During the 1920’s, racial tensions in American society reached a boiling point. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arriving in huge masses from southeast Europe since the beginning of the century. Together, with Orientals, Mexicans, and the African-American population, these minorities suffered at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long established White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) values that were an integral part of American life. Prejudice and racism reared its ugly head in many areas of society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, literature, and towards organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. Also, the language, living and working conditions, and Government legislations that ethnic minorities were subjected to is further evidence that the Twenties were an openly discriminatory decade. It was also during this period of grave hostility directed at ethnic groups that America’s ‘open door’ attitude of “give me your tired, your poor…” officially became a part of its history.

During the “Roaring Twenties”, anti-immigration organizations that had been founded in the 1900’s began to re

The racial discrimination towards ethnic minorities during the twenties can also be seen in the job opportunities available to them. Immigrants clustered at the bottom of the wage scale; all were usually the last hired, the first fired, and performed meaningless jobs. Mexicans were mainly employed as cheap labor on Californian farms. Whenever the minorities worked for themselves, White Americans saw them as a threat to their livelihood, as they normally accepted jobs that the Whites did not want. Despite emancipation from slavery after the Civil War, the former slaves remained at the bottom of the social scale in the southern states. They lacked economic independence and substantial education since they mainly worked on white-owned land, which forced many poverty-stricken African-Americans to migrate from the south to the north to fill the demand for unskilled labor there. This however, led to resentment from the white workers who saw them as competitors. To add to their problems, African-Americans were subject to discrimination even while at work. Memberships of minorities into unions remained low throughout the twenties, and although the American Federation of Labor officially prohibited racial discrimination, the independent unions within the AFL did discriminate against people of other ethnic backgrounds. Some had constitutional clauses limiting membership to whites only, while others followed a more “implied” exclusion policy.

In can been said that the 1920’s were marked considerably by racial tensions between the ethnic minorities and those who upheld white Anglo-Saxon values. Grievances regarding ethnic minorities, which had been simmering throughout the White population decades before, got stronger and came to be recognized. Similarly, the hostile attitude of the Federal Government during the twenties did not set a good example for its people regarding ethnic groups. The racial prejudices that had been ingrained throughout American society in the 1920’s would only subside with the passage of time.

The growing spirit of intolerance that erupted throughout America can be witnessed through nothing clearer than in the wartime revival of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The newly re-modeled organization of the Civil War days claimed to be fighting to protect native white Protestants from the “alien” elements within. They argued that the American way of life was under threat, not only from the “negroes” but also from Catholics, Jews, and all immigrants. The KKK’s appeal was mainly located in the Southern states, where the majority of the nation’s African-American population resided and where the powerful idea of “white supremacy” went unquestioned. The Klan’s appeal also spread to the western and northern states, where Catholics and Jews were targeted more. Throughout the 1920’s the Klan’s membership saw a dramatic increase; estimates at the time ranged from three

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