E Pluribus Unum Essay

Isabel Wilkerson, noteworthy author of The Warmth of Other Suns, displays literary prowess and insightful knowledge of the plight of African Americans in both her debut novel and myriad journalism and reporting entries. On multiple occasions, Wilkerson’s abilities in journalism garnered attention from universities and award committees, earning her the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing and the George Polk award for coverage and research on the Great Migration, as well as allowing her to lead seminars and hold positions of high esteem at universities such as Harvard, Emory, and Princeton. In addition to being the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for individual reporting, Wilkerson and her parents lived and participated in the Great Migration themselves. Hence, it will come as no surprise to hear that her claims within The Warmth of Other Suns present themselves as spectacularly accurate. Wilkerson proposes that the Great Migration altered the cultural, economic, and social history of America dramatically,

In every way the clause is discriminatory, it prevents 12.8 million Americans including 700 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients (Herlihy) from having the same opportunities of any naturally born citizen. A citizen who is born in the U.S. moves to another country at 7 years old and comes back at 35 and runs for president at 49 is more qualified than a foreign child adopted by Americans at 2 months old, brought up in U.S. schools, taught U.S. values, and remains a U.S. citizen the rest of their lives. The reality of it, in the eyes of supporters, is that it is unjust and discriminatory in an increasingly divided country of “us and them”. Along that vein of thinking, the world is becoming increasingly more globalized, more people have access to travel and immigration. As more and more immigrants come to the United States this clause excludes more and more legal citizens.

The Naturalization act made it harder for immigrants to become citizens. It went from 5 years to 14 years until you could try to be a citizen. In Sedition

In the 1920’s there was a resurgence of Nativism that led to massive immigration restriction. The National Origins Act of 1924 had a goal to limit specific nationalists, ethnic, and religious groups that could enter the United States. They did so by allowing only a certain percentage come into America per year. For example, based on the number of immigrants during the Gilded Age if there were four million individuals of Anglo-Saxon descent living in the U.S., only eighty thousand, two percent, could come into

This limited the amount of immigrants allowed to enter the US per

The policy was criticized by people and the nation itself and thus introduced the number of acts to control the immigration throughout the country. The number showed that millions of immigrants migrated to the U.S major Eastern cities from Europe which comprised of 80% of the immigrant population. The causes of immigration in those states were fleeing unemployment, food shortages,

The 1965 Immigration Act, which resulted largely from the civil rights movement and Democratic Congress of the 1960s, played a vital role in the change in demographics of the United States (“History of U.S. Immigration Laws,” 2008). Replacing the existing system of assigning specific countries a limit on the number of people that could immigrate to the United States each year, the 1965 Immigration Act established quotas for each hemisphere: 170,000 immigrants a year for the Eastern Hemisphere and 120,000 a year for the Western Hemisphere (Hatton, 2015). Although the limit was expanded to 700,000 immigrants a year in 1990 and has been adjusted many times in the years since (“History of U.S. Immigration Laws,” 2008), the 1965 Immigration Act has been the most significant of all of the immigration reform legislation because it allowed more immigrants from individual countries to come to the U.S., a

Despite the fact that the majority of the United States was already made up of immigrants from Europe and many other countries, Americans still viewed these new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe as “other.” These new Europeans were “foreign devils” who were unworthy of even being given the opportunity to assimilate and develop a life in America, so legislature like that of the Immigration Acts of 1918 and 1924 were put in place in attempt to gate-keep. Clancy opened his speech by saying, “Since the foundations of the American commonwealth were laid in colonial times over 300 years ago, vigorous complaint and more or less bitter persecution have been aimed at newcomers to our shores.” The statement still carries truth nearly a hundred years later and many Americans still wish to keep our gates closed and prevent other foreigners from seeking equal

James H. Patten, the chairman of the National Legislative Committee of the American Purity Federation, stated to Congress, “As I said a moment ago, the illiteracy test is not proposed as a means of excluding criminals, it is not offered as a substitute for existing laws debarring criminals, but as an additional selective and restrictive measure, and on the ground that, for an enlightened democracy such as we have, on the average, the man who can read and write is more likely to be better fitted for American citizenship than the one who cannot.” This quote both demonstrates the nativist opinions of many politicians, as well as one of the common anti-immigrant laws of the period: literacy tests. Literacy tests, although framed as a measure to improve society, meant that the United States only offered refuge to those immigrants who were literate in their native language, and that many poor immigrants who escaped to America for safety were no longer accepted. Another law, the Quota Acts of 1921 and 1924, stopped immigration from Asian countries and severely limited the number of immigrants from other countries. A political cartoon called “The Hyphenated American” from J.S. Pughe highlights the distaste many Americans held for allowing immigrants to vote.

Having survived the atrocities of World War I, the population of the United States embarked on a newer never before experienced pathway in the 1920s. With over 100 million people now living in the United States, the numbers of immigrants coming into the country was again on the rise (Pop Culture:1920, 2015). The number of immigrants frightened the Americans and sent them into a state of anti-immigrant hysteria called nativism (Tindall & Shi, 2013). Although many citizens conveniently disregarded that their ancestry dated from earlier immigration, the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 was passed by Congress in 1921 to limit and restrict the number of immigrants allowed annually into the United States (Tindall & Shi, 2013). The Emergency Immigration Act was passed because many population groups believed the newer groups of immigrants were foreign radicals

Immigrants faced discrimination from American citizens and had to make a living for themselves, while still trying to fit in. As it is said in the article, ? The Philosophy of Immigration,? ?? the power of absorption possessed by the people of the United States is astonishing?? (The Philosophy of Immigration).

As a result immigrants were required to take a literacy test, two laws were passed as well the “Emergency Quota Act of 1921” and the “National Origins Act of 1924”. The laws governed immigrants and limited the amount of immigrants into the United States. Immigrants were denied if they hadn’t passed the literacy test or if their given nationality in the U.S was at it’s limit. American’s “Golden Door” was closed (document

The U.S. Constitution What is the preamble to the constitution? The preamble is important to the constitution because it explains why the constitution was written. The constitution was written because the people wanted to create a nation in which states can work together. The preamble also helps the constitution in the way that it establish justice like making laws and setting up courts that are fair and a jury system. Domestic tranquility is keeping peace within the countries like for example the national guard and the federal marshals which the preamble states.

In spite of this, it appears that equality in this capacity was not the correct choice for immigration into the United States. The one factor that appears to be excluded from consideration is the issue of demand. For certain countries, there is a higher demand for a chance to immigrant there. For example, due to economic concerns, many Mexicans feel it is necessary to migrate to the United States. There is a very high number of potential immigrants in Mexico that will never gain legal entry due to the limited capacity.

The period of time after the Civil War and before World War I was a period of tremendous change in America. Although immigration is a major tenet of the United States, due to the changing economy, improvements in transportation, a shifting of the American people to the city, and deepening class divisions, industrialization was the most powerful force shaping the country between 1865 and 1914, followed by urbanization, and finally immigration. The most noticeable effects of industrialization are changes to the economy, alterations in the distribution of wealth, and the rise of organized labor. Overall, the growth of industry raised the standard of living for most people.