Religion, Race, and Immigration: How American Jews, Catholics, and Protestants Faced Mass Immigration, 1882-1924

FAIN: FT-279180-21

Anne Blankenship
North Dakota State University (Fargo, ND 58102-1843)

Writing two chapters on religious responses to immigration in the United States, 1882-1924.

This book will explore how Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant leaders and organizations faced the mass immigration to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century and the subsequent immigration restrictions that peaked with the National Origins Act of 1924. Protestants inspired by the social gospel fought for just immigration reform and established settlement houses to aid and Americanize new immigrants. Other Protestants joined groups to restrict immigration and promote white Protestant supremacy. The challenge of mass immigration was more complicated for Irish Catholic and German Jewish Americans. As established American citizens they revered many of the same cultural values as Protestants, and the habits and beliefs of their co-religionists from eastern and southern Europe threatened to destabilize the acceptance they had gained in a Protestant-dominated society. While most sought just immigration policies, they disagreed on how new immigrants should fit with American society.