Immigration and Other Disparaged Groups
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Updated: 2 May 2019
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Created bySohum Kulkarni
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1807 - Congress voted to end the international slave trade, a form of forced immigration that had seen many African-Americans come to the United States. Their journeys often resulted in death, and their lives upon arriving in the United States nearly always saw forced servitude for the entirety of their lives. Though Congress did not end the domestic slave trade, it did prevent the legal bringing of new slaves into the United States.1848 - A series of revolutions in Europe known collectively as the revolutions of 1848 caused many Europeans, especially northern Europeans, to flee their homelands and come to the United States. In a marked contrast from earlier periods, the immigrants were generally educated and skilled, fleeing due to the upending of the previous social order in Europe. This marked the beginning of a period of increased immigration from Northern and Western Europe.1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo annexed land in the Southwest. Additionally, it granted citizenship to many of the previously Mexican citizens living in the lands newly acquired by the United States in the New Mexico territory and California. This led to a demographic shift in the United States as a whole (though not in any particular region) as Hispanics became a significant population group for the first time.1875 - The Page Act forbade forced immigration, immigration for the purpose of prostitution, and the immigration of convicts. It was the first federal law that directly addressed immigration. Despite its broad scope, it was primarily used to prevent the immigration of Chinese women, who were often seen as immoral. This led to a demographic imbalance amon the Chinese-American population as men continued to arrive for several years.1882 - The Chinese Exclusion Act barred all Chinese immigration to the United States. It was the first act which specifically prohibited immigration based solely on the race or ethnic origins of an individual. It was only intended to be temporary, but it was renwed and then made permanent before eventually being removed by the Magnusson Act. It resulted in a massive decline in Chinese immigration to the United States.1868 - The Burlingame Treaty established equal diplomatic and economic relations between the United States and China. However, it established that both nations withheld the right to naturalize for citizens of the opposite nation, which meant that the many Chinese immigrants in the United States could not naturalize and become citizens.1880 - The Angell Treaty for the first time suspended Chinese immigration to the United States. Following a period during which several efforts were made to stop immigration, this treaty stopped all laborers, skilled and unskilled, from immigrating. However, it continued to allow professionals to come to the United States. It was shortly superseded by the Chinese Exclusion Act.1917 - The Immigration Act of 1917 was the largest immigration act since the Chinese Exclusion Act. It imposed the literacy tests recommended by the Dillingham Commission, but more importantly created categories of inadmissible persons. Those categories included for the first time not only criminals but also those deemed mentally or politically unfit. The act also expanded the Chinese Exclusion Act to bar all immigrants from the Asia-Pacific Zone.1921 - The Emergency Quota Act established for the first time a cap on the number of immigrants from particular countries in a given year. It established that no more than three percent of the population of a national origin as of the 1910 census could immigrate to the United States per year. This act was passed in response to a flood of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in especially Eastern Europe, and was in a sense successful in that it reduced that immigration. Immigration fell as a result of this 1924 - The Immigration Act of 1924 banned all immigration from Asia and set a cap of 165,000 on all annual immigration from Eastern hemisphere countries. It also made the quotas from the Emergency Quota Act more strict, revising them to two percent of the population in the 1890 census, which was regarded as representing a time when the US had less 'undesirable' immigrants.1863 - The New York City Draft Riots opposed both the conditions of the draft and African Americans. Since the draft excluded men with property (or allowed them to purchase their way out), the burden of fighting often fell on immigrants. These immigrants then feared that Republicans would bring African Americans in to take over their jobs, and as a result rioted in oppostion of these two things.1868 - The fourteenth amendment granted birthright citizenship and citizenship to children of American nationals. It guaranteed that the provisions of the civil rights act of 1868 could not easily be reversed by future congresses. It represented the first step toward universal citizenship in America.1889 - Hull House was opened to provide services to the poor, the working class, and immigrants. It was a pioneer in an era when the social gospel advocated for the support of immigrants though nativism still existed. Many immigrants used community centers such as Hull House as starting points for their lives in the United States.1890 - The publication of How the Other Half Lives showed many Americans the livign conditions of immigrants in the tenements of New York City. This inspired many efforts to improve living conditions that ultimately failed, leaving many immigrants no better off than they had been. One such attempt, the design of the dumbell tenement, actually worsened conditions.1892 - Ellis Island opened, starting an era of immigration that would continue until the immigration acts of the 1920s halted it. Many Eastern and Southern Europeans arrived in the United States through Ellis Island, making New York the largest port of arrival. Ellis Island was for many a symbol of the possibilities afforded by America.1921 - Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and sentenced to death for two murders in Braintree, Massachusetts. This was despite a lack of significant evidence for their guilt, and was emblematic of anti-immigrant sentiment at the time.1942 - FDR signed