This year marks one hundred years since the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924, popularly known as the Johnson-Reed Act. Reflecting the The Johnson-Reed Act functioned as an instrument of religious restriction and exclusion. In so doing, it advanced aspirations of building a Protestant nation.
A Smithsonian curator and a historian discuss the links between the Johnson-Reed Act and Executive Order 9066, which rounded up 120,000 Japanese Americans in camps across the Western U.S.
The 100th anniversary of the exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924 offers an opportunity to remember two other 1924 moments that modeled a more inclusive vision of America.