US Politics on Sidechat | Time to remind us of history. On May 23, 1918, the governor of Iowa issued a proclamation banning the speaking of any language other than English. He claimed that this was to prevent German spies.

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US Politics 23h

Time to remind us of history. On May 23, 1918, the governor of Iowa issued a proclamation banning the speaking of any language other than English. He claimed that this was to prevent German spies.

3 upvotes, 5 comments. Sidechat image post by Anonymous in US Politics. "Time to remind us of history. On May 23, 1918, the governor of Iowa issued a proclamation banning the speaking of any language other than English. He claimed that this was to prevent German spies."

Anonymous 23h

Iowa had a large German-speaking population at the time. The speaking of German was criminalized in public, in churches, and over the telephone. Farmwives were arrested and fined when telephone operators heard them speak German. This impacted other languages too. In response to complaints by Norwegian churches, the governor said “there is no use in anyone wasting his time praying in languages other than English. God is listening only to the English tongue."

Anonymous

OP 23h

Did we ever consider or confirm that God does not speak Norwegian?

Anonymous

OP 23h

Vigilante violence throughout the Midwest occurred against those caught speaking non-English languages. German banks were vandalized. German books were burned. In Missouri, a german coal miner was lynched. Entire towns were renamed. In 1900 there were 46 German-language newspapers, by 1920 there were only 16. In Iowa this ban impacted all non-anglophone communities. German, Norwegian, Dutch, Czechs, Danes.

Anonymous

OP 23h

In 1920, in Meyer v. Nebraska, the Supreme Court struck down Nebraska’s English only law, after a teacher was arrested for using a German Bible to teach. By that time the babel proclamation had already been repealed by the governor, as world war 1 had ended.

Anonymous

OP 22h

I see these same attitudes reflected today in violence against those who speak immigrant languages. Languages and immigrant cultures help make our country rich. Imagine New York without Italians, Louisiana without Cajuns/Creoles, Miami without Latinos, Chicago without Poles, or the little town of Pella Iowa without its Dutch heritage. It’d be bland.