executive order 9066, which sent Japanese Americans on the West coast to internment camps. This order was controversial at the time and even more so afterwards, but was passed due to a prevailing fear of immigrants. Many thought immigrants would not be loyal to the United States, and would instead be loyal to their birth nations. Nevertheless, many Japanese-Americans fought in WWII for the United States.1950 - The Internal Security Act was passed in response to Joseph McCarthy's incendiary statements that he had a list of state department communists. This act, among other things, allowed immigrants to be investigated without cause for subversive activities. Eventually, parts of the act were found unconstitutional.1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on national origin. It was the result of decades of gradual movements toward an acceptance of immigrants, and cemented their protection legally. This act gave immigrants full civil rights.1946 - The Luce-Celler Act opened immigration from Asia for the first time since the Emergency Quota Act. It allowed 100 Filipinos and 100 Indians per year to immigrate to the United States. This was a significant, if gradual step forward toward the national origin equality that would characterize immigration in the late 20th century.1952 - The Immigration and National Origin Act of 1952 codified all of US immigration law into a single document. It divided immigrants into the groups of highly desirable, ordinary, and refugees. It further abolished the category of those ineligible for citizenship and opened Asia to immigration and citizenship in an extension of the Luce-Celler Act. This act was a major step forward in equality of immigration.1954 - Operation Wetback was an effort by the US and Mexican governments to counter illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. It began the process of rapid arrest and deportation that would define US relations with illegal immigrants on the Southern border for decades. Additionally, it ended an era of relative freedom of movement across the Southern border.1965 - The Hart-Celler Act abolished the National Origins formula that had define US immigration policy since the 1920s. Due to the rise of the civil rights movement, the national origins system was increasingly seen as racially discriminatory, and was replaced with a seven-tier preference system that took into a account a broad spectrum of characteristics including familial relationships and importance to the United States. The Hart-Celler Act was the culmination of decades of increasing openness to immigr1986 - The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made hiring illegal immigrants illegal for the first time. It required employers to take the burden of guaranteeing that their employees were legal immigrants, and required them to attest to their employees immigration status. It did, however, make provisions for undocumental agricultural workers and those who immigrated illegally before 1982. This act would begin an era of increasingly tight controls on illegal immigration especially on the southern bor2012 - The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allows US residents brought illegally as children to defer their deportation for a renewable two-year period. As a result, it in a sense grants amnesty to those individuals, and also allows them to obtain work permits. A plan currently exists to stop the DACA plan, but it has been put on hold repeatedly.1813 - The Waltham-Lowell factory was an early factory to make use of female labor. The Lowell system involved bringing previously agricultural women from the countryside surrounding the factory to do menial tasks. The workers were required to live on the factory grounds, and were also required to ascribe to certain moral standards. Though conditions were harsh, it did provide one of the first opportunities for women to work outside the home.1813 - Tecumseh had led a movement among Native Americans to take back power in the Ohio River Valley. Following a defeat at Tippecanoe two years prior, Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames in 1813, ending the Native American revolt agaisnt US power in the region. The United States rapidly developed the Ohio River Valley, turning it into a bastion of the new industrial economy.1830 - Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which required the five civilized tribes of the Southeast to remove themselves to the West. As a result of this act, the Cherokee among others embarked on the Trail of Tears, which killed may as they walked from Georgia to Oklahoma. This was the single largest episode of forcibly relocating Native Americans from their ancestral lands.1838 - The Trail of Tears ocurred as a result of the combination of the Indian Removal Act and treaties the federal government signed with a minority of Cherokee. Though the Cherokee had formed a sovereign nation and contested the laws that discriminated against them, they were force to move. Their leader, John Ross, did not believe the federal government would resort to force, but it eventually did, forcing all the Cherokee to move to Oklahoma.1848 - The Seneca Falls Convention met to decide on a course of action to support women's rights. The convention was attended by primarily women, and produced a document known as the declaration of sentiments. Though it did not call for suffrage, it did call for the rights afforded to men in the consitution, such as owning property, to be extended to women as well. This convention was the first national women's rights convention, and set the stage for a broader movement to follow.1851 - Sojourner Truth's speech "Ain't I A Woman" unified her pursuits of African American and women's rights. Often, African American women were sidelined from the broader conversation on women's rights, and Truth sought to correct that. She argued that she should not only be regarded as African American but also as a women. Her speech would grant a new dimension to the women's rights and suffrage movements, a dimension that would at various times be upheld and removed.1874 - The Supreme Court case Minor v Happersett found that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not extend to women. As a result, the fight for suffrage and equal rights continued. This interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment would eventually be reversed.1870 - The Wyoming Territory was the first part of the United