Dr. William Messner – Over Here, Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in WWI Baltimore

The onset of WWI resulted in a wave of anti-German sentiments nationwide, and the Baltimore area was a focal point of this rise in racial hostility. Individuals of German ancestry became viewed as a direct threat to the nation, and in many instances felt compelled to conceal their ethnic identity. After the war, this xenophobic impulse spread and culminated in unprecedented limitations being placed on foreign immigration. Historian Dr. William Messner presents this insightful lecture.