Transcript Roaring Twenties

CQ: What policies should the
government pursue for the
protection of society?
1920s
 World
War I over
 American economy growing
 European industry hurt
during war
 American industry not hurt
during war
1920s
 Time
of new freedom but more
government restriction
 Social patterns in chaos
 Modernists were dancing to jazz,
going to speakeasies, and
challenging strict morals of society
Flappers
 Young
women who embraced
new fashions and attitudes
 Hair cut short
 Smoke and drink in public
 Short dresses
 Talking openly about sex
 New dance styles
 Bobbed hair styles
Flappers
Flappers

New freedoms of women in public life did not
spill over into home
 Marriage began to be looked at like an equal
partnership
 Women still expected to do housework and raise
children
Women affected mainly in urban areas
 Rural women maintained traditional values

African Americans
 Segregation
 Separation of people based on race
 De jure: Segregation by law
 De facto: Segregation by custom
 Discrimination
 To make distinctions in treatment;
show partiality
African Americans
 Plessy
v. Ferguson
 Separate but equal is legal
 Jim
Crow
 Laws passed in South to
separate races
African Americans
Racial
Etiquette (South)
No shaking hands with whites
Yield sidewalk to whites
Remove hats for whites
African Americans

Lynching (South)
 Execution of someone for breaking race
laws/customs
African Americans
Segregation
(North)
De facto
African Americans lived in
neighborhoods together
Usually run down inner city
African Americans
 Blacks
moving from rural south to urban
north for jobs and freedom
 Marcus Garvey
 UNIA
 Back to Africa
 Separatism
 NAACP
 Protested discrimination and lynching
African Americans
 Harlem
Renaissance
 Literary and artistic explosion in West
Manhattan
 Langston Hughes; Hold Fast to Dreams
 Zora Neale Hurston; Their Eyes were
Watching God
 Countee Cullen; For a Lady I Know
 Claude McKay; America
Controversy
 African Americans
living in
South endured extreme
racism
 African Americans living in
North experienced racism, but
could express themselves
through poetry, music, books,
painting
Harlem Renaissance
Louis Armstrong
Langston
Hughes
Duke Ellington
William
Johnson,
Chain Gang
Immigration
 New
political ideas not popular with
wealthy, who controlled politics and
business
 New immigrants blamed for problems
with labor unrest and strikes
 Americans convinced country should
restrict immigration
 Keep outside radicals from dominating
the United States
Immigration
 Emergency
Immigration Act 1921
 Immigration limited to 2% of that
nation’s population living in U.S.
according to 1890 Federal Census
 Maximum annual quota of 357,000
 National Origins Act 1924
 Emergency Act permanent
Immigration
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
Immigration
Great Britain
65,721
Italy
5,802
Soviet Union
2,712
Immigration

Sacco and Vanzetti (1920)
 Italian immigrants accused of murder and
theft
 No evidence against and both had alibis
 Convicted and electrocuted in 1927
Scopes Trial
 1925
TN enacted anti-evolution bill
 Unlawful to “teach any theory that
denies the story of divine creation as
taught by the Bible and to teach
instead that man was descended
from a lower order of animals”
 ACLU offered services to anyone who
challenged law
Scopes Trial
 24
year old John
Scopes taught
general science
and assigned
readings from a
textbook that
had a passage
about evolution
Scopes Trial
 William
Jennings Bryan
would be prosecuting
attorney
 Populist candidate for
president 3 times
 Fought for small
businesses
 Fought for prohibition and
women’s suffrage.
Scopes Trial
 Clarence
Darrow
would defend Scopes
 Darrow was agnostic
 Darrow had
defended criminals
like Eugene Debs
and Al Capone
Scopes Trial
 Dayton,
TN became like a carnival
 Banners displayed
 Lemonade stands
 Chimpanzee performances
 Fundamentalists Christians prayed
and demonstrated
 Case was unique because it pitted the
Bible against science
Scopes Trial
 Darrow
requested jury find Scopes
guilty
 Why? So he could appeal to TN
Supreme Court
 Scopes found guilty and fined $100
 TN Supreme Court threw case out
because the jury fined Scopes and
not the judge
Analyze Cartoons
 Move
into groups
 Analyze the three political cartoons
using the guide
 Each group member should write the
analysis of one cartoon, but the entire
group should work together to interpret
each cartoon
 You will all receive the same grade, so
make sure you are working together and
willing to stand behind your answers to
each cartoon.
Discussion question:
Should the Federal
government limit individual
freedoms for the sake of
higher social responsibilities?
Prohibition