States that granted women the right to vote, attracting national attention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton visited one year later. Importantly, upon acceding to statehood, Wyoming maintained the right of women to vote. This was emblematic of a growing movement in the West to grant women the right to vote in state elections.1871 - The Indian Appropriations Act changed a fundamental tenet of US federal policy toward Native Americans. No longer were Native Americans treated as sovereign nations but rather as individuals. Additionally, Native Americans were designated wards of the US government, an arrangement that would lead to their disenfranchisement in monetary transactions and under state laws. It also ended the ability of tribes to negotiate treaties with the federal government.1876 - The Battle of Little Bighorn saw General George Custer's 7th cavalry decimated by a force of Sioux Native Americans led by, among others, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. This was the single largest defeat for the US military in the wars to take land from Native Americans, and was seen as a humiliating defeat. Despite the defeat, newspapers often painted it in a significantly more positive light than reality would indicate.1877 - The Nez Perce War saw the US military pursue the Nez Perce, natives of Oregon, to the Canadian border. Chief Joseph eventually surrendered only miles from the border, famously declaring that he would "fight no more forever." Despite promises to relocate them to Oregon, the Nez Perce were sent to Oklahoma and Kansas in a violation of promises that would become increasingly common as the government fought more wars with Native Americans.1887 - The Dawes Act divided former reservations into individual plots of land to be given to Native Americans. This law continued the process of 'Americanization' that sought to convert the Native Americans who lived in communal organizations into yeoman farmers in a model inspired by Thomas Jefferson. The plots of land given were insufficient for survival, and as a result many Native Americans were unable to sustain a farming economy.1890 - The Wounded Knee massacre was the killing of 200 Sioux by the US government. The Sioux had gathered as part of the ghost dance movement, a return to the religion they had prior to the European arrival, but their gathering was wrongly perceived as dangerous. Many of those killed were women and children, and as a result Wounded Knee in many ways broke the spirit of the Native resistance.1904 - The National Child Labor Committee was formed after a series of muckraking journalists found conditions for children to be harsh and injurious to their health. The committee sought reform in laws governing child labor, and had many prominent supporters including Grover Cleveland. Despite their efforts that included photographing child labor conditions across the country, no real legislation was passed to the end of improving child labor until the New Deal era.1913 - The day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, a march on Washington for women's suffrage was organized to protest the continued lack of federal suffrage for women. The women's suffrage thus kicked into high gear, arguing that if a woman is to care for her family, she must do so politically as well as domestically. Some suffragists even employed the violent tactics that were more common in Britain at the time.1916 - After taking the leadership of the National American Women's Suffrage Association in 1915, Carrie Chapman Catt decided that the tactics employed in the previous several years would not be effective. Rather than immediately arguing for suffrage in federal elections, she sought to gain suffrage in so many states that a suitable majority of state legislatures would support a federal amendment to grant women's suffrage. Her strategy was eventually successful as women's suffrage began to rise in the West,1920 - The ratification of the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote in federal elections across the country. This was the culmination of decades of gradual and then rapid progress with regards to women's suffrage, but strangely did not affect all that many women. By the time the amendment was ratified, many states had already passed laws allowing women to vote.1963 - Congress passed the equal pay act in the wake of Betty Friedan's release of The Feminine Mystique. The book declared that women were trapped by societal conventions in the home and argued that women should be able to participate in broader society. The equal pay act made it illegal to pay men and women different wages for the same work, a goal which the United States has still not quite reached.1969 - The modern gay rights and LGBT rights movement was sparked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar that had traditionally been overlooked by the police. Bars such as it were often run by organized crime rings since legitimate businessmen would not support any activites that may have been homosexual. The raid on the Stonewall Inn began a series of riots against anti-gay policies and attitudes.1973 - The case Roe v. Wade determined that abortion was protected under the right to privacy. It would touch off a series of court and opinion battles as to whether abortion should be permitted that would eventually result in somewhat of a stalemate as states restricted abortion within the limits of federal law.1981 - The first case of AIDS was reported in the United States in 1981. Due to misinformation and a lack of effective methods to combat it, it would evolve into a massive scare that often targeted gay men to the exclusion of all others. It was thought that gay men were more likely to have AIDS, and as a result some portrayed it as a scourge from God. This resulted in a renewed backlash against gay men in the 1980s and a stigma surrounding AIDS that often precluded rational strategies to solve the issue.1996 - Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. This act specifically defined marriage as between one man and one woman, and allowed states to not recognize marriages that fell outside that act that had been performed in places where those marriages were legal. It would stand for some time, but eventually be overturned in a wave of pro-gay marriage court decisions.2001 - In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the Office of Homeland Security was created to defend the United