Transcript Section 2- Life during the 1920`s - Waverly

Unit VIII – Boom
Times and
Challenges
(1919-1945)
Chapter 24 Section 2
Life during the 1920’s
Life during the 1920s
The Big Idea
Americans faced new opportunities, challenges, and fears as
major changes swept the country in the 1920s.
Main Ideas
• In the 1920s many young people found new independence
in a changing society.
• Postwar tensions occasionally led to fear and violence.
• Competing ideals caused conflict between Americans with
traditional beliefs and those with modern views.
• Following the war, minority groups organized to demand
their civil rights.
Jazz Age – 5:18 min.
Main Idea 1:
In the 1920s many young people
found new independence in a
changing society.
• After the war, many young people moved to cities.
– By 1920 more than half of the country’s population lived in urban
areas.
– Took advantage of 1920s economic boom to gain independence
– New youth culture developed
• Access to education grew.
– High school attendance doubled in 1920s.
– More attended colleges and universities.
• Women also found new opportunities.
– Number of women in workforce continued to grow.
– New roles in politics
– Some women, known as flappers, openly challenged traditional ideas
of how women were supposed to behave.
Effects of Urbanization
•
Though the 1920s was a time of great economic opportunities for
many, farmers did not share in the prosperity.
•
Farming took a hard hit after World War I, when demand for products
went down and many workers moved to industrialized cities.
•
The 1920 census showed that for the first time ever, more Americans
lived in cities than in rural areas, and three-fourths of all workers
worked somewhere other than a farm.
•
The rise of the automobile helped bring the cities and the country
together, and rural people were now likely to spend time in town and
were less isolated.
•
Education also increased, and by the 1920s many states passed laws
requiring children to attend school, helping force children out of
workplaces. Compulsory School Attendence
School attendance and enrollment increased as industry grew because
more people could afford to send their children to school, not to work.
The Flapper
One popular image that reflects changes for women in the Roaring
Twenties was the flapper, a young woman of the era who defied
traditional ideas of proper dress and behavior.
Flappers
• Flappers shocked society by
cutting their hair, raising
hemlines, wearing makeup,
smoking, drinking, and
dancing.
• The dress style was popular
among young, rebellious girls.
• .The term flapper suggested an
independent, free lifestyle.
• Flappers mostly lived in cities,
though rural people read about
them in magazines.
Other Women
• In much of the U.S., women
only read about flappers in
magazines, and many
disapproved of flappers or
wouldn’t dare to be so
reckless.
• Some older women’s rights
reformers thought flappers
were only interested in fun.
• Many did not take flappers
seriously.
The flapper craze took hold mainly in American cities, but in
many ways the flappers represented the rift between cities and rural
areas.
Flappers
•
The flapper was "modern."
•
Lively and full of energy, she was single but
eligible.
•
With short hair and a short skirt, with
turned-down hose and powdered knees the flapper must have seemed to her
mother (the gentle Gibson girl of an earlier
generation) like a rebel.
•
No longer confined to home and tradition,
the typical flapper was a young women who
was often thought of as a little fast and
maybe even a little brazen
•
These young women further blurred the
boundaries between respectable and
depraved by their public activities;
swearing, smoking cigarettes, drinking
alcohol, dancing, and dating were among
her pastimes.
A Changing Society
• Recall – What did many soldiers
returning from the war in Europe
hope to continue doing when they got
home?
• Identify – What historical change
happened to the nation’s population
for the first time?
• Contrast – How was life different for
young people before they married?
• Evaluate – What do you think about
women being elected to political
office when others were excluded
from professional fields?
Main Idea 2:
Postwar tensions occasionally led to fear and violence.
• Negative attitudes toward Communists grew in the
1920s.
– After Communists took power in Russia in 1917, Americans
worried that they would soon try to gain power in the United
States.
– Many Americans blamed Communists and radicals for labor
strikes and other problems.
• Attitudes led to a Red Scare, a time of fear of
Communists, or Reds.
• Communists were held responsible for bombings
and killings.
– Bombs were found in postal packages addressed to famous
Americans and Communists were held responsible.
– Political official’s home was bombed and police raids were
organized to break up Communist and radical groups.
– Italian anarchists, Sacco and Vanzetti, were convicted
and executed for the robbery and murder of a factory
paymaster and his guard.
Sacco and Vanzetti
• In the late 1920s a court case in Massachusetts proved
nativist and anti-radical feelings.
• Two men named Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
were arrested for armed robbery and murder.
• The two men were Italian immigrants and also proclaimed
anarchists, or radicals who seek the destruction of
government.
• The evidence against the two men was weak, but it was
apparent that the two were on trial for their beliefs as
much as for the crimes.
