Ku Klux Klan did not want immigration to happen. This caused an increase in members who opposed immigration.
D. C. Stephenson “laid out the organization’s stance on immigration in a September 1923 speech to Hoosier coal miners”. The Fiery Cross printed Stephenson’s address under the headline “Immigration is Periling America.” First, he made a distinction between the “old” and “new” immigrants. The old immigrants were “the Anglo-Saxon, German, and Scandinavian progenitors of the Republic of America” they were the ones who brought their “strong work” as well as ethic and “social, moral, and civic ideals” to the new land. He omitted “the contributions of the many other immigrant groups who helped found the United States”. Second, Stephenson identified the enemy to be the “new immigrants who were arriving in greater in numbers” than the “old” immigrants. These “new immigrants were from the races of southern and eastern Europe.” Third, he said the many ways that the “new immigrant has been shown to be much inferior to the older type and to the native American stock.”
