The Intolerance of the American Society in the 1920's

The Intolerance of the American Society in the 1920's

American society was undergoing vast changes in the early twentieth

century. The world was changing and America was not to be left behind.

The twentieth century brought with it to America the consumer age and

although technology was becoming more advanced was society really

progressing with the times and becoming as ‘civilised’ as people liked

to believe? In the past America had been a very intolerant society

with slavery being one of its key industries and although it operated

a ‘melting pot’ open door policy was the white, Anglo Saxon,

Protestant (W.A.S.P) society really as open minded as they liked to

believe about the diversity of other cultures? The aim of this essay

is to try and explore how tolerant American society really was,

looking into the key areas of racism, political intolerance and

religion.

In the 1920’s, political intolerance in America rose drastically, not

only with the re-formation of racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan,

but also with congress passing immigration laws and events such as the

Palmer raids. Before the 1920’s America operated a ‘melting pot’

policy, which meant that anyone was welcome to immigrate to the U.S.A

and they would be welcome. People would melt different cultures

together to form an ‘American’ culture. However this was not working,

as although people migrated, they did not ‘melt’ their cultures

together and instead carried on following the traditions that they

were brought up with. American’s such as the W.A.S.P’s began to feel

threatened by immigrants and began to see them as cultural and

political threats. They particularly f...

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...ciety was tolerant in the 1920’s, I think that you have to

look at the different areas of society individually. In the north new

ideas were more easily accepted as it was mainly industrial areas, and

although racism was common here it wasn’t as bad as in the south where

‘Jim Crow Laws’ were enforced. The south of American was mainly rural

areas and therefore traditionalists tended to live here and wanted

America to remain filled with a W.A.S.P society and their morals and

values. However the times were changing and although the north was

becoming more tolerant to try and keep up with the rest of the world,

the south was not. America was fairly intolerant of new ideas in the

1920’s, however when it came to civil rights especially in the north

of the country, many wanted to abide not only by the law but also by

religion.