• Amid great publicity and protests in Europe and South
America as well as in the U.S., the two men were convicted
and sentenced to death.
• Their 1927 executions were highly controversial, but by
then the nation had largely recovered from the Red Scare
and the turmoil of the postwar years.
Sacco and Vanzetti
• Two Italian immigrants, who became
unwilling martyrs for the struggle of
equal justice for all.
• Arrested for a hold up at a shoe
factory in which one person was
killed.
• They had no criminal record but
were anarchists.
• Tried, found guilty and sentenced to
die with real hard evidence.
• Were they victims of fear and
prejudice?
• What happened to the $16,000? Who
were the other three criminals? How
can one explain the variety of bullets
taken from the victims that do not
match Sacco's gun? Why did the
accused show no change in their
behavior? Why were the members of
the Morelli gang not questioned?
Restricting Immigration
• Concerns about immigration
– Some Americans believed there was a general fear of
foreigners.
– Many recent immigrants were poor and did not speak
English.
– Some Americans saw immigrants as a threat to jobs and
culture.
• Government responded to these concerns with new laws.
– Emergency Quota Act of 1921 limited total number of
immigrants allowed into the country.
– National Origins Act of 1924 banned immigration from
East Asia entirely and reduced the number of immigrants
allowed into the country.
• Drastic drop in immigration to the United States
Fear and Violence
• Identify – What two types of
people were treated with
suspicion?
• Recall – What were Sacco and
Vanzetti accused of having done?
• Evaluate – What are some
possible reasons for Americans’
fear of foreigners at the time?
Main Idea 3:
Competing ideals caused conflict between Americans with
traditional beliefs and those with modern views.
Prohibition
• The Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture,
sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages.
–Difficult to enforce
–Many broke the law.
–Law reduced consumption, but did not stop Americans from drinking.
–Support strongest in rural areas
–Opposition strongest in cities
Ideals
•Religious
By the end
of the 1920s, the nation was weary of the effects
of prohibition.
–Believed that it would be better to have a legal alcohol trade with
government monitoring
• The Twenty-first Amendment was passed in 1933, which
ended prohibition.
Prohibition
•
Throughout U.S. history, groups like the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union worked to outlaw alcohol, but the drive
strengthened in the early 1900s, as Progressives joined the effort.
•
Over the years, a number of states passed anti-alcohol laws, and
World War I helped the cause when grain and grapes, which most
alcohol is made from, needed to feed troops.
•
The fight against alcohol also used bias against immigrants to fuel
their cause by portraying immigrant groups as alcoholics.
•
Protestant religious groups and fundamentalists also favored a
liquor ban because they thought alcohol contributed to society’s
evils and sins, especially in cities.
•
By 1917 more than half the states had passed a law restricting alcohol.
The Eighteenth Amendment banning alcohol was proposed in
1917 and ratified in 1919. The Volstead Act enforced the
amendment.
Prohibition in Practice
•
Enforcing the new Prohibition law proved to be virtually
impossible, as making, transporting, and selling alcohol was
illegal, but drinking it was not.
•
Prohibition gave rise to huge smuggling operations, as alcohol
slipped into the country through states like Michigan on the
Canadian border.
•
Newspapers followed the hunt for bootleggers, or liquor
smugglers, but government officials estimated that in 1925 they
caught only 5 percent of all the illegal liquor entering the country.
•
Many people also made their own liquor using homemade
equipment, and others got alcohol from doctors, who could
prescribe it as medicine.
•
The illegal liquor business was the foundation of great criminal
empires, like Chicago gangster Al Capone’s crew, who smashed
competition, then frightened and bribed police and officials.
•
3,000 Prohibition agents nationwide worked to shut down
speakeasies, or illegal bars, and to capture illegal liquor and
stop gangsters.
•
Millions of Americans violated the laws, but it would be
many years before Prohibition came to an end.
Prohibition
• Prohibition in the United
States was a measure designed
to reduce drinking by
eliminating the businesses
that manufactured,
distributed, and sold alcoholic
beverages.
• The Eighteenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution took
away license to do business
from the brewers, distillers,
vintners, and the wholesale
and retail sellers of alcoholic
beverages.
Speakeasies
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Speakeasies were actually illegal
"nightclubs." They were created during
the 20's when prohibition was lurking
about and alcohol was ruled illegal.
They were usually opened late at night
and
served a playing field for the rebels that
wanted to dance the night away and drink
alcohol.
They would usually have code words for
people to get into and would be run by the
local cop on the street.
The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York
was the most famous of these speakeasies.
They were a place where the prosperous
could party, local cops could make a little
extra cash.
