The Immigration Act of 1924

What do you think of when we talk about the 1920s? "The Roaring Twenties" is a term that elicits mental images of flapper bobs, carousing in speakeasies, dirty dancing, and moral licentiousness. In other words, it has the connotations of a more liberal, tolerant society. Let's remember, though, that this was the heyday of the KKK, Prohibition, and the Carrie Nation. Eugenics was a major hot topic. Middle America was not quite ready for Hollywood-type liberalism, which was confined mainly to urban areas.

Immigration had peaked, with 1.5 million heads passing through Ellis island yearly. Folks were getting nervous that their Protestant heritage was being threatened by an influx of Catholics, Jews, and other immigrants who would take their jobs and infiltrate the population. Thus, the Immigration Act of 1924 was born–a strict new law that would limit the number of immigrants entering the United States. Read on and learn more about this legislation, the effects of which can still be seen in today's political landscape.

Immigration Act of 1924 Definition

Immigration Act of 1924 Causes

Due to the late years' welcoming and rather lax immigration standards, the influx of new immigrants had risen to about 1.5 million per year. These immigrants were attracted by several benefits offered by this vast country. They included:

• escape from war
• escape from famine (notably the potato famine in Ireland)
• escape from religious or other persecution
• opportunity

Unfortunately, the 1920s saw a rise in xenophobia, nativism, and extreme conservative ideology. The eugenics movement became a thing, and white supremacy was on the upswing due to the advent of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

The United States had had a vein of nativism running through it since the mid-19th century with the passage of such legislation as the Alien and Sedition Act and later the Chinese Exclusion Act. Further, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) were nervous that their majority in the United States would be threatened by the large influx of Catholic immigrants from such places as Southern and Eastern Europe.

Immigrants at Ellis Island

Enter Vermont's Senator Dillingham, a Republican concerned about national security in the wake of World War l. Dillingham introduced a bill in 1917 setting new immigrant quotas at 3% of existing immigrant groups according to the 1910 census. This meant that only 350,000 new immigrant visas could be approved annually. Disapproving, then-President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the bill.

The bill later resurfaced during Calvin Coolidge's administration, and he vetoed it, too, finding it excessive. The 3% quota had been amended to allow only 2% of immigrants from each existing group, and exclusions were based on the 1890 census.

President Calvin Coolidge, Public Domain.

Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1924:

• Quotas of 2% of each immigrant group would be allowed entry into the U.S., based on the 1890 census.
• A literacy test for basic reading comprehension in English would be given to anyone 16 or older.
• Hefty immigration duties would be levied on arrival in the U.S.
• Immigration officials were given more decision-making power.
• It excluded those living in the "Asiatic Barred Zone," excepting Filipinos (as it was a U.S. territory) and the Japanese, who were excepted under the Gentlemen's Agreement. Chinese were already subject to the Chinese Exclusion Act and thus prevented from entering the country.

Immigration Act of 1924 President

Initially, the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed through Congress with flying colors due to the widespread xenophobia and nativism overtaking the country. The Immigration Act of 1922, which President Warren G. Harding pushed, was not in favor of the debates over changing the quotas leading up to the Act's renewal in 1924, who felt it was excessive. However, shortly after President Calvin Coolidge's inauguration following President Harding's death, the new POTUS capitulated and swiftly signed the bill into law, as the renewed Act of 1924 passed the House of Representatives with a veto-proof two-thirds majority.

President Warren G. Harding, Public Domain

Immigration Act of 1924 Effects

The Immigration Act of 1924 had affected Asians most drastically, except for the Chinese, who were already excluded under the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Filipinos, because the Philippines was a U.S. colony. It also affected Southern and Eastern Europeans, who eclipsed those with British heritage who had more substantial claims to roots in the U.S. dating back to the Revolutionary War.

Several groups protested the new legislation. Among them:

• Jewish Americans
• The Portuguese (who specifically appealed to California, whose agriculture they had helped develop)
• The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)
• The League of Women Voters

The latter group protested on behalf of wives who had come over from European countries like Italy and Poland before the 1924 legislation was enacted, whose husbands would now be unable to join them.

Immigration Act of 1924 Significance

Despite the protests, the end effect was curbing immigration. The law was renewed in 1952 and finally replaced in 1965. It was at least somewhat successful in its aim "to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity."