Focus Question: Are restrictions of

civil liberties justified by fears about

national security? How did the fears
about communism and national
security impact the U.S. during the
1920s
Do Now:
Complete the War, Civil Liberties, and
Security Opinion Poll.

1. Monitor searches on the Internet, including those by U.S. citizens,

to watch for suspicious activities
48%Favor
37%Oppose 14%DontKnow
2. Install surveillance cameras in public places to watch for
suspicious activity
71%Favor
20%Oppose 9%DontKnow
3. Monitor public library records, including those of U .S. citizens, to
watch for suspicious activity
40%Favor
41%Oppose 19%DontKnow
4. Use racial and ethnic profiling to decide who should get tougher
security screening at airports
35%Favor
53%Oppose 11%DontKnow
5. Require all people in the United States, including citizens, to carry
a national ID card and produce it to authorities upon demand
47%Favor
42%Oppose 10%DontKnow
6. Arrest and detain suspected terrorists who are U.S. citizens for
extended periods without being formally charged in a court of law
34%Favor
51%Oppose 14%DontKnow

What was the result of the new

immigration laws of the 1920s?
Quota
= limit

The Americanese
Wall - As
Congressman
Burnett Would
Build It, by
Raymond O.
Evans. Puck
magazine, March
25, 1916.
Summary: Uncle
Sam, behind high wall
marked Literacy
Test which is spiked
with pen points, says
to immigrant family
below: You're
welcome in - if you
can climb it!

What the quota

laws and the
sentiment
expressed in the
cartoon tell us is
that some people
in the U.S.
wanted to limit
the number of
immigrants
coming to the
U.S.

Nativism in the 1920s

New immigration laws set quotas
(targets or limits) on the number of
immigrants allowed in the U.S.
People from Southern and Eastern
Europe were especially kept out.
A main reason for these quotas was a
fear of communism and anarchism.

The Red Scare

Red =
communist
Because of the Russian
Revolution,

many in the U.S. were afraid of a

communist revolution in the U.S.
Led by U.S. Attorney General Palmer,
federal agents break into the homes
and meeting places of thousands of
suspected revolutionaries.
4,000 people were arrested, mostly
non-citizens, in what became known
as the Palmer Raids.

Other signs of nativism in the 1920s

The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Two Italian anarchists were arrested in 1920 for

robbery and murder.

The evidence was weak but they were convicted and

executed.

Caused an uproar in the U.S. many said the trial

was unfair because the judge disliked immigrants.

Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan

Membership in the KKK exploded, even spreading its

way north

At its peak in 1924 it had 4 million members.

Document A: The Case Against the "Reds" (Modified)

Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every
American institution a year ago. It was eating its way into the homes of
the American workmen, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were
licking the altars of the churches, leaping into schools, crawling into
the sacred corners of American homes, burning up the foundations of
society.
My information showed that thousands of aliens supported
communism in this country.
The whole purpose of communism appears to be a mass organization
of the criminals of the world to overthrow the decencies of private life,
to usurp property that they have not earned, to disrupt the present
order of life. Communism distorts our social law.
The Department of Justice will pursue the attack of these "Reds" upon
the Government of the United States with vigilance, and no alien,
advocating the overthrow of existing law and order in this country, shall
escape arrest and prompt deportation.
Source: Excerpt from an essay written by A. Mitchell Palmer called
"The Case Against the Reds,' 1920.

Document B: Emma Goldman Deportation Statement (Modified)

I wish to register my protest against these proceedings, whose very
spirit is nothing less than a revival of the ancient days of the Spanish
Inquisition or Czarist Russia (when anyone who disagreed with the
government was deported or killed). Today so-called aliens are
deported. Tomorrow American citizens will be banished. Already some
patriots are suggesting that some native-born American citizens
should be exiled.
The free expression of the hopes of a people is the greatest and only
safety in a sane society. The object of the deportations and of the antianarchist law is to stifle the voice of the people, to muzzle every
aspiration of labor. That is the real and terrible menace of these
proceedings. Their goal is to exile and banish every one who does not
agree with the lies that our leaders of industry continue to spread.
Emma Goldman
New York, October 27, 1919
Source: Excerpt from the statement Emma Goldman gave at her deportation
hearings. Goldman was an anarchist and socialist who sympathized with the
working poor. She was deported during the Palmer Raids.