American presidents openly embraced eugenic nativism against Southern and Eastern Europeans

Evidence

The nativists demanded a curb on immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, similar to President Trump’s and his White nativist supporters’ contemporary calls to stop so-called chain migration from non- European nations, and most explicitly Muslim-majority countries. Failure to curb immigration would lead to the “race suicide” of American “old stock,” warned the nativists, among them, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Woodrow Wilson, and Calvin Coolidge. Wilson’s belief in the superiority of European civilization caused him to support the racial segregation of African Americans and immigration restrictions. Similarly, Coolidge stated in a popular magazine, “Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides.” — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 235

Categorization

• SHARE: Coolidge’s ‘Nordics propagate themselves successfully’ line is exactly the kind of concrete, quotable quote to send to someone writing about presidential eugenics.
• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on US scientific racism and eugenics (e.g., Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race) and to the book’s thesis of racialization of Muslims as the latest iteration.