosiers gained access to cars, jazz clubs, and Hollywood movies. [6] In 1922, the Fiery Cross blamed jazz for “inflaming the animal passions of romance-seeking youth.” [7] And in 1924, the newspaper declared, “At this time the whole civilized structure is being threatened by the mixing of the white and black races.” [8] It continued:

“It is God’s purpose that the white man should preserve purity of blood and white supremacy in this country. Those who would have it otherwise or show leniency toward the mixing of white and colored races do not deserve the respect of anyone, much less of those who are trying to preserve American institutions, ideals and principles. A mongrel race and a mongrel civilization mean decay and ruin.”

Thus, throughout Klan literature, any reference to Christian virtue or Protestant values should be understood as being imbued with white supremacist ideas. The Klan believed that God valued people of Anglo-Saxon, German, and Scandinavian descent more than people of other backgrounds. And they believed that it was their sacred duty to protect white domination of the U.S. For the Midwestern Klan, the main obstacle to this goal was not African Americans. Many Indiana towns had small numbers of Black residents, and there were plenty of institutionalized practices and laws in place by the 1920s to suppress African Americans. The Klan helped to keep these as standard practice. However, they saw immigrants, mainly Catholics but also Jews, as an imminent threat to a white, hegemonic, Protestant America. [9]

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