american protective association definition
Written By: American Protective Association (APA), in U.S. history, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant group that briefly acquired a membership greater than 2,000,000 during the 1890s. A successor in spirit and outlook to the pre-Civil War Know-Nothing Party, the American Protective Association was founded by Henry F. Bowers at Clinton, Iowa, in 1887. It was a secret society that played upon the fears of rural Americans about the growth and political power of immigrant-populated cities.