Immigrants and American Flags

How many American flags are in each of these photos? They seem almost as prominent as the people in the photos and they are just as significant. 

The first photo was taken of the ten-year-old Western Slavonic Association, a fraternal insurance organization that provided sick and death benefits for its members. The delegates to this convention in Leadville in 1919 are proud that their society survived and had been growing for a decade. In addition, members of the Western Slavonic wanted to make a strong statement about their loyalty to their new country.

After World War I, Americans sought to distance themselves from the rest of the world and turned inward. The Great War had cost American lives, but had failed to make the world safe for Democracy. The violence and anarchy of the Bolshevik Revolution was the last straw.

While the United States had welcomed and even recruited immigrants from the 1880s to World War I, it seemed time to be much more selective, and Globeville's immigrants received increased scrutiny.

Who were these people anyway? Slovenes? Croats? Their passports said Austria. And German Russians - were they German or Russian? Carpatho-Russians? Are they Bolsheviks?

These groups had large families, were Papists (Catholic) or Orthodox, clannish, and came from regions of the world rife with revolutions and assassinations. They might be anarchists! And they didn't speak English.

Even though many of their sons had served in the U. S. military during World War I, ethnic groups in Globeville were suspect. Aware of the distrust leveled at them, people prominently displayed American flags at church and lodge gatherings. A strong statement to emphasize their loyalty. 

 1919 convention of the Western Slavonic Association

Gathering of Serboban Lodge

Polish National Alliance, May Day parade on Washington Street