The material I taught was based on Immigration and Urbanization in the context of

American history between 1870 and 1920. Immigration is such a hot topic in todays world and it

all seems to center around racism; or at least thats how the media portrays it. People hear the

President of the United States talk about building a wall to keep illegal immigrants out of our

country but dont take the time to view his policy in context of American history. He gets

crucified in the press today saying that it is a racist practice to keep people from coming in to

this country if they desire to enter it. I am not here to debate the worldview of President Trump,

or the media, but I wanted to lay the ground work for what the 9th grade students I teach to have

heard and are being shown. They have not had a chance to experience or examine the

American society but they know that its wrong to stop anyone from coming to America if that

is their desire.

I have heard on more than one occasion, werent all people who came to America

immigrants? The simple, basic answer is yes, but without a historical context, without

understanding what America is at the time of those immigrants being referred to, people are

doing those immigrants a severe injustice. I feel people may have a different opinion if they

understood the context of immigration and the time in which it happened.

It starts with the Pilgrims. They came to the new world in 1620. As Protestants and

devout Calvinists, they had a tough time practicing their faith in England at that point in time.

This is why they came searching for a new home. Considering the people in the new world

before them, namely the Jamestown colonists and French, Spanish and Portuguese explorers,

they werent looking for a new home but riches and quick passage to Asia. I would not consider

those people immigrants but for certain, the Pilgrims were. However, there was yet to be

anything closely resembling a country. Can the Pilgrims of 1620 be compared to immigrants

from Asia in 1880? Hardly. There is no government and no United States of America even
exists or is a glimmer of a thought yet. These are immigrants who have come to an unsettled

land in the hopes of making a fresh start and building a community based on their ideals.

People continued to come to the new world (but not in mass numbers) and in 1776,

they make themselves a country by declaring their independence from England. By that point in

time, there isnt a lot of immigration happening. The country is mostly people whose parents,

grandparents, great-grandparents or ancestors were immigrants in this nation. The people are

pretty much born here for the most part. The next big wave of immigration starts around 1880.

America is an established country having fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and

the Civil War. Weve stood on our own two feet for about 100 years now but we have not yet

established an identity; we dont know who we are yet and the rest of the world view us as

Englands failed experiment. I would say that at that point in time, we as Americans were trying

to figure out who we were. Its at this time that immigrants begin coming to America in large

quantities. Europe and Asia are having major battles between waring nations. Some countries

cannot feed or house their people. America was viewed as the land of opportunity for many

people and its with this in mind that the immigrants came to America. It didnt take long for them

to see that though we werent at war, we had many of the same problems they were trying to

flee from. Housing was limited. Food was scarce. Sanitation was a joke as refuse flowed down

the street making clean water hard to come by. Then in 1882, President Arthur signs the

Chinese Immigration Act and limits immigrants from China to those who have job

knowledge/experience that is beneficial to the American society. In 1908, President Roosevelt

stops Japanese immigrants from coming to America with the Gentlemans Agreement. Finally,

in 1924, Congress stops Europeans immigrants from coming to America (Immigration Act of

1924). This lasts until President Lyndon B. Johnson passes the Immigration Act of 1965 lifting

all the previous bans on immigration, yet forbids Mexican immigration.

 When trying to teach this to 9th graders, all they see is racist actions from the American

Presidents and peoples by passing acts that stop people from freely coming to America. They

fail to see the safety hazards for the immigrants as well as the damage of adding millions of

people to our country and economy every year (as seen in their essays on their summative

test). Americas infrastructure was not strong enough to take on that many people (as many as

6 million immigrants a year at the height of the migration to America). Urbanization had helped

those immigrants get settled into this country but it had failed to keep them safe. It also opened

the door to corrupt practices like the political machines. When all 9th graders are hearing on TV

and online is how racist it is to keep people out of America, how can I get them to see through

that and look at the other reasons this country would have for wanting to limit the number of

immigrants coming into this country as well as see that this is not a bad thing? That was my

challenge. Its easy to say that they were a racist people if you think that its a racist action to

limit people from coming into this country without understanding why it is being done. Its also

easy for some to say, no this isnt a racist action; its smart in that it places value on the

American people first and gives them an opportunity to experience the American Dream.

History has tended to not examine closely this era precisely because of this difficulty to find a

balance or people have pushed an agenda for one side or the other.

As a Christian, it is my hearts desire to be hospitable and charitable. But at what cost?

Can I put my neighbors in danger by welcoming people that will need to use their food, take

their jobs and occupy their homes? Should the government put up the no vacancy sign and

stop all people from having a chance to start a new life here in the land of the free? Is there a

way to balance it and not just let anyone into this country but allow some in? How can I help this

class of students wrestle with these complex issues? Its with this in mind that I try and teach

American history to the future of this country.