Aminata Khan
Mr. Kayota
AP US History
February 23, 2015
The decade of the 1920s was a horrendous time period of anxiety and intolerance with extreme racism and discrimination. This sense of intolerance and anxiety was a result of international and domestic issues that originally rooted from the
World War I. America’s unwillingness to conduct business with foreign nations such as
Great Britain and Russia brought the United States to a position of isolationism that ultimately brought controversial issues in the 1920s.
The beginning of the 1920s was marked by a fear of communism. This fear of the menacing Communist power in Europe and hatred of Germans after the war led to a great deal of nativism and xenophobia. Anticommunist crusades were launched against suspected individuals regardless of their legal rights. These “Palmer Raids” assaulted foreigners. Their victims were beaten, arrested, and deported without fair reason.
Americans were convinced that the U.S. was in danger of becoming a dump for
Europe’s ‘scum’ leading to racism and antipathy towards foreigners.
Racial tensions worsened immensely in the twentieth century. The Klu Klux Klan was brought back to life and this time they were more serious than ever. The Klu Klux
Klan believe that the Jewish, Catholic, negro, and foreignborn communities were a threat to the American society. They lashed out and attacked foreigners of all kind
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because of their strong belief that American progression heavily depending on the supremacy of the white race.
Although religion lost much of it’s influence in the 1920s, it sparked a flame of prohibition throughout the country.
