The in-universe answer is that this "amnesia" effect was intentional - it's partly caused by the Dark Side clouding the galaxy, but also by twenty years of propaganda by the Galactic Empire. Attitudes can change a lot in twenty years, especially when someone is practically brain-washing the public. It's somewhat alluded to in a few sources, but I don't have any specifics at the moment.
The actual answer, from a production standpoint, is that originally (before the prequels), George Lucas had intended much more time to have passed between the fall of the Jedi and the original movie. The dialogue was written such that it had been almost 30-40 years, with younger people like Han Solo never having known anything other than the Empire. In that version, it was understood that Vader's turn to the Dark Side was much more gradual, and that Obi-Wan had taken it upon himself to train an adult Anakin almost his own age. It was also implied that Luke & Leia's mom had stuck with Vader several years into the Empire stage of things, than later fled to Alderaan once she learned she was pregnant, dying a few years later.
Obviously, the prequels changed a LOT of the backstory understood or assumed at the time. A lot of fans under 30 don't really understand that, since the entire continuity was basically retconned in 1999.
A more recent "post-Prequels" answer would be that the Jedi are a religion in that they have a set of rules to live by, a central figure to "worship" (The Force), and a certain exclusivity that spans race or creed.
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