Transcript Slide 1

1920’s The jazz Age
Chap 15
A Clash of values
• 1920’s saw a clash between traditional and modern
values
• Post WWI America was prosperous and confident,
consumerism was on the rise
• Americans returned to isolationism and nativism
Resurgence of
nativism and racism
• Who did we hate? In WWI
we hated the Germans. After
WWI we hated and feared the
Communists and immigrants.
• Immigrants seen as threats.
• New quotas set to restrict
immigration.
The Red Scare
• After WWI, people feared the spread of
communism, “Workers of the world,
UNITE!!”
• (Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, 1917)
• Economy in turmoil after war: gov’t
price controls removed—led to high
prices, workers’ strikes
• Americans feared a communist conspiracy
The Palmer Raids 1919
Palmer Raids
• After a series of bombings, US Attorney
General Robert Palmer conducts
sweeping raids, arresting thousands of
foreigners nation-wide. Many were jailed
and/or deported. Civil liberties were
ignored.
• Beginning of the FBI and J. Edgar
Hoover’s long career
Sacco-Vanzetti
Trial
• Two immigrant
anarchist convicted of
burglary and murder
after a prejudiced trial
I am suffering because
I am a radical and
indeed I am a radical;
I have suffered
because I am an
Italian and indeed I
am an Italian.
•
Eugenics:
the “Pseudo-Science”
Eugenics
• Used by nativists to argue superiority of
whites.
• Said human inequalities were inherited
• Used to justify sterilization of mentally ill or
handicapped Americans
• Studies will be used by Nazi Germany in
its push to create a master race and
exterminate “undesirables”
Return of The KKK
1915 Ku Klux Klan
•
•
•
•
Anti-black
Anti-Catholic
Anti-Jew
Anti-immigrant
wanted to:
“preserve America’s white Protestant civilization.”
Not just a Southern organization, spread all over the
United States.
Keep America American
• New laws restricted
immigration, set quotas
based on 1890 levels.
• Mexican immigration—
Mexico exempt from
quotas; take work in
agriculture.
• Asian immigration:
stopped almost
completely
The Scopes “Monkey”
Trial
•
•
•
•
Creationism v. Evolution
Old-fashioned v. Modern
William Jennings Bryan v. Clarence Darrow
1925 Tennessee --- High school teacher John
Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution.
prohibition
The Volstead act
• The law that enforced Prohibition
• Took authority from the state governments and
made the Treasury Dept responsible for enforcing
Prohibition.
• Increased the role of the federal gov’t in law
enforcement
The new American Hero
• Sports: baseball,
boxing, football,
basketball
Mass Media
• Radio, newspaper, motion pictures,
magazines help create a shared national
culture
African-American culture
• The Great Migration
• Hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the South
moving to industrial cities looking for work and better
lives.
African-American Politics
• African-Americans have fewer voting restrictions in
Northern cities.
• Voting Blocs: greater concentration of blacks
voting in the cities. More success in influencing
voting. Blacks tended to vote Republican
• NAACP: continues its fight against segregation,
discrimination, and lynching.
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem
• An area in NYC where many African-Americans
settled.
• Created a community of racial pride and success,
political organization, and artistic development.
Harlem—Home of JAZZ
• The Cotton Club, the Apollo, the Savoy
JAZZ and BLUES
• A style of music that grew out of Dixieland,
ragtime, and African spiritual influences.
• Syncopated, soulful, swinging rhythms.
• Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith,
Josephine Baker
Writers and Poets of the
Harlem Renaissance
• Claude McKay—
wrote against racism
• Langston Hughes—
focus on AfricanAmerican pride,
expectation of
equality
Black nationalism
• Promoted black pride and unity
• Led by Marcus Garvey.
• Believed African-Americans could gain
economic and political power thru EDUCATION
• Also pushed for separation and independence
from whites
• Garvey est’d the UNIA—United Negro
Improvement Association
• Proposed that blacks everywhere should return
to Africa— “Pan-African” Movement
Marcus Garvey
• Federal officials
believed Garvey to be
dangerous, afraid he
would incite rebellion
and violence.
• Garvey was arrested
and deported to
Jamaica
Tulsa Race Riot
• 1921
• Greenwood district of Tulsa destroyed– America’s
“Black Wall Street”
• Riot begins after Tulsa Tribune article publishes account
of black man attacking a white woman in an elevator
• White mobs burn Greenwood, citizens blocked fire dept
from responding
• Official death toll is 35, but is probably closer to 300.
• No other arrests made
• Dick Rowland released; Sarah Page did not press
charges.
• http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/news/raceriot/multimedia.aspx