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What were the roaring twenties? |
The roaring twenties are usually regarded as a care free, fun, exciting time of dancing and bootlegging ... this was not the case for many people. During this time, it was a particularly bad time for anyone who was not white. I say white because as in the case of United States v Bhagut Singh Thind, being Caucasian was not ruled as the same as being white. He was fighting for citizenship and was not granted it for this reason. A case preceding this one was Takao Ozawa v United States. Takao Ozawa was also looking to be granted citizenship was not given it. At this same time, the Alien Land Law was in affect in California. This law did not allow Asian immigrants to own land in California. The roaring twenties were far from a calm and peaceful time for the Asian-Pacific.
During the 1920's is also when the KKK, short for Klu Klux Klan, was at its peak. It is commonly mistake that the KKK targeted primarily black people, but they targeted anyone who did not fit their criteria. They tortured, harassed, and murdered immigrants from any country and people who were not Protestant. Many Latinx followed Catholicism, and still do, because of the colonization from the Spanish and the spread of the religion. No person of color was safe at this time. The Latinx community created La Orden Hijos de America, a Mexican-American civil rights movement. Their goal was to fight for the rights that the white people were granted through the United States Constitution. Also created by the Latinx community at this time was the League of United Latin American Citizens. This organization fought for the same thing that La Orden Hijos de America fought for but just in a different location. At this time there was a growing problem with immigration as people 1) were not very accepting and 2) the people of the United States wanted to preserve their "American-ness". Due to this, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, Immigration Act of 1921, and Immigration Act of 1924 were implemented. The goal of these acts was to limit the amount of people eligible to migrate into the United States. The Immigration Act of 1921 was the act that addressed European immigrants. With the Immigration Act of 1924, it set direct quotas of how many people from each country were allowed into the United States, it is clear to see which countries the people of the United States favored at this time because the quotas were not equal. Lastly, Natives had citizenship to the United States in 1924. It is interesting to look at the terminology as Congress claims to have 'granted' citizenship as if they had not deserved to be members of the land that they originally lived on before the colonizers. The United States saw this as they were almost helping the Natives, but the Natives had a different view of this. The Meriam Report of 1928 explored the injustices that were implemented towards Natives. The United States was finally looking at the unfair treatment, something that had been occurring since 1492. |