In the speakeasies, discrimination was a
problem.
Al Capone, notorious gangster, was the
first person to open up soup kitchens after
the 1929 stock market crash and he
ordered merchants to give clothes and
food to the needy, which he paid for
himself.
Prohibition - Problems
åAlcohol became more dangerous to
consume; crime increased and
became "organized"; the court and
prison systems were stretched to the
breaking point; and corruption of
public officials was rampant.
åNo measurable gains were made in
productivity or reduced absenteeism.
St. Valentines Day Massacre
åProhibition removed a significant
source of tax revenue and greatly
increased government spending.
åIt led many drinkers to switch to
opium, marijuana, patent medicines,
cocaine, and other dangerous
substances that they would have been
unlikely to encounter in the absence
of Prohibition.
Eliot Ness
Prohibition and Gangsters- 4:31 min.
Capone Begins Long Jail Term (00:47)
Religious Ideals
Fundamentalism
• Religious leaders were concerned abut the youth culture
and the failure of prohibition in the 1920s.
– Wanted to return to traditional values
• Led to a movement of fundamentalism– characterized
by the belief in a literal, or word-for-word,
interpretation of the Bible
– Used the radio and modern marketing tools to draw
followers
– Strong in rural areas and small towns
– Believed that modern scientific theories conflicted with
teachings of the Bible
– Opposed the teaching of evolution in public schools
– Laws were passed in many states and cities to prevent the
teaching of evolution.
The Rise of Fundamentalism
Billy Sunday
• Changing times caused
uncertainty, turning many to
religion for answers.
• One key religious figure of the
time was former ballplayer and
ordained minister Billy Sunday.
• Sunday condemned radicals and
criticized the changing attitudes
of women, reflecting much of
white, rural America’s ideals.
• Sunday’s Christian beliefs were
based on a literal translation of
the Bible called
fundamentalism.
Aimee Semple McPherson
• Another leading fundamentalist
preacher of the time
• Seemed to embrace the kind of
glamour that other
fundamentalists warned about
• Her religion, however, was
purely fundamentalist.
• She was especially well known
for healing the sick through
prayer.
The Scopes Trial
•
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution holds that inherited characteristics of a
population change over generations, which sometimes results in the rise of a
new species.
–
According to Darwin, the human species may have evolved from an ape-like species that lived long
ago.
–
Fundamentalists think this theory is against the biblical account of how God created humans
and that teaching evolution undermine religious faith.
•
Fundamentalists worked to pass laws preventing evolution being taught in
schools, and several states did, including Tennessee in 1925.
•
One group in Tennessee persuaded a young science teacher named John
Scopes to violate the law, get arrested, and go to trial.
•
Scopes trial in 1925
–
Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes put on trial for teaching evolution
–
Scopes convicted and fined $100 for breaking the law
–
State supreme court later overturned conviction.
•
Scopes was represented by Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan, threetime candidate for president, represented the prosecution.
•
John Scopes was obviously guilty, but the trial was about larger issues.
–
Scopes was convicted and fined $100, but Darrow never got a chance to appeal because the
conviction was overturned due to a technical violation by the judge.
–
The Tennessee law remained in place until the 1960s.
Scopes Trial
•
The world's attention was riveted on Dayton,
Tennessee, during July, 1925. At issue was the
constitutionality of the "Butler Law," which
prohibited the teaching of evolution in the
classroom. Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi,
North Carolina and Kentucky already had such
laws.
•
The ACLU hoped to use the Scopes case to test
(and defeat)Fundamentalist meddling in
politics.
•
Judge John Raulston began the trial by reading
the first 27 verses of Genesis.
•
Clarence Darrow said: "Science gets to the end
of its knowledge and, in effect, says, 'I do not
know what I do not know,' and keeps on
searching. Religion gets to the end of its
knowledge, and in effect, says, 'I know what I do
not know,' and stops searching.
Darrow
Bryan
Scopes Monkey Trial: Teaching Creationism or Evolution in School (02:56)
Competing Ideals
• Intepret – Americans from which two
areas clashed over ideals and values?
• Recall – How did Al Capone gain
control of the alcohol trade?
• Summarize – For what reasons did
many people believe it would be
better to have legal alcohol trade?
• Develop – In what ways do you think
rural and urban Americans differ
today?
Competing Ideals
• Identify – What theory was
developed by Charles Darwin?
• Recall – What preacher used
radio and modern marketing to
draw followers to her beliefs?
• Rate – Do you think the Scopes
Trial was concluded fairly?
Main Idea 4:
Following the war, minority groups organized to
demand their civil rights.
• Great Migration– large numbers of African
Americans left South to take jobs in northern
factories after the war and through the 1920s.
