Primary Sources: The 1920s: Immigration

" Annotation: In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled that Asian Indians were ineligible for citizenship, even though they were considered “Caucasians.”

Bhagat Singh Thind (1892-1967), who was born in Punjab, migrated to the United States in 1913. He attended University of California at Berkeley, and eventually earned a Ph.D. He also served in the U.S. Army during World War I and applied for U.S. citizenship in 1920. Despite a Civil War era law that allowed aliens who had served in the U.S. military to become naturalized citizens, he was turned down. "

"The project is one of the world’s largest and most diverse chronicles of the immigrant experience. It includes nearly 2,000 interviews from passengers, families, immigration officials, military personnel, detainees, and former island employees. The recordings are filled with tales of joy, sorrow, and hope, and cumulatively, they paint an expansive and complex picture of our ancestry and culture.

Available to researchers, students, educators, and the general public, the Oral History Project is a unique national totem, and an incredible resource for anyone interested in connecting with the voices that built America."

"Between 1880 and 1930, approximately 28 million immigrants entered the United States. In contrast to earlier waves of immigrants, most of whom had originated in western and northern Europe, this group arrived from eastern and southern Europe. As they entered through Ellis Island in New York Harbor and made their way into various new lives—in cities and rural areas coast to coast, from urban tenements to Midwestern farms to seaside towns— they encountered mixed reactions from existing Americans. They also entered into a political climate that was charged by the sweeping immigration restrictions placed on the Chinese in 1882 through the Chinese Exclusion Act. While some Americans favored immigration, many opposed it, and responded during the 1920s by pressing for a tightening of the nation’s borders. This set of photographs, plays, and primary sources allows users to immerse themselves in the debates that surrounded turn-of-the-century immigration and to consider the nature of Americanization."

"This digital collection of historical materials from Harvard's libraries, archives, and museums documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the start of the Great Depression." Most materials cover the 19th century.

transmitting an application for return permit for Warren Wong to the Commissioner-General of Immigration

"In its decision in the case of U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), the Supreme Court deemed Asian Indians ineligible for citizenship because U.S. law allowed only free whites to become naturalized citizens. The court conceded that Indians were “Caucasians” and that anthropologists considered them to be of the same race as white Americans, but argued that “the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences.”" - History Matters at GMU

applicants for admission as the sons of Goon Mar San, alleged native born citizen of the United States

U.S. Supreme Court case as to whether or not Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian, qualified as "white" in regards to becoming a U.S. Citizen.

"This table shows the annual immigration quotas under the 1924 Immigration Act. " History Matters at GMU

"In this interview for the radio program “Nosotros Trabajamos en la Costura”(We Work in the Garment Industry), garment worker Luisa Lopez told how she faced discrimination from European immigrant workers when she went to work in garment factories in the 1920s. Yet sometimes alliances crossed ethnic lines: Lopez found an ally in an Italian-American socialist. " History Matters - GMU

"During congressional debate over the 1924 Act, Senator Ellison DuRant Smith of South Carolina drew on the racist theories of Madison Grant to argue that immigration restriction was the only way to preserve existing American resources. Although blatant racists like Smith were in the minority in the Senate, almost all senators supported restriction, and the Johnson-Reed bill passed with only six dissenting votes. " GMU - History Matters

"...Japan Times & Mail editorial, entitled “The Senate’s Declaration of War,” denounced the 1924 immigration law and speculated on the reasons for the decision. The paper suggested that the Senate “deliberately” sought to “insult” the Japanese."

"For example, on April 8, 1924, Robert H. Clancy, a Republican congressman from Detroit with a large immigrant constituency, defended the “Americanism” of Jewish, Italian, and Polish immigrants and attacked the quota provisions of the bill as racially discriminatory and “un-American.” " - GMU - History Matters