Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan masked their racial prejudice in the nativist movement, believing that America should be kept ‘pure’ in it’s institutions and population.
"There is no blinking the fact that certain races do not fuse with us and have no intention of trying to become Americans. The Poles, for example, are determined to remain Polish. No doubt this is good Polish patriotism, but it is very poor Americanism." – Ku Klux Klan, 1924. [1\ |
"Their anti-immigration rhetoric was rooted in a strong nativist and anti-Catholic sentiment. Like the other organizations discussed in this study, the Klan also defined “foreign” and “alien” and crafted their anti-immigration rhetoric in such a way as to encompass the people, ideas, and institutions that they felt threatened their traditional power and status in society." – Alyce Miller, 2012 [2\ |