While numerous scholars have discussed the ways in which the first World War was a significant part of the political context surrounding the 1918 influenza pandemic, other important issues that shaped the politics of that decade have received less attention. The national political climate of the 1910s was shaped primarily by a few major issues, including race, ethnicity, and immigration. With high levels of immigration and the American eugenics movement at its most influential, these issues dominated the national political conversation. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw some of the highest rates of immigration in the US’s history [1], and with it came anti-immigrant sentiment. This influx of immigrants challenged America’s ethno-racial identity, and contributed to a panic among some Anglo-Saxon Americans about the possibility of ‘race suicide’ [2]. In response, a number of significant immigration restrictions were passed in the years before and immediately after this decade. The Immigration Act of 1907 laid out a number of requirements for new immigrants. The Head-Tax (the cost of immigrating) was raised to $4, the disabled and chronically ill were refused entry, unaccompanied minors under the age of 16 were barred, and limits were placed on the number of immigrants arriving from Japan [3]. The exclusions outlined in this act, based on racism and ableism, were championed by many notable eugenicists, such as Robert DeCourcy Ward, cofounder of the Immigration Restriction League [4]. Immigrants arriving in New York via ship, 1910 [5] Further major immigration legislation followed in the 1920s. The Immigration Act of 1924 instituted a strict quota system that would only allow a total of 150,000 new immigrants a year, with no nationality making up a larger proportion of that number than the proportion of people of that nationality already living in the US [6]. This legislation was once again implemented due to fears of immigrants diluting the ethno-racial identity of America, and nativists protested the repeal of the act as “[playing] politics with the nation’s blood stream” [6]. Once in the US, immigrants continued to face significant xenophobia. Immigrants were frequently referred to as “hyphenates,” alluding to the dual national identity they held [5]. President Wilson himself said that such people carry “a dagger that [they are] ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic” [2]. It should be noted that between this anti-immigrant sentiment and rampant racism of the era, the Klu Klux Klan reached the height of its influence the following decade [2]. The influence of eugenics on the politics of this era simply cannot be understated. Immigration was far from the only race-related issue that defined politics in the 1910s. By 1910, Jim Crow laws across the country were firmly in place, severely limiting the rights of Black Americans. Segregation, disenfranchisement, jury exclusion, unequal education and employment opportunities, and a number of other legal, civil, and political inequities were inescapable in the 1910s for Black Americans [7]. Beyond this, however, being Black in America at this time could be a violent experience. The 1910s were marked by race riots, lynchings, and the renewed rise of the KKK. While many understand the Great Migration as being the northward migration of Black Americans, there was also a great deal of migration within the south itself. Areas with more violence and oppression targeted towards Black people typically saw a much greater outflow of Black migrants. Mississippi, for instance, had a net loss of 130,000 Black residents between 1910 and 1920 [8]. Florida had a net gain of 3000 Black residents in the same period [8]. Analyses of lynchings and mob violence and migration suggest that migration patterns such as these were in fact linked to racial violence. Violence towards black Americans also came in the form of race riots during this decade. One of the earliest instances of mass racial violence in this decade came in 1910 with the Slocum massacre. In late July of that year, white mobs attacked Black residents of Anderson County indiscriminately [9]. Numbers vary significantly as to how many were killed. Some reports say 7 or 8, others 18, and some claim as many as hundreds were killed in this massacre [9,10]. A number of race riots would follow later in the decade, particularly from 1917-1919, reaching their peak across the US in what would be named the Red Summer of 1919. 26 riots occurred in both northern and southern cities in that summer [11]. One of the most violent of these race riots, and certainly the most well known, was the Chicago race riot. This week-long conflict resulted in the deaths of 38 people, left hundreds injured and caused significant property damage [12]. It also resulted in tension within the Black community, as more radical activists were inspired to abandon the previously standard accommodationist and respectability politics, arguing that they had been ineffective in furthering Black rights and protecting Black lives [13]. The riots throughout this decade were the culmination of continuous racial tension and racial violence since the end of the Civil War, and reflect the deep racial divisions that were inescapable in 1910s America. Chicago Defender front page, August 2 1919. All headlines on race riots [14] The release of the silent film The Birth of a Nation in 1915 was another significant event in the context of the decade’s white supremacy. The film portrays the KKK as necessary to preserving the Aryan race and tradition, going so far as to directly say as much in a title card as white soldiers are shown to be attacked by Black soldiers [15]. It was incredibly popular as well. Over 6000 showings were held of the film in the New York area alone within a year of its release, and critics gave the film high praise in their reviews [15, 16]. The film has been credited for contributing to popularity of the KKK in this decade through the 1920s, and was even used by the organization as a recruitment tool [16]. Overall, the politics of the 1910s are an important part of our understanding the state of the country at the time the 1918 influenza pandemic hit. It was a country in the midst of significant political and social change, which continued to occur even as influenza ravaged the country. The US was also a deeply racist and xenophobic society, primed to spread racist lies about the health of Black Americans and blame other countries for the disease, even before the war began. References [1] Legal Immigration to the United States, 1820-Present. (2013, August 13). Migrationpolicy.Org.
[2] Streich, G. W. (2009). Discourses of American national identity: echoes and lessons from the 1910s–1920s. Citizenship Studies, 13(3), 267–287. [3] Ward, R. DeC. (1907). The New Immigration Act. The North American Review, 185(619), 587–593. [4] Leonard, T. C. (2003). “More Merciful and Not Less Effective”: Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era. History of Political Economy, 35(4), 687–712. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/50841 [5] Rothman, L., & Ronk, L. (2017, February 2). Meet the Immigrants Who Were Turned Away 100 Years Ago. Time. https://time.com/4645728/1917-immigration-law-photos/ [6] Ngai, M. M. (1999). The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924. The Journal of American History, 86(1), 67–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2567407 [7] Butler, P. (2010). One Hundred Years of Race and Crime. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 100(3), 1043–1060. [8] Tolnay, S. E., & Beck, E. M. (1992). Racial Violence and Black Migration in the American South, 1910 to 1930. American Sociological Review, 57(1), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096147 [9] Glasrud, B. (2014). Anti-Black Violence in 20th Century East Texas. East Texas Historical Journal, 52(1). [10] SoRelle, J. M. (2015). The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas. The Journal of Southern History, 18(3), 756–757. [11]Broussard, A. S. (2011). New Perspectives on Lynching, Race Riots, and Mob Violence. Journal of American Ethnic History, 30(3), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerethnhist.30.3.0071 [12] Hudson, C. (2010). The Negro in Chicago: Harmony in Conflict, 191922. European Journal of American Culture, 29(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1386/ejac.29.1.53/1 [13] Coit, J. S. (2012). “Our Changed Attitude”: Armed Defense and the New Negro in the 1919 Chicago Race Riot1. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 11(2), 225–256. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537781412000035 [14] Hill, T. (2019, July 24). Chicago Organizations Commemorate 100th Anniversary of Race Riots. WTTW News. https://news.wttw.com/2019/07/24/chicago-organizations-commemorate-100th-anniversary-race-riots [15] Carter, E. (1960). Cultural History Written with Lightning: The Significance of the Birth of a Nation. American Quarterly, 12(3), 347–357. https://doi.org/10.2307/2710093 [16] McEwan, P. (2007). Racist Film: Teaching The Birth of a Nation. Cinema Journal, 47(1), 98–101. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2007.0052
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