Anti-Saloon League & WCTU
 Drinking is a sin
 Drinking made husbands abuse or abandon families
 Drinking caused laziness and unemployment
 Drinking caused crime
 Drinking led to unhealthy people
 Drinking associated with immigrant groups from
Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe
Prohibition
 Few
spoke out against because
they would be seen as “drunkard”
or “sinful”
 18th Amendment
 Prohibited “manufacture, sale,
and transportation of alcohol”
Prohibition
 Many Americans
supported at first
 Grew tired of law and began to
disobey it
 Bootleg: Smuggling alcohol
 Speakeasies: Secret place to
buy home made alcohol
Prohibition
 Crime
 Gangs competed to control the sale
and transportation of alcohol
 Al Capone of Chicago most famous
 Used the new weapons of war:
machine guns, grenades, cars
 Enforcement was difficult
Prohibition
 Did
it work?
 Divorce rates lowered
 Fewer accidents
 Less poverty
 Rise in gang activity
 Attempts to enforce were impossible
 People who wanted to drink still did so
Prohibition
Repealed
in 1933
Expensive and creating
atmosphere of
lawlessness
st
21 Amendment passed
The Roaring Twenties – Dance Craze
Red Scare and Palmer Raids
Background Information
Russia before 1917 ruled by a czar
 Large number of poor
 Small number of rich
 Russia becomes industrialized and poor
people begin moving to cities
 Poor people in cities began to talk and
share ideas

Background Information
Poor people questioned why only rich
lived good life
 1917 workers in Russia began striking
for

 Better food rations
 More control of government

Military refused to stop them and czar
forced to step down
Background Information
Fighting broke out to decide who would
control Russia
 Bolsheviks (Reds) Communism /
Marxism

 Workers who believed they should share the
profits of their work

Anti-Bolsheviks (Whites)
Background Information
Civil War lasted until 1920
when Bolsheviks won
 Vladimir I. Lenin takes
control

Background Information

Russia changed
 Religion and church disapproved of
 Workers take control of factories
 Banks controlled by government

Goal was to make sure everyone had a job
and a paycheck
United States
Many people in U.S. believed workers should
share company’s profit = Communism
 Some were also anarchists
 Like in Russia, large numbers of poor lived in
cities and worked in bad conditions
 Many of these people were immigrants who had
become U.S. citizens

United States
Many Americans opposed WW I
because they said it was a rich man’s
war
 Emma Goldman, an anarchist, spoke
out against the war

United States

Eugene V. Debs, a socialist, spoke out
against the war
United States

To keep people from criticizing
government Congress passed
 Espionage Act: Can not interfere with
government’s recruiting of soldiers
 Sedition Act: against law to criticize
government or Constitution through speech
or writing

If broke laws would go to jail
United States
1919 - A. Mitchell Palmer
appointed Attorney
General
 Palmer is convinced
Communists trying to take
over America

United States

Italian immigrant sent 38 mail bombs to
American politicians
 Blew himself up outside of Palmer’s home
 Palmer begins to fear anyone considered a
radical
United States

J. Edgar Hoover became
Palmer’s assistant
United States

Used Sedition and Espionage Acts to
fight communists, anarchists, labor
unions, and other groups considered
dangerous
 Becomes known as the Red Scare
United States
Nov 1919: 10,000 communists and
anarchists arrested
 No evidence found to prove they were
planning an attack on America

 Held without a trial

Jan 1920: 6,000 more arrested and held
without a trial
 Arrests were called Palmer Raids
United States
May 1920: Palmer announces he has
evidence of a Communist plot to
overthrow the U.S. government
 Caused panic throughout America
