Transcript The Roaring (?) Twenties

The Roaring Twenties:
Conflict and Discord
U.S. History
Mr. Phipps
California State Standards
11.5.2. Analyze the international and domestic events, interests, and
philosophies that prompted attacks on civil liberties, including the
Palmer Raids, Marcus Garvey’s “back-to-Africa” movement, the Ku Klux
Klan, and immigration quotas and the responses of organizations such
as the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, and the Anti-Defamation League to
those attacks.
11.5.3. Examine the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the
Constitution and the Volstead Act (Prohibition).
11.5.4. Analyze the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and the
changing role of women in society.
11.5.7. Discuss the rise of mass production techniques, the growth of
cities, the impact of new technologies (e.g., the automobile, electricity),
and the resulting prosperity and effect on the American landscape.
Era Characteristics
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Disillusionment and anger about the horror of the Great War
Dynamic conflict between traditional values and modern
values, gender stereotypes, immigration, political ideas, and
race
High unemployment and an increasing gap between the rich
and the poor
Unregulated and unchecked stock speculation and rampant
consumerism
Federal laissez-faire and isolationist policy, and prosperity
Individual accomplishments challenging boundaries, borders,
records
Rise in popular culture, including jazz, movies, fads, popular
fashion and social decadence
The emancipation and suffrage of women
Vocabulary
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Laissez-faire: “hands-off”, the belief that government should not
intervene in business
War Contracts: contracts between private industries, factories, and
business to make products for the government, which would be sold
at a set price
Consumerism: the social focus and practice on spending money
for non-essential/luxury goods
Nativism: “Americanism”, anti-immigrant racial superiority
Mass Production: the rapid production of goods using machines
and assembly lines
Prohibition: period when the purchase of alcohol was made illegal
Secularism: when people seek answers to life’s questions using
rationalism and science, rather than religion
Isolationism: foreign policy which seeks to remove one’s country
from intervening in foreign affairs
A Return to Normalcy
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At the beginning of the 1920s, the Federal
government hoped to:
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Integrate war veterans into society
Advertise peace and prosperity and forget the
horror of war
Change factory production from military to
consumer (which would increase unemployment)
Integrate African-American population (who had
moved North for war productions jobs) into society
Streamline industry and mechanize
Labor Unrest and
the Red Scare
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American government feared
Communism would spread to
the U.S. through immigrants
Feared infiltration of
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Anti-Capitalists
People who refused to work
Subversives
Critics of government
Supporters of “free speech”
Anyone who was “unAmerican” (pacifists, draftdodgers, conscientious
objectors)
Propaganda
poster (1921):
“Lenin Lived,
Lenin Lives,
Lenin Will
Live.”
Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky started the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia, a violent and murderous overthrow of the
Romanov Czars. The provisional government gave “power to the
working class” on whose back the elite earned its wealth.
A Restless Labor Force
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High unemployment followed
WWI due to:
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Manufacturing shift from
military to consumer
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Ended war contracts
13 million workers in war
production and armed
services alone
Mechanization
African-Americans accepted
jobs during the war
Overproduction required
employment cuts
13 million unemployed men
(white) after war
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Needed jobs and angry with
government
Anarchists, believing in abolishing all forms of
government, were often equated with modern
terrorists. They considered themselves the
ultimate freedom fighters/libertarians.
Rising Anarchy
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Increased labor
violence (1919)
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Above, the 1919
version of “I’m Proud
to Be an American.”
Nationalism swelled
in response to
“domestic terrorism.”
Seattle Shipyard Strike
Boston Police Strike
Steel Workers Strike
Palmer’s House Bombing
On the left, a picture
of the Attorney
General’s house after
an anarchist bombing.
This event helped
galvanize support for
Palmer.
Palmer Takes Action
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Responding to “terrorist” mail
bombs, Attorney General
Mitchell Palmer begins raids
(The Palmer Raids)
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Palmer targeted any dissident against the U.S. The
Palmer Raids are often considered to be one of the
worst abuses of American civil liberties targeting
specific ethnic/racial groups.
