Which legislation established national-origin quotas that restricted immigration in the 1920s?

• A. The Chinese Exclusion Act.
• B. The Civil Rights Act.
• C. The Immigration Act of 1924 (National Origins Act).
• D. The Homestead Act.

Answer: (C)

National-origin quotas were used in the 1920s to limit immigration by country of origin. The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the National Origins Act, established annual numerical limits for each country and tied those limits to a percentage of that nationality living in the United States (based on the late-19th-century census). This approach intentionally favored immigrants from Northern and Western Europe while sharply reducing entries from Southern and Eastern Europe and virtually excluding most Asian immigration. That direct creation of a national-origin quota system in the 1920s is why this option is the best answer. The other laws listed either targeted a single group from earlier decades or addressed different issues entirely (land distribution or civil rights).