20th Century: Mass Discrimination Begins
More than 80 percent of the immigrants in the 1890's were from Southern and Eastern Europe. The 1924 Immigration Act established national origins quotas for each country, choking the flow of immigrants from everywhere except Western Europe. The four decades of discrimination that followed stemmed from the desire to keep the racial composition of America unchanged.
1924 Immigration Act
Immigration: An Instructional Film
"The last big wave of immigration was from 1890 and 1914 when 15.9 million immigrants poured into this country from Europe. Not from Northern Europe. They were coming from Southern and Eastern Europe. They were Italians and Greeks and Poles. They were not Protestants, they were Catholics. When they came they took our jobs.....and in 1924, Congress enacted this incredible law that basically stopped all immigration into this country that was not coming from Northern Europe. For 50 years after, there was virtually no immigration into America."
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Lyndon B. Johnson Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill,
Liberty Island, New York, October 3, 1965 “There are still a good many brothers and sisters of American citizens who are unable to get here, who may have preferences as members of families but because of the maldistribution of quotas in the European area we have this situation which has become nearly intolerable, where you have thousands of unused quotas in some countries while you have ..families... in other countries who are desirous of coming to this country, who can become useful citizens, whose skills are needed, who are unable to come because of the inequity and the maldistribution of the quota numbers.”
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"The two maps show, by comparison, the changes that will take place in the complexion of our immigration if the present quota scheme is abandoned in favor of a law based on the immigration total of 1890, as proposed. The various shadings indicate the size of the quota allowed each country, the range being from black, indicating the countries from which the flow will be heaviest, to white, where it will be held down to a minimum." ~ Senator Reed, America of the Melting Pot Comes to an End, New York Times, 27 April, 1924
Why did some think national quotas were fair?
" America realizes that she is no longer a desert country in need of reinforcements to her population. She realizes that her present numbers and their descendants are amply sufficient to bring out her natural resources at a reasonable rate of progress. She knows that her prosperity at this moment far exceeds that of any other land in the world.
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There has come about a general realization of the fact that the races of men who have been coming to us in recent years are wholly dissimilar to the native-born Americans;
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