Red Scare, KKK, Racial tension and communism Flashcards
What was the Red Scare?
The red scare in 1920s America was a result of prejudice and intolerance to immigrants because of their fear of communism.
Where did most the immigrants come from during and during what time period?
Immigration reached an all time high during 1901-1910. Jews were flooding in from Eastern Europe and Russia fleeing persecution and people from Italy were fleeing poverty. As people immigrated tension grew.
Why were immigrants restricted to the lowest paid jobs?
Mass immigration and the American belief of isolation caused distrust and intolerance, so they were restricted to the lowest paid jobs as a result they lived in Ghettos, in the ghettos the housing was poor and there were high crime and violence rates.
What attacks is did certain immigrants carry out?
1919 a bomb was planted in a church in Milwaukee that killed 10 people. In May of that year bombs were posted to 36 prominent Americans. In June more bombs went of in 7 US cities.
What did the Americans to as a result of the attack’s during 1916?
Americans built up files on 60,000 suspects which lead to 10,000 people being deported between 1919-1920.
(Out of the thousands of cases brought by J Edgar Hoover only 556 had any basis on fact.
What was the timeline of immigration between 1850-1929?
1850: 40 million Europeans immigrated to the US (over 100 nations)
1914: Americans feared new immigrants would take their jobs and spread ideas about communism.
1917: the immigration law required all immigrants needed to read and write English.
1921: The Emergence Quota Act limited the number of immigrants to 357,000 a year.
1924: The Nationals Origins Act reduced the quota to 2% of the population and set the date back to 1890. (Under the act the number of people coming to the USA. Outdoor not exceed 3% of the number from that country living in the USA in 1910.
1929: The number of immigrants each year was reduced to 150,000 and immigration from Asia was blocked.
Why did Americans fear communism?
Americans feared communism as they saw that Russians were wanting to spread communism world wide and they wanted to keep capitalism.
Americans new communism meant no one could become rich from working hard.
In 1919 why was America hit by a wave of riots and strikes?
The main cause of economic hardship was because war time production levels fell. Many Americans saw these disturbances as work of communists.
What did Lenen say in 1917?
He said that Russia was committed to spreading a communist revolution.
What happened during the Wall Street attack?
This took place on 16th September 1920. Killed more than 30 people and injured over 300.
A man drove a cart around lunchtime driven by a horse. He stopped the animal and it’s cart in front of the US Assay office in the heart of Wall Street. He got down and in minutes it exploded in to a hail of metal fragments.
What were Anarchists and what did they believe?
They believe countries should not be ruled by government organisations with set laws or rulers but by a system where everyone rules themselves by voluntary cooperation.
In 1901 an anarchist called Czoolosz shot dead the president - McKinley
Why was Sacco and Venzatti’s trial and conviction unjust at the time?
Their trial and conviction came against a background fear of communism.
Evidence supporting the innocence of Sacco and Venzatti:
107 people confirmed they were someone else on the night of the robbery & murders.
The judge described the using words such as “dagos, wops &sons of bitches.” He also quoted “did you see what I did to those anarchist bastards” so he was clearly biased.
A top American lawyer described Thawer as a narrow minded man.
Nearly all whitenesses disagreed on what they were wearing.
They spoke poor English and didn’t understand what police were asking.
Evidence against Sacco and Vanzetti:
61 eye whitenesses identified them as the killers.
Both men were carrying loaded guns with bullets the same size as those that killed the 2 men.
Both men acted guilty when arrested and told some lies to the police.
Vanzetti had previous convictions for armed robbery in December 1919.
Why did blacks move to northern states during 1920-1930?
824,000moved from south to north because they could get higher wages from production rather than agricultural working. In 1940 22%of blacks lived in the north compared to the 10% in 1910.
The north was presented as a place free of humiliations of segregation and greater economic opportunity.
(Although there was still a lot of racism and blacks were the last to be given jobs, the lowest paid and the first to be fired.
Industrial expansion after WW1 created new opportunities of work during the economic boom period where they could work in factories.
