Settling into Restriction

This chapter examines home missions during the latter half of the 1920s and Protestant responses to congressional legislation. This chapter identifies the social gospel’s influence on mainline Protestant ministries among immigrant and ethnic communities, in addition to providing a survey of Americanization programs during the 1920s. Settlement houses facilitated much of this work among immigrant communities, and Protestant women were often at the forefront of these ministries. Through an investigation of home missions, it is evident that earlier social gospel sentiments were being diffused among regular churchgoers, resulting in a synthesis of evangelism and social concern among mainline Protestants. This chapter also identifies Protestant reactions to the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924 that limited eastern and southern European immigration and excluded Japanese immigrants entirely.