page_title: Racism in the United States
section_title: European Americans
hierarchical_section_title: Racism in the United States / European Americans
caption_attribution_description: English: Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC 1928 with the Capitol in the background. Deutsch: Parade des Ku-Klux-Klans 1928 in Washington. Im Hintergrund das Kapitol. English: Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. in 1928. 1928 regalia, on show in Washington, DC. PD or copyright?. Deutsch: Parade des Ku-Klux-Klans 1928 in Washington D.C. Français&#160;: Parade du Ku Klux Klan à Washington DC. Membres du Ku Klux Klan défilant sur Pennsylvania Avenue à Washington DC en 1928. Polski: Marsz Ku Klux Klanu w Waszyngtonie, 1928. Italiano: Membri del KKK sfilano su Pennsylvania Avenue a Washington nel 1928. 日本語: ペンシルベニア通り（ワシントンD.C.）を行進するKKKメンバーら。1928年撮影. ペンシルベニア通り（ワシントンD.C.）を行進するKKKメンバーら。1928年撮影. Nederlands: Klanmanifestatie in Washington in 1928. Español: Miembros del Ku Klux Klan marchan en la avenida Pennsylvania en Washington&#160;D.&#160;C. en 1928. Desfile del grupo supremacista blanco Ku Klux Klan en 1928 en Washington (Estados Unidos). Português: Marcha de integrantes da KKK em Washington, DC em 1928. Русский: Парад Ку-клукс-клана в Вашингтоне в 1928 году. Svenska: Ku Klux Klanmedlemmar marscherar i Washington, D.C., 1928. 中文: 1928年三k党在华盛顿宾西法尼亚大街游行. Norsk bokmål: Ku Klux Klan-parade i Washington DC i 1928. Suomi: WKKK:n (Women of the Ku Klux Klan, Naisten Ku Klux Klan) jäsenet marssivat pitkin Washingtonin Pennsylvania Avenueta vuonna 1928. WKKK oli yksi kansallisen KKK:n alajärjestöistä, johon kuului ainakin miljoona jäsentä ellei neljäkin miljoonaa. Čeština: členové Klanu pochodují Washingtonem v roce 1928. 한국어: 워싱턴 D.C.에서 시위 행진하는 쿠 클럭스 클랜 회원들. 1928년 찍음. Slovenčina: Promenáda Ku-Klux-Klanu v roku 1928 vo Washingtone D.C. Српски / srpski: Чланови Кју-клукс-клана дефилују на Пенсилванија авенији у округу Вашингтон 1928. Hrvatski: Članovi Ku Klux Klana marširaju na Pensilvanijskoj aveniji u okrugu Washington 1928. Simple English: Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC in 1928. Galego: Marcha de integrantes da KKK en Washington, DC en 1928. Marcha do Ku Klux Klan en 1928 en Washington, Estados Unidos. Македонски: Марш на членовите на ККК во Вашингтон, 1928 година. Azərbaycanca: Vaşinqtonda kecirilən parad 1928. Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Članovi Kju kluks klana defiluju na Pensilvanija aveniji u okrugu Vašington 1928. Ladino: Defil del grup supremasista blanko Ku Klux Klan en 1928 en Washington (Estatos Unitos).
context_page_description: Racism in the United States has existed since the colonial era, and it involved laws, practices and actions that discriminated against various groups or otherwise adversely impacted them based on their race or ethnicity, while most white Americans enjoyed legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights which were denied to members of other races and minority groups. European Americans—particularly affluent white Anglo-Saxon Protestants—enjoyed advantages in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure throughout American history. Groups which were especially impacted by racism included non-Protestant immigrants from Europe, including the Irish, Poles, and Italians, who were often subjected to xenophobic exclusion and other forms of ethnicity-based discrimination in American society until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically, Hispanics have experienced continuous racism in the United States despite many having European ancestry.
context_section_description: Various European American immigrant groups have been subjected to discrimination on the basis of their religion (see Religious discrimination in the United States and Anti-Catholicism in the United States), immigrant status (which is known as "Nativism") or ethnicity (country of origin).
  In the 19th century, this was particularly true because of anti-Irish prejudice, which was based on anti-Catholic sentiment, and prejudice against the Irish as an ethnicity. This was especially true for Irish Catholics who immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-19th century; the large number of Irish (both Catholics and Protestants) who settled in America in the 18th century had largely (but not entirely) escaped such discrimination and eventually blended into the white American population. During the 1830s in the U.S., riots over control of job sites broke out in rural areas among rival labor teams whose members were from different parts of Ireland, and riots also broke out between Irish and local American work teams which were competing for construction jobs.
  The Native American Party, commonly called the Know Nothing movement was a political party, whose membership was limited to Protestant men, that operated on a national basis during the mid-1850s and sought to limit the influence of Irish Catholics and other immigrants, thus reflecting nativism and anti-Catholic sentiment. There was widespread anti-Irish job discrimination in the United States and "No Irish need apply" signs were common.
  The second era Ku Klux Klan was a very large nationwide organization in the 1920s, consisting of between four to six million members (15% of the nation's eligible population) that especially opposed Catholics. The revival of the Klan was spurred by the release of the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to America's "Anglo-Saxon" blood. Anti-Catholic sentiment, which appeared in North America with the first Pilgrim and Puritan settlers in New England in the early 17th century, remained evident in the United States up to the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, who went on to become the first Catholic U.S. president in 1961.
  The 20th century saw discrimination against immigrants from southern and eastern Europe (notably Italian Americans and Polish Americans), partly from anti-Catholic sentiment (as well as discrimination against Irish Americans), and partly from Nordicism. The primary spokesman for Nordicism was the eugenicist Madison Grant. His 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race, or the Racial Basis of European History about Nordicism was highly influential among racial thinking and government policy making in the U.S.
  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.
  — Future U.S. president Calvin Coolidge, 1921.
  An advocate of the U.S. immigration laws that favored Northern Europeans, the Klansman Lothrop Stoddard wrote primarily on the alleged dangers posed by "colored" peoples to white civilization, with his most famous book The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy in 1920. Nordicism led to the reduction in Southern European, along with Slavic Eastern European and Russian immigrants in the National Origins Formula of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924, whose goal was to maintain the status quo distribution of ethnicity by limiting immigration of non-Northern Europeans. According to the U.S. Department of State the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity". The racial term Untermensch originates from the title of Stoddard's 1922 book The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man. It was later adopted by the Nazis (and its chief racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg) from that book's German version Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925).
  There was also discrimination against German Americans and Italian Americans due to Germany and 
caption: Ku Klux Klan members march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. in 1928. The second era Klan was a large nationwide movement with between four and six million members.
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