Georgia

and the American Experience Chapter 11: Flappers, Depression, and the Global War Study Presentation

©2005 Clairmont Press

Georgia

and the American Experience

Section 1:

The Roaring Twenties

Section 2:

The Great Depression

Section 3:

The New Deal

Section 4: World War II

©2005 Clairmont Press

Section 1: The Roaring Twenties

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION :

– What made the 1920s ‘roaring’?

Section 1: The Roaring Twenties

• What

words

do I need to know?

– jazz – the blues – boll weevil – Great Migration

The New Woman

• • 1920 – 19 th Amendment gave women the right to vote • More women in the workforce

Flappers

: name given to women who took on the new fashion – known for short hair, make up, dancing, drinking • First women in Georgia legislature: Bessie Kempton Crowell & Viola Ross Napier • Rebecca Latimer Felton first woman in U.S. Senate

Music

• • Speakeasies: clubs known for having liquor (which was illegal) Jazz : became popular music Armstrong & Duke Ellington – Louis • Cotton Club in Harlem NY most famous jazz club • Blues: based on black folk music – Ma Rainey & Bessie Smith • The Charleston was the popular dance

Crime

• Prohibition: laws made sale and distribution of alcohol illegal • Gangsters supplied liquor to speakeasies and clubs • • Famous gangsters from New York and Chicago: Al Capone; Baby Face Nelson Al Capone : “Public Enemy No. 1”

Life in the Roaring Twenties

• Life in US after World War I was good • More modern conveniences freed women from household chores • Electricity became more available • Other inventions included gas stoves, toasters, sliced bread, baby food • Radio: WSB started in Atlanta • 1927: first talking motion picture • Walt Disney creates Mickey Mouse

The Destruction of King Cotton

• Boll weevil : insect which ate Georgia’s most important cash crop • Price of cotton also dropped • 1924: major drought (period with little or no rain) hit Georgia • Georgia farmers did not have the “good life” that many Americans enjoyed • Farms closed forcing banks and farm related business to close

The Great Migration

• Many tenant farmers left Georgia to work in northern factories • Chicago and Detroit were popular destinations • Many African Americans moved north for better pay, education, and more citizenship rights such as voting • Young men sent north first to get jobs; sent for the family when they had saved enough money

The Klan Strengthens

• Targeted African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants • Number of members increased in every state • 1925: Klan march on Washington with 40,000 members • Declining membership by the end of the decade as members were linked to racial terrorism

A Special Day

• 1927: Charles Lindbergh became first person to fly nonstop from New York to Paris • 3,600 mile trip, 33 ½ hours – traveled alone • No navigation or weather instruments • Won $25,000 prize • “Spirit of St. Louis” was his plane

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Section 2: The Great Depression

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION –How did the Great Depression affect Georgians?

Section 2: The Great Depression

• What

words

– stock market do I need to know? – Great Depression – laissez-faire – relief

The Bottom Drops Out

• Stock Market: Place where shares of ownership in corporations (stock) are bought and sold • “Black Tuesday” – October 29, 1929: Stock market prices fall greatly; millions of people loose all their wealth • Total losses by end of year: $40 billion • Example: U.S. Steel was $262 per share – dropped to $22 per share • Some stocks worth less than 1¢

Causes of the Depression

• Many people had borrowed too much money • Factories produced more goods than they could sell • As people and businesses had problems making money, banks did not get paid for loans • “Speculation” in the stock market: paying only a portion of the price of a stock hoping that the value will go up • Runs on banks: people were afraid they would lose their money if it was left in the bank • laissez-faire: attitude that the economy would fix itself if left alone

Living Through the Depression

• 1932: 13 million unemployed • 9,000 banks closed • 31 Georgia banks failed • Hoovervilles : named for President Hoover – shacks where homeless people gathered • Soup kitchens set up by charities and governments to feed hungry • • Schools were often forced to close or shorten schedules Georgians were already suffering from economic problems before Black Tuesday

Easing the Burden

• President Hoover’s plan: government would buy farmer’s crops to help raise the price • Plan did not work, but the food and cotton were used to help the needy • Another plan was to hire unemployed people to do work for the government • Plan did not employ enough people to really help

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Section 3: The New Deal

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION

– How did Georgians benefit from the New Deal?

Section 3: The New Deal

• What

words

do I need to know?

– New Deal – minimum wage – stretch out – collective bargaining – rural electrification – subsidy – integrate

Section 3: The New Deal

• What

people

do I need to know?

