⛓️ Why Did Intolerance Grow in the 1920s?
Intolerance wasn't accidental — it was the predictable result of rapid change meeting deep-rooted fear. Several causes reinforced each other:
Post-war anxiety created a "Red Scare" — The Russian Revolution (1917) terrified American business owners and politicians. When 4 million workers went on strike in 1919, the government blamed foreign "communists" and anarchists rather than genuine grievances. The Palmer Raids arrested 6,000+ people, mostly innocent immigrants.
Rapid urbanisation threatened WASP dominance — By 1920, for the first time, more Americans lived in cities than the countryside. Cities were home to immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and Black Americans. Rural white Protestants felt their culture was being swamped — which meant the KKK could recruit 4-6 million members in just a few years.
Economic competition fuelled immigrant resentment — Immigrants often accepted lower wages, undercutting native-born workers. Trade unions blamed immigrants for weakening the labour movement. This economic anxiety gave respectable cover to racial and religious prejudice.
Cultural change seemed to threaten traditional morality — Jazz music, flappers, Prohibition-defying speakeasies, and the teaching of evolution in schools (challenged at the Scopes Trial, 1925) all seemed to signal moral decay. Those who felt left behind by modern America found a target: anyone who represented "foreign" values.
TURNING POINT — National Origins Act (1924) closed the "open door" — Congress translated fear into law. Immigration quotas based on the 1890 census were deliberately designed to exclude Southern and Eastern Europeans — Italians, Poles, Russians, Jews, Greeks. The result was immediate and drastic: immigration fell from over 800,000 in 1921 to just 150,000 by 1925. This single law permanently reshaped American demographics. The "open door" that had brought 11 million immigrants between 1900 and 1920 was slammed shut. The consequences lasted for generations.
= A perfect storm of fear — Economic anxiety + cultural threat + post-war paranoia + political manipulation all combined to produce a decade of organised intolerance. Different groups suffered different forms of discrimination, but they all stemmed from the same root: fear that "traditional" WASP America was disappearing.