Race, Cold War Civil Rights and
the Hart-Celler Act of 1965
Anita Casavantes Bradford
Assistant Professor,
History and Chicano/Latino Studies
University of California Irvine
February 7, 2014
Immigration Reform:
Messy Now, Messy Then
The 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights
Act, and 1965 Hart-Celler Act are usually
understood together as a high point for
postwar liberal anti-racism—hooray for
American democracy! But as you might
expect, the story’s actually more
complicated—and a lot more interesting….
Key Concepts for This Lecture
•
•
•
•
•
World War II--The “Double V” campaign
The McCarran Walter Act (1952)
Post-war liberal anti-discrimination coalition
Immigration reform as Cold War foreign policy
1965 Hart-Celler Act:
– Family reunification
– Chain migration
– Ironies/Unintended Consequences
Civil Rights, Postwar Liberalism and Calls
for Immigration Reform, 1941-1952
The “long civil rights era:” African American antidiscrimination struggle (1940s)
-The “Double V” campaign: victory against
fascism/racism abroad AND at home
-U.S. government concern with racist reputation
overseas
-NAACP and white elites form early antidiscrimination coalition
Nazi Anti-U.S. Propaganda:
Or, the (really evil) Pot Calling the Kettle Black?
The Cold War and the McCarran
Walter Act (1952)
• Conservatives in Congress resist ending
national origins quota-offer the McCarran
Walter Act as a ‘reform’:
– Raised numerical quotas (but only slightly)
– Gender equity: allowed husbands of U.S. women
to enter as non-quota immigrants
– Abolished Japanese exclusion
BUT…
The Cold War and the
McCarran Walter Act (1952)
• Found other ways to exclude racial
“undesirables:”
– Token quotas for ‘Asia Pacific Triangle’ and
postcolonial people (a pre-emptive attempt to
block non-white immigration from the developing
world)
– Qualitative restrictions/administrative procedures
to block legal Mexican immigration-but
tolerated/encouraged illegal entry and labor
– Exclusion/deportation/denaturalization of
‘subversive’ and ‘immoral’ immigrants
Cold War Civil Rights? Contesting the
National Origins Quota System
• A growing anti-discrimination coalition:
African Americans, Jews, ‘ethnic’ immigrant
voters, NE Democratic Party
• BUT: different motives for working against
national origins quota:
– Jews wanted a symbolic end to anti-Semitism
– Catholics, Italians, wanted increased immigration
– Blacks opposed to racist logic of the quota systembut focused more on domestic anti-discrimination
struggle
Immigration Reform—a Weapon of
Cold War Foreign Policy?
• US racism well known in Asia, Latin America,
Africa—key sites of emerging Cold War
conflict
• Connecting civil rights, immigration reform to
foreign policy gave reformers political leverage
– They argued immigration reform was necessary to
combat Soviet anti-US propaganda, improve the
nation’s image overseas, gain anti-communist
allies in the developing world
A Favorite Cold War Tactic:
Evoking our “Fallen Heroes”
• “Let those who defend the national origins
quota system be forced to read aloud the
names of the winners of the Congressional
Medal of Honor, or to recite the daily casualty
lists coming out of Korea—and then let them
dare to say that those of one national origin
are less fit to be Americans, less fit to live and
die for America, than those of another
national origin.” Sen. Herbert Lehman (D-NY)
Performing Patriotism:
Cold War Reformers ‘Walk the Line’
• 1950s: Tense/suspicious political climate, govt.
campaign to ‘root out’ suspected communists
• Liberal reformers vulnerable to charges of
‘commie’ sympathies
• Their proposals for civil rights/immigration
reform only went so far:
– More concerned with formal legal equality than
tackling deeper roots of racial injustice
– Immigration reform focused on white Europeans,
excluded Asians and Mexicans
Want to
know
more
about
the
history
of race
and
Foreign
Policy?
Cultural
history
meets
the
history
of U.S.
race
relations
and
Foreign
Policy …
Lyndon B. Johnson, Civil Rights and
Immigration Reform
• Growing African American civil rights
movement, white backlash in the South: need
to improve US image overseas grows urgent
• Leads to passage of:
– 1964 Civil Rights Act
– 1965 Voting Rights Act
– 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act
“repairs a very deep and painful flaw in the fabric of
American justice…corrects a cruel and enduring wrong in
the conduct of the American nation.”
Wait—I thought I ordered the liberal
immigration reform…?
The 1965 Hart-Celler Act
• Quota for E Hemisphere (170,000)
– 74% of visas to family members
– 20% to ‘highly skilled’ immigrants
– 6% to ‘refugees’ (mostly anti-communist)
• New W Hemisphere quota (120,000):
– Eliminated legal temporary worker visas
– No employer sanctions for hiring illegal workers
– preserved ‘back door’ of state sponsored illegal
immigration
Ironies and Unintended Consequences
of Immigration Reform
• Two goals of the Hart-Celler Act:
– Open “front door” to European immigration
– Preserve strict numerical limits on immigration
• Actual result:
– Non-quota family reunification visas allow chain
migration from non-white developing nations
(Asia and Latin America)
– Growing European prosperity; E Hemisphere
quotas go unfilled
Revisiting our Key Concepts:
•
•
•
•
The “Double V” campaign
The McCarran Walter Act (1952)
1950s/60s liberal anti-discrimination coalition
Immigration reform as a weapon of Cold War
foreign policy
• 1965 Hart Celler Act
• Family reunification
• Chain migration
Food for Thought…
In what ways does the legacy of the Hart-Celler
Act continue to shape debates over
immigration today?
What lessons for successful immigration reform
can we take from the
formulation/implementation of Immigration
Reform in 1965?