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Racial and Ethnic Discrimination during the 1920's During the 1920’s, racial tensions in American society reached a boiling point. New non-protestant immigrants like Jews and Catholics had been arriving in huge masses from southeast Europe since the beginning of the century. Together, with Orientals, Mexicans, and the African-American population, these minorities suffered at the hands of those concerned with preserving the long established White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) values that were an integral part of American life. Prejudice and racism reared its ugly head in many areas of society, with people showing a tolerance for racist views in the media, literature, and towards organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. Also, the language, living and working conditions, and Government legislations that ethnic minorities were subjected to is further evidence that the Twenties were an openly discriminatory decade. It was also during this period of grave hostility directed at ethnic groups that America’s ‘open door’ attitude of “give me your tired, your poor…” officially became a part of its history. During the “Roaring Twenties”, anti-immigration organizations that had been founded in the 1900’s began to re