Race In Turn Of The Century America 1903 African Amer 062472

Race In Turn Of The Century Americain 1903 African American Intellect

Analyze the specific state and national policies that further entrenched “the problem of the color-line” with regard to African Americans and immigrants through the First World War. Examine the role race—or racial ideas—played in the acceptance of immigrants within U.S. culture and as a justification for U.S. imperialism into the 1920s. The paper must include an introduction with a clear thesis statement, be two to three pages long (excluding title and reference pages), and incorporate at least two academic sources—one primary and one secondary. Cite all sources appropriately.

Paper For Above instruction

The turn of the twentieth century in America was a critical period marked by intensified racial segregation, discriminatory policies, and a pervasive ideology rooted in racial hierarchy. As W.E.B. Du Bois articulated in 1903, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,” underscoring the systemic barriers faced by African Americans and other marginalized groups (Du Bois, 1903). This essay examines how specific state and national policies reinforced racial inequalities for African Americans and immigrants up to the conclusion of World War I, while also exploring how racial ideologies shaped the acceptance of immigrants and justified U.S. imperialism into the 1920s. The central argument posits that racial constructs and discriminatory legislation not only marginalized African Americans and immigrants but also served to propagate American imperial ambitions under the guise of racial superiority.

During the early twentieth century, a series of federal and state policies institutionalized racial segregation and disenfranchisement. The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896 epitomized institutionalized segregation, establishing the “separate but equal” doctrine that legitimized Jim Crow laws across southern states (Kousser, 1974). These laws segregated public facilities, schools, and transportation, systematically disadvantaging African Americans and cementing racial hierarchies. Concurrently, voter suppression measures, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, effectively disenfranchised many African Americans, further entrenching their marginalized status (Foner, 1988). For African Americans, these policies operated alongside ongoing racial violence, such as lynching and mob violence, which aimed to intimidate and suppress Black civil rights efforts (Giddings, 2008).

Immigration policies of the era also reflected racial biases, culminating in the Immigration Act of 1917 and especially the 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act. These laws imposed quotas disproportionately favoring Northern and Western Europeans while severely restricting Southern and Eastern Europeans, many of whom were Jewish, Italian, or Slavic—a reflection of racial and ethnic prejudices (Ngai, 2004). Such policies were justified by prevailing racial ideas that portrayed immigrants from southern and eastern Europe as culturally inferior and threatening to Anglo-American racial purity (Miller, 1995). The notion that race determined cultural and moral fitness shaped the acceptance of different immigrant groups, often leading to their marginalization within U.S. society.

Furthermore, race and racial ideas provided ideological justification for American imperialism during this period. The philosophy of Manifest Destiny and the notion of Anglo-Saxon superiority were invoked to legitimize the annexation of territories such as the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii following the Spanish-American War (Nash, 2002). Racial hierarchies positioned white Americans as superior colonizers, while non-European peoples were depicted as primitive or racially inferior, thereby rationalizing imperial conquest as a civilizing mission (Zinn, 2003). Similar racial ideas influenced domestic policies that justified treatment of Native Americans and African Americans as subordinate cultures needing control and uplift under American sovereignty (Horsman, 1981). These racial ideologies thus underpinned not only domestic segregation but also imperial expansion, reinforcing racial hierarchies worldwide.

In conclusion, the policies and racial ideologies of early twentieth-century America deeply embedded racial inequalities within the fabric of national development. Discriminatory legislation marginalized African Americans and immigrants, while racial ideas justified imperialist pursuits abroad. The interconnection between domestic racial policies and foreign imperialism reveals that race was central to the American project during this era—serving both to maintain hierarchy at home and to project power internationally. Understanding this history illuminates the persistent legacy of racial inequality and the complex role race played in shaping American society and its global ambitions in the early twentieth century.

References

• Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903). The souls of Black folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.
• Foner, E. (1988). Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution, 1863-1877. Harper & Row.
• Giddings, P. (2008). When and where I enter: The impact of Black women on race and sex in America. Vintage Books.
• Horsman, R. (1981). Race and manifest destiny: The origins of American racial Anglo-Saxonism. Harvard University Press.
• Kousser, J. M. (1974). The origins of the separate but equal doctrine. North Carolina Law Review, 52, 1141-1170.
• Miller, C. (1995). Victims: A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement. Routledge.
• Ngai, M. M. (2004). Impossible subjects: Illegal aliens and the making of modern America. Princeton University Press.
• Nash, G. B. (2002). The color question: Racial divisions and the shaping of American history. University of North Carolina Press.
• Zinn, H. (2003). A people's history of the United States. HarperPerennial.