• Some white laborers feared competition for jobs.
– Race riots broke out.
• Ku Klux Klan gained more strength.
– Harassed African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and
immigrants
– Worked against urbanization, women’s rights, and
modern technology
– Became influential in politics
– More than 5 million members
The Great Migration
• Beginning around 1910, Harlem, New York, became a
favorite destination for black Americans migrating from the
South.
• Southern life was difficult for African Americans, many of
whom worked as sharecroppers or in other low-paying jobs
and often faced racial violence.
• Many African Americans looked to the North to find
freedom and economic opportunities, and during World
War I the demand for equipment and supplies offered
African Americans factory jobs in the North.
• African American newspapers spread the word of
opportunities in northern cities, and African Americans
streamed into cities such as Chicago and Detroit.
• This major relocation of African Americans is known as the
Great Migration.
African Americans after World War I
Tensions
• Many found opportunities in the
North but also racism.
• Racial tensions were especially
severe after World War I, when a
shortage of jobs created a rift
between whites and African
American workers.
• This tension created a wave of
racial violence in the summer of
1919.
• The deadliest riot occurred in
Chicago, Illinois, when a dispute
at a public beach led to rioting
that left 38 people dead and
nearly 300 injured.
• Racially motivated riots occurred
in about two dozen other cities in
1919.
Raised Expectations
• Another factor that added to
racial tensions was the
changing expectations of
African Americans.
• Many believed they had earned
greater freedom for helping
fight for freedom overseas in
World War I.
• Unfortunately, not everyone
agreed that their war service
had earned them greater
freedom.
• In fact, some whites were
determined to strike back
against the new African
American attitudes.
KKK
• The name was constructed
by combining the Greek
"kuklos" (circle) with
"clan." It was at first a
humorous social club
centering on practical jokes
and hazing rituals but soon
spread into nearly every
Southern state, launching a
"reign of terror" against
Republican leaders both
black and white.
KKK
• The second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sought to
reverse the changes in gender and sexual norms.
• The KKK worked to elevate white Protestant
men and women while blaming the demise of
America's moral standards on Catholics, Jews,
and people of color. "pure Americanism."
• As a result of pressure from western states and
nativist organizations, the federal government
enacted laws that specifically targeted Asian
immigrants, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in
1882 and the "Gentlemen's Agreement" with
Japan in 1907. Literacy Tests. Immigration Act
of 1924 (Quotas)
• KKK hatred of Blacks, Jews, Catholics, Flappers
and Immigrants. It established one of the largest
social movements of the 20th century, enrolling
nearly five million of ordinary, "respectable,"
middle-class Americans
Protecting Rights
• African Americans began working to protect their
rights.
– The NAACP placed advertisements in newspapers
presenting harsh facts about lynchings in the South.
– Marcus Garvey encouraged black people to express
pride in their culture and establish economic
independence.
– Black nationalism movement took root.
• Hispanic Americans organized to fight prejudice
and promote civil rights
– Formed the League of United Latin American Citizens
in 1929
• Native Americans fought to establish their rights.
– In 1924 Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act,
granting citizenship to all Native Americans.
– Successfully prevented the federal government from
taking back reservation lands
Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois
Another famous figure of the era was Marcus Garvey, a Jamaicanborn American who took pride in his African heritage.
Garvey’s Rise
• Formed the Universal Negro
Improvement Association
(UNIA), which promoted selfreliance for African Americans
without white involvement.
• Garvey wanted American blacks
to go back to Africa to create
a new empire.
• Garvey wanted African
Americans to have economic
success. His Black Star Line
promoted trade among Africans
around the world.
• About 2 million mostly poor
African Americans joined UNIA.
Conflict with Du Bois
• Garvey thought the NAACP
discouraged African
American self-confidence,
and that their goal of
breaking down barriers
between races threatened
African racial purity.
• Du Bois and the NAACP were
suspicious of UNIA too, and
The Crisis published an
investigation of UNIA.
• The FBI charged UNIA with
mail fraud, and UNIA
collapsed when Garvey
went to prison and then
left the country upon
release.
Minority Rights
• Identify – What did African Americans
hope to escape by coming north?
• Recall – How did Marcus Garvey think
black people should establish their
independence?
• Make Inferences – Based on the
activities of the Ku Klux Klan, what
sort of people might their members
have been? Why do you think so?
• Predict – Do you think the League of
United Latin American Citizens has
been successful in achieving its
goals?
Minority Rights
• Recall – Which group was
granted citizenship in 1924?
• Explain – Why do you think some
black leaders were opposed to
Garvey’s ideas?
• Identify Cause and Effect – What
helped bring about Native
American citizenship?