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Rounded up suspects (mostly
German-Americans, RussianAmericans, Italian-Americans,
and any activist)
Tapped communication and
opened mail
Over 6,000 arrested
**Against 4th, 6th, and 8th
Amendments
Established Anti-Radical,
General Intelligence Unit (the
FBI) under J. Edgar Hoover
The Courts Set an Example:
The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
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Sacco and Vanzetti
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Advocated philosophical
anarchy
Italian immigrants
Were atheist draft dodgers
The Trial
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Accused of murder and
robbery
No forensic evidence and
only circumstantial
eyewitness evidence
placed them at the scene
Given the death penalty in
1921, executed 1927
Many years after the trial, evidence suggested that the
Boston judge who tried the case had been bribed to target
Sacco and Vanzetti as examples. Also, contemporary
evidence proves that both men were innocent.
A painting of Sacco and Vanzetti during their trial.
Public outcry following the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti was loud and vehement.
Internationally, the U.S. was criticized as racist and corrupt.
Labor in the Twenties: In Sum
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Increased gap between the rich and the poor:
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5% of Americans controlled 1/3 of all income
71% of Americans earned less than a subsistence wage
Consumer debt increased from $3 billion in 1920 to over $7
billion in 1929
Mortgage debt increased from $8 billion in 1919 to $27
billion in 1929
Decline in union membership from 5 million in 1920
to 3.5 million in 1926
Palmer Raids and Red Scare fizzled out by 1922,
but returned in the 1950s
A Clash of Values
Traditional
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Christian, religious,
fundamentalism
The way things always were
Consistency
Anti-Immigrant, Nativist
Strict social activity: no
drinking, prostitution,
dancing, smoking, etc.
Women stay at home
Modern
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Experimental
Open to new ideas
Looser social activity
World travel
Acceptance of new fashion
Sexually active
Women participate equally
Rebellious
Young
The Politics of Race
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The “New” Ku Klux Klan
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Originally founded during
Reconstruction (1866) to regain
white power after slaves were
freed
Officially dissolved in 1877 (the
same year the NRA started)
Revived in 1915 due to:
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The movie The Birth of a
Nation
The creation of the NAACP six
years earlier
The increased social access of
African-Americans in the North
Nativist and anti foreign
atmosphere
The Birth of a
Nation was
one of the
first major
motion
pictures
produced by
Hollywood.
Griffith, the writer and director, quoted six popular
historians who supported slavery and white supremacy as
an American virtues. This was also the first movie shown
in the White House, to Woodrow Wilson who raved about
it. He called it “history written in lightening.”
Although taken in 1947, this picture indicates the continued scandal The Birth of a Nation produced.
Protested here by the NAACP, civil rights activists and historians argued that the creation of the the
United States should not be glorified in the context of slavery.
Red Summer: 1919
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Immigration quotas and
African-American labor
contributed to
unemployment in
Northeastern and
Midwestern cities
(Detroit, Chicago,
Washington, D.C., New
York City)
Resulted in race riots
throughout the North
This picture, taken during a race riot in Oklahoma
City in 1921 indicates the hostility toward AfricanAmericans even in the racially “tolerant” North and
Midwest. In Chicago, 27 African-Americans were
stoned to death because he drifted into the white
section of Lake Michigan.
“Strange Fruit”
KKK Tactics
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Burned crosses as a symbol
of “holy vengeance” against
the “savage”
Created lynch mobs and
vigilante groups
Gained political control of
seven states (as Senators,
Representatives, and
Governors)
Considered, accurately by many as domestic terrorists, the
KKK took credit for over 200 lynchings during the 1920s.
The song “Strange Fruit” sung by Billie Holiday in the
1930s refers to the men and women who died at the hands
of a lynch mob.
Back to Africa
Marcus Garvey and the
UNIA
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United Negro Improvement
Association challenged the
NAACP and idea of racial
equality
Criticized passivity of early
Civil Rights activists Du Bois
and Washington
Advocated militant racial
separation and a return to the
African homeland
Instituted Liberia, a home for
freed slaves
Garvey, himself, was criticized
for dividing the movement
A Jamaican by birth, Garvey prompted
thousands to leave the U.S. for Africa.
Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, the same street on which the President lives, the Klan
demonstrate their popularity in mainstream America. By 1926, Klan membership exceeded 4 million
due payers. Passive supporters more than tripled that number. The KKK, like the Mafia, was finally
brought down by money laundering and fraud, so called “white collar crimes”.
