I am familiar with treatment of Germans in Texas during World War I, and can address that. It varied from state to state, so I’m hopeful some other state historians will pop in and talk about what happened in their states. Although there is scholarship on this nationally, I think the more granular work of state-level focused historians really helps one understand it more vividly.

I think the easiest way to do this for Texas is with a list of some of the instances of maltreatment, after which I’ll refer you to a journal article I’ve recommended to people on this topic since I discovered it in college back in 1996. Because I’m actively researching this topic now, I’ll also share a bit about that.

Texas had a decent sized German population at that point; Texas has had strong German communities since prior to the American civil war. Interestingly, many Germans were anti-Confederacy, a fact that wasn’t forgotten by the time of World War I.

-Movements to stop German language instruction in public secondary and university schools. This was tough because some Texas community common schools were still teaching lower grades in German.

-A few folks were shot and killed.

-great fear of the German language press. (Federally, there was a law requiring newspapers to file translations of their newspapers with the postmaster)

-movements to forbid use of German language on school playgrounds.

-some defense councils asked local Lutheran churches to stop using German during worship.

-in Bastrop County, a posse led by an alleged Sheriff’s deputy hunted down a German who wouldn’t cooperate in the loan drives. He was shot to death.

Source: Fighting Everything German in Texas, 1917–1919, Mark Sonntag, The Historian, Vol. 56, No. 4 (SUMMER 1994), pp. 655-670

I live in Colorado County Texas, next door to Fayette County, which features prominently in Sontag’s study. I write a history newspaper column for a local paper that circulates in Fayette County, and am preparing a column on this topic for later this year. I’ve interviewed several German descendants from the Frelsburg and Zimmerscheidt Communities in this county. I’ll share the results later this year in this thread. I believe my date for pub on this column is week of Dec 1.