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| progressive-era-history [2026/06/19 11:23] – [Immigration Restriction and Eugenics] Administrator | progressive-era-history [2026/06/19 12:00] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 |
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| The Immigration Restriction League, founded in Boston in 1894 by Harvard-educated reformers including Prescott Hall and Robert DeCourcy Ward, lobbied for literacy tests and national-origins restrictions on immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The Dillingham Commission, appointed by Congress in 1907 and reporting in 1911, produced a 41-volume study that distinguished between "old" (northern and western European) and "new" (southern and eastern European) immigration and provided legislative backing for restriction. The Immigration Act of 1917 imposed a literacy test over President Wilson's veto. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) established national-origins quotas that sharply reduced immigration from southern and eastern Europe and effectively excluded Asian immigration. | The Immigration Restriction League, founded in Boston in 1894 by Harvard-educated reformers including Prescott Hall and Robert DeCourcy Ward, lobbied for literacy tests and national-origins restrictions on immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The Dillingham Commission, appointed by Congress in 1907 and reporting in 1911, produced a 41-volume study that distinguished between "old" (northern and western European) and "new" (southern and eastern European) immigration and provided legislative backing for restriction. The Immigration Act of 1917 imposed a literacy test over President Wilson's veto. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) established national-origins quotas that sharply reduced immigration from southern and eastern Europe and effectively excluded Asian immigration. |
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| The [[eugenics|eugenics]] movement gained institutional support and mainstream acceptance during the Progressive Era. The American Breeders Association, founded in 1903, established a eugenics committee in 1906 that promoted both "positive eugenics" (encouraging reproduction among those deemed fit) and "negative eugenics" (discouraging or preventing reproduction among those deemed unfit). By 1917, over thirty states had enacted compulsory sterilization laws targeting individuals in state institutions for the mentally ill, intellectually disabled, and criminal. The Supreme Court upheld Virginia's sterilization law in //Buck v. Bell// (1927), with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes writing for an 8-1 majority. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Eugenics Record Office, funded in part by the Carnegie Institution and the Harriman family, conducted research cited in support of both sterilization programs and immigration restriction. | The eugenics movement gained institutional support and mainstream acceptance during the Progressive Era. The American Breeders Association, founded in 1903, established a eugenics committee in 1906 that promoted both "positive eugenics" (encouraging reproduction among those deemed fit) and "negative eugenics" (discouraging or preventing reproduction among those deemed unfit). By 1917, over thirty states had enacted compulsory sterilization laws targeting individuals in state institutions for the mentally ill, intellectually disabled, and criminal. The Supreme Court upheld Virginia's sterilization law in //Buck v. Bell// (1927), with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes writing for an 8-1 majority. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Eugenics Record Office, funded in part by the Carnegie Institution and the Harriman family, conducted research cited in support of both sterilization programs and immigration restriction. |
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| ===== World War I and the Decline of Progressive Reform (1917-1920) ===== | ===== World War I and the Decline of Progressive Reform (1917-1920) ===== |