The Noble Experiment
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Prohibition Legislation
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The 18th Amendment
The Volstead Act
Made it illegal to sell
or buy alcohol in the
United States
Purpose:
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Increase public morality
Target ethnic groups
who socially used
alcohol
Prohibition only made the sale of alcohol illegal,
not the consumption of alcohol. Consumption, in
fact, triple during Prohibition.
Legislating Morality
Problems:
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Carrie Nation, an aggressive Temperance
advocate often entered private property to destroy
alcohol paraphernalia. There is a now a bar
named for her in San Jose.
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Never consistently
enforced
Bootlegging: illegal sale
of alcohol
Bars turned into
speakeasies, secret
nightclubs
Corruption of police and
government officials
Expensive to prosecute
Alcohol consumption
increased 300%
Hunted down and prosecuted by a special unit of the FBI, the “Untouchables”, led by
Elliot Ness, raided and captured numeorus stills and stashes
The FBI
breaking a
still.
Once the alcohol had been confiscated, it had to be
destroyed. Most often kegs and bottles were
broken at the raid site and poured down city gutters.
Just as often, conscientious, law-abiding citizens
were waiting down the street with empty jars,
bottles, and buckets to collect the wasted
moonshine.
The Mafia:
The Original Gangster
Organized Crime
 Specialized in providing
hard-to-find material:
ALCOHOL (and
gambling, narcotics, and
prostitutes)
 Average annual income
exceeded $14 billion (23 times more than
federal income)
 Sprouted in the big
Capone, “Scarface”, seen here on the right, was one of the most
cities: New York and Al notorious
gangsters of Chicago. A lifetime affliction of syphilis
prevented him from ever drinking. Lesions on his brain caused
Chicago
dementia, which became exaggerated with alcohol, and ultimately
caused his death while in prison.
News photo from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, a shooting spree in which Capone eliminated
all competition in the bootlegging business in Chicago. Capone was so well protected by the
Mafia organization that the police and the FBI were never able to prosecute his criminal activities.
Instead, he was arrested for tax evasion.
Secularism and Science
Evolution v. Creationism
 Debate started
because of:
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Increased religious
fundamentalism
The easy access to
Darwin’s Origin of the
Species, which described
evolutionary science
Loosening of social
customs/”modernism”
The Scopes Trial
Evolutionists
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Supported by rationalists
and scientists
Claimed that humans
evolved, like all other
animals
Contended that humans
evolved from apes
Challenged the belief that
humans were created by
God, and were divine
Defended by Clarence
Darrow, an eminent defense
lawyer
Creationists
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Supported by conservatives,
Christians, and
fundamentalists
Believed in a literal
interpretation of the Bible
Contended that humans were
descended from Adam and
Eve
Challenged the “un-Biblical”
practices of drinking, divorce,
and lax social behavior
Defended by William
Jennings Bryan, a former
failed presidential candidate
The Trial
Dayton, Tennessee (1925)
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John T. Scopes arrested for
teaching evolution theory
Trial symbolized the debate
between traditional and
modern values
Scopes was found guilty and
fined $25, but later
overturned
Became a media frenzy, with
a circus-like atmosphere
Pitting two famous trial lawyers, Darrow on the left and
Bryan on the right, the Scopes’ defense focused on
illustrating the hypocrisy of a literal interpretation of
the Bible. Although William Jennings Bryan won the
case, he died a few months later, made a fool on
national radio because of his desperate attempt to
defend his religious views.
Margaret Sanger
A New Feminism
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Sanger, here seen muzzled, attempted to describe how
women are forcibly silenced by men and by a male
dominated society. Sanger, a vocal Feminist, drew
much negative attention because of her attitudes toward
sex. She was, for many women, the first person to
demystify menstruation and pregnancy. She was,
however, also a believer in eugenics, a theory in
selectively breeding better (white) humans.
First to advocate sex
education for women
Advocated the use of birth
control
Considered it essential for
women to have control over
their own bodies
Created a major debate
over the role of sex in
marriage, in relationships,
and in society
In Sum
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Debates raged over:
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Freedom of speech and belief (Red Scare, Sacco and
Vanzetti)
Race and racial equality (The New KKK, Marcus Garvey)
The appropriate use of alcohol and legislating moral
behavior (Prohibition
Education and what should be taught to children (Scopes
Monkey Trial)
A woman’s right to choose (Margaret Sanger and birth
control)
Fundamental debates focused on challenging
traditional values