States against future terrorist attacks. In conjunction with the creation of that office, the PATRIOT Act was passed, which broadly expanded the power of the government to detain and question citizens suspected of terrorism. The atmosphere of fear cultivated by the attacks and the increased government oversight often manifested in attacks on Muslims living in the United States, almost always2013 - The case United States v. Windsor struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, ruling that the restriction of marriage to only between a man and a woman violated the due process clause. Following this decision, many states would rule gay marriage legal before the United States did in short order.2015 - The case Obergefell v. Hodges made gay marriage legal in all fifty states after a prolonged legal fight that saw federal courts go back and forth on the issue. This case reflected the rapid change in public opinion from a lack of support for gay marriage to full support over the course of only a few years. Whereas previously the court had acted as a promoter of civil rights, advancing rights before a majority of the public necessarily supported them, now it acted immediately in the wake of a change Periods
1817-1825: Erie Canal - Many of the workers on the Erie Canal were Irish immigrants who came to the United States for better wages and jobs. Due to the Catholicism of these Irish immigrants, there was widespread xenophobia present, and many workers were attacked. Nevertheless, Irish immigration would continue to the United States, and the Irish would eventually emerge as a staple group in the Northeast.1844-1860: Know-Nothing Party - During the 1950s, the Know-Nothing, or American, party campaigned on a platform that opposed Catholic immigration to the United States. Otherwise, the party essentially lacked a platform and was extremely secretive. Widespread nativist sentiment during the 1850s led to the success of this party in the Northeast, with members in Congress and a majority in the government of Massachusetts.1845-1849: Irish Potato Famine - Due to a blight on potato crops in the 1840s, many Irish left Ireland for a variety of locations. Many came to the United States, forming the bulk of immigration during this period, a lead-up to the third wave of immigration to the United States. Many of the Irish that came to the United States during this period were agricultural workers, but most settled in cities upon reaching the United States.1848-1855: California Gold Rush - Many immigrants arrived in California to reap the benefits of the gold rush. Whereas Chinese immigration had previously seen only modest levels of a few hundred per year, thousands arrived at the peak of the rush, and California became a significantly more cosmopolitan state. Latin Americans as well arrived in great numbers, joined by displaced Europeans fleeing the revolutions of 1848. These immigrants saw enormous economic gains, but the gains of the Chinese would soon be1871-1880: Many Scandinavians came to the United States during this period fleeing religious persecution and poverty. They frequently settled in the Midwest and especially in the Upper Midwest, starting farming communities. Those regions remain heavily populated by Scandinavian descendants to this day.1907-1911: Dillingham Commission - This commission concluded that the rise in immigration for South and East Europe was a threat to the fabric of the United States. As a result of the findings of this commission, immigration was severely curtailed, and the previously lax immigration policies were amended to require literacy. Additionally, national origin quotas began going into effect, and an emphasis was placed on immigrants from countries perceived as more in line with American values.1919-1920: First Red Scare - Following the rise of a communist Russia after its exit from World War One, a fear of Bolshevism was stoked in Americans. This manifested in significant anti-immigrant rhetoric and government action, which culminated in the Palmer raids. These raid expelled immigrants from their homes under suspicion of communism.1942-1964: Bracero Program - This program allowed Mexican workers to come to the US on short-term contracts in exchange for tighter immigration laws overall. It benefited the US by supplementing its labor force during wartime and benefited Mexico by allowing workers to be trained in the US before returning to Mexico. It began the practice of immigrant labor in the Southwest.1975-1995: Vietnamese Boat People - Following the Vietnam war and as a result of Viet Minh persecution of many ethnic groups such as the Hoa in Cambodia, many Vietnamese and Cambodians left the area as refugees. The majority of these people escaped by boat and settled in developed countries. To this day, the United States has a high Vietnamese population.1812-1814: Creek War - Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek in 1814 to end a war for control in the South. As a result of Jackson's victory, the Creek ceded 23 million acres of land to the US government. This continued the process of disenfranchisement of Native Americans in the East and Southeast that had ocurred since the first landings in North America.1802-1887: Dorothea Dix - Dix was a teacher who witnessed the beating of mentally ill patients and as a result was moved to campaign on their behalf. After undertaking a survey of all the mental health facilities in Massachusetts, Dix recommended an improvement plan that was accepted by the state. Dix would go on to continue her advocacy for the mentally ill, becoming a figure that fought for them in an era when they were often maligned.1885-1886: The late 1880s saw an outbreak of anti-Chinese violence on the West coast. Despite the law barring Chinese immigration only three years prior, Seattle, Tacoma, and Rock Springs saw riots during 1885 and 1886. Many Chinese living in the United States coalesced into ethnic settlements as a result of the violence they experienced in major cities.1942-1945: Japanese Internment - During World War Two, Japanese-Americans on the West coast were sent to internment camps in the interior out of a fear that they might turn against the United States during wartime. Many Japanese-Americans served in the military, becoming some of the most decorated soldiers. Eventually, those put in internment camps were paid reparations by the federal government.
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