A literacy test aimed to cut southern and eastern European immigration in half

Evidence

Edward W. Bemis, one of the first intellectuals to perceive a shift in the sources of immigration, proposed in a series of lectures in 1887 that the United States should exclude all male adults unable to read and write their own language. This, he contended, would help American wage-earners by reducing by 50 per cent the influx of nationalities with a low standard of living—the Italians, Poles, and Hungarians. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 602

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Postwar IQ testing data grouped immigrant whites into inferior racial ranks — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1664; IQ testing legitimated the US 1924 Immigration Act’s racial exclusion; Early-1900s American intellectuals classified Southern and Eastern European immigrants as racially inferior — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 239 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• IQ testing legitimated the US 1924 Immigration Act’s racial exclusion #corroborates (0.90)
• Early-1900s American intellectuals classified Southern and Eastern European immigrants as racially inferior #corroborates (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 239
• Standardized tests were designed by segregationists to legitimize racial exclusion #expands (0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1065
• Southern and eastern European immigrants were racialized before entering whiteness after WWII #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 227