Minorities
The 20’s was a very positive experience for most Americans. The economy of
America rapidly grew; this was known as the ‘Boom’ however it wasn’t very positive for everyone living in America, for Example Immigrants.
New Immigrants did not benefit much from the Boom in the 20’s. Most Americans hated immigrants for a number of reasons. Americans felt threatened by different nationalities who spoke their own language rather than English. Americans also blamed the new immigrants for the rising violence and problems in the cities.
Another reason why Americans disliked immigrants was simply because of the bad image that was given towards immigrants by the media. For example a picture was th released on March 4
1919 titled “We can’t digest the scum” the picture was of
Uncle Sam (a common national personification of the American government) looking into the pot. The picture was metaphoric and signified the ingredients of the pot as the Immigrants which is going to be fed to America hence the title “We can’t digest the sum” suggesting that Americans thought of immigrants as scum’s and don’t belong in America. Inside the stove were also words that describe what
Americans though immigrants brought into their country for example ‘Red flag’
(colour of communism), ‘Bolshevism’ meaning communism which links to our third point. Americans were scared of immigrants coming into their country because they feared that they may bring communism with them or something they called ‘The
Red Scare’
The Red Scare was events that suggested how communists were threatening the
USA. Like terrorism. There was a series of bombings in 1919. One destroyed part of the home of Mitchell Palmer, the Attorney General. Americans thought that communists would start a war and force communism into the country. Another threat was Strikes. 3600 strikes in 1919 occurred, in which coal miners, steel workers and police went on strike in Boston
The experience of Black Americans in the 1920’s was also very harsh and the majority didn’t benefit from the economic boom and were still seen as second class
American Citizens. Especially in the south, black were segregated and suffered
from terrible discrimination and intimidation. The Jim Crow Laws were the laws that introduced the segregation of blacks from whites in schools, parks, hospitals, swimming pools, libraries, and other public places in the south. As a result black people from the south started to migrate to the north and west to look for work.
However conditions in the north were not much better for blacks. Blacks were given poorly paid jobs and were the first to be laid off in bad times. Most of the blacks moved to cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit. The relationship between black and white people deteriorates d as people moved into