Responses to Modernism: Religious Fundamentalism and Nativism

Religious Fundamentalism Fundamentalism was an anti-liberal and anti-secular movement that gained strength throughout the 1920s.

Religious Fundamentalism The Scopes Trial was an important test case. John T. Scopes was a high school biology teacher in Tennessee who was indicted for teaching evolution. The Scopes Trial illustrates the cultural conflict in the 1920s between fundamentalism and modernism.

What is Nativism? Why do you think Nativism would have grown during the 20’s?

Nativism The Ku Klux Klan The 1920s witnessed a dramatic expansion of the KKK. DW Griffith’s full-length film The Birth of a Nation glorified the KKK. During the 1920s, the KKK favored White supremacy and restrictions on immigration. The KKK was hostile toward immigrants, Catholics, Jews, and African Americans.

What is a quota?

The National Origins Act of 1924 The primary purpose of the National Origins Act was to use quotas to restrict the flow of newcomers from Southern and Eastern Europe. The quotas established by the National Origins Act discriminated against immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. These quotas were the primary reason for the decrease in the numbers of Europeans immigrating to the United States in the 1920s.

The National Origins Act of 1924 The number of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans migrating to the United States increased…why? Because neither group was affected by the restrictive immigration acts.

Read page 649-650 Covers the Sacco and Vanzetti Trial Create 10 bullet points about this case, The ACLU and The Red Scare. The Sacco and Vanzetti case was significant because it illustrated a fear of radicals and recent immigrants.