– Franklin D. Roosevelt – Richard B. Russell – Ellis Arnall – Eugene Talmadge

The New Deal

• 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president • New Deal: Roosevelt’s plan to end the depression – Examined banks for soundness – Give jobs to unemployed workers – Tried to improve American’s lives • Paved the way for recovery though all programs did not work

Georgia and the New Deal

• NIRA: National Industrial Recovery Act – set minimum wage • Textile mill owners did not like the minimum wage • Stretch out: mill owners tried to make workers work longer, faster, or more tasks • TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority – Blue Ridge Lake, Lake Chatuge, Lake Nottley built • CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps – built many parks, sewer systems, bridges, etc. • REA: Rural Electrification Authority – brought electric power to rural areas

African Americans During the New Deal

• Did not benefit from many New Deal programs • WPA: Works Public Administration – did employ many African Americans • Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet”: influential African Americans working with President Roosevelt: – Mary McLeod Bethune – Clark Foreman – Robert Weaver – William Hastie

Georgia’s New Deal Governors

• Richard B. Russell – Worked to reorganize state government like a successful business – Elected to U.S. Senate and served for 38 years • Eugene Talmadge – Did not like New Deal programs in Georgia • Eurith “Ed” Rivers – Worked with Roosevelt to increase New Deal spending in Georgia – Began programs for public housing – Term ended with corruption problems

Georgia’s New Deal Governors

• Talmadge re-elected in 1940 – Began to use some New Deal programs – Used his power as governor to remove state officials working to integrate Georgia’s state colleges • Ellis Arnall – Reformed Board of Regents and state prisons – Removed poll tax – New state constitution

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Section 4: World War II

• ESSENTIAL QUESTION

– How did World War II affect Georgians?

Section 4: World War II

• What

words

– isolationism do I need to know?

– dictator – appeasement – World War II – Holocaust – ration – G.I. Bill

Increasing Tensions

• Dictator: individual who ruled a country through military strength Country Japan Leader Emporer Hirohito Quick Facts Attacked China seeking raw materials Italy Mussolini Attacked Ethiopia and Albania Germany Adolf Hitler Soviet Union Josef Stalin Nazi leader; began rebuilding military forces, persecuting Jews, and silencing opponents Built up industry and military, forced peasants into collective farms, eliminated opponents

The War Begins

• 1938 : Hitler’s Germany attacks France to “take back” land lost in WWI (Rhineland) • Sent troops to take over Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland • Great Britain and France declared war • Soviet Union invaded nearby countries and agreed to split Poland with Germany • By 1940, Hitler controlled Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and a large part of France and began bombing Great Britain

A Neutral United States

• Most Americans did not want to get involved in the war, but Roosevelt wanted to help Britain • Hitler turned on Stalin in 1941 and invaded the Soviet Union • Lend-lease: policy to lend or lease (rent) weapons to Great Britain and the Soviet Union • American ships began escorting British ships in convoys

“A Day that Will Live in Infamy”

• President Roosevelt stopped exports to Japan to protest its expansion into other countries • Exports of oil, airplanes, aviation gasoline and metals were stopped • The Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941 • Japan hoped to destroy the fleet giving them control of the Pacific Ocean • The USA declared war on Japan • Allied Powers: USA, Great Britain, Soviet Union • Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan

American Military Forces

• Millions of Americans enlisted after the attack on Pearl Harbor • 330,000 women joined – could not serve in combat roles • Segregation in the military kept African American and white service men in different units • Tuskegee Airmen: famous African American flyers of the Army Air Force

The War in Europe

• 1942-1943: British and American troops won control of Africa • 1943: Mussolini overthrown and Italy joined the Allies • American general Dwight D. Eisenhower coordinated plan to recapture Europe • D-Day: June 6, 1944 – Allied forces land in northern France • Early 1945: Germans pushed out of France • April 1945: Soviet and American troops meet and Germany surrenders – Hitler commits suicide

Georgia Loses a Friend

• President Roosevelt visited Georgia often at his “ Little White House ” in Warm Springs • His polio symptoms were eased in the mineral springs • April 24, 1945: President Roosevelt died at Warm Springs • Millions of Georgians and Americans mouned • Vice President Harry Truman became president

The War in the Pacific

• 1942: Japan expanded its territory throughout the Asian Pacific region • 1945: Allied forces began to retake Japanese controlled lands • Japan refused to surrender • President Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs to force Japan’s surrender •

Enola Gay

: plane that dropped first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan • Japan surrendered after a second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki • Over 50 million people died in the war

The Holocaust

• The Holocaust : name given to the Nazi plan to kill all Jewish people • Auschwitz, Buckenwald, Dachau, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen infamous concentration camps where Jews and others were executed • 6 million people killed in the Holocaust

Georgia During World War II

• 320,000 Georgians joined the armed forces – over 7,000 killed • Military bases were built in the state which improved the economy • Farmers grew needed crops – income tripled for the average farmer • Limits were put on the consumption of goods such as gasoline, meat, butter, and sugar (rationing) • Students were encouraged to buy war bonds and defense stamps to pay for the war • Victory Garden: small family gardens to make sure soldiers would have enough food • POW (prisoner of war) camps in Georgia at some military bases

The War’s Effects on Society

• Everyone was expected to help in the war effort • Women began working in jobs to replace men who had gone to war • G.I. Bill: law to help returning soldiers adapt to civilian life – Low cost loans for homes or business – College education opportunities • Women and African Americans did not want to go back to the kind of life they had before the war

Click to return to Table of Contents.

Click to return to Table of Contents.