Racism Towards Immigrants

By: Hannah, Jason, Julia, and Phoebe

Cities and Immigrants…

• 1920- Urban population passed 50%.– New York- 2.2 million– Chicago- 1 million– Detroit- 425,000

• Many people came from rural areas in the U.S.• Russia, Japan, China, Mexico, and European

Jews were the primary immigrants.

City Life

• Immigrants lived in tenements without proper utilities like plumbing and electricity.

• They often had to work in factories for a low wage.

• The work force was increasing exponentially.– As a result, the working conditions became

deplorable.• Many immigrant children were forced to

work too.

Immigration Restrictions

• Immigration Restriction League: called for literacy test to cut down the flow of immigrants.

• American Federation of Labor: supported immigration restrictions

• Many Progressives supported immigration restrictions • Congress produced literacy test bills in 1896, 1913,

and 1915.– They were all eventually vetoed

“All the great problems… are tied up with the one great problem of foreign immigration.”

The Eugenics Movement

• Eugenics- the control of reproduction to alter the characteristics of a plant or animal species.

• 1904, the Carnegie Foundation funded a genetics research center on Long Island

• Charles B. Davenport- zoologist and racist who believed in eugenics to alter the human race

• States began to legalize sterilization of o Criminalso Sex offenders o People with mental problems

Buck v. Bell

• Carrie Buck against Dr. J.H. Bell• Carrie said that the ESA violated her Constitutional

rights as an American.• Carrie, her daughter, and her mother were

“feebleminded and promiscuous” • Carrie and her mother(Emma) were already

institutionalized at the time when the Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act of 1924.

• Decision- To uphold the ESA and Buck was sterilized