The Roaring Twenties - Mr. Lassiter's History Page



The Roaring Twenties

I. The 1920s

A. End of Progressive Era

1. 18th Amendment – prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation, or importation of intoxicating liquors – effective Jan 1920

2. 19th Amendment – woman suffrage

B. Prohibition

1. Speakeasies – illegal alcohol was sold at these private clubs, often owned by organized crime

2. Organized crime

a. Al Capone – Chicago crime boss, finally arrested and imprisoned for tax evasion, represents the “bootleg” liquor sales during Prohibition

C. The American Economy

1. Inflation – prices were 105% higher in 1920 than prior to WW I

2. 2,655 strikes in the US in 1919 – 4 million workers, 20% of workforce – looking for better wages with the rising cost of living

3. Boston Police Strike (1919)

a. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge called out the National Guard to end the strike, too much of a danger to society to allow police officers to go on strike, also shows the anti-union feelings in the US at this time

4. Race Riots

Why? Unemployed WW I veterans blamed job losses on the Great Migration

D. The Red Scare

1. Fear of Communist revolution among US working class

2. strikes were “caused” by Communists in the US

3. Renewed Fear of Unions

a. Change in attitude after the large number of strikes

b. Americans feared a “people’s revolution” bringing Communism to the US

4. 1919 Bombings – bombs sent to political and financial leaders, 36 mailed

5. Seattle General Strike – 35,000 shipyard workers, then other Seattle workers went on strike evolving into 60,000 for 5 days

a. Mayor – Ole Hanson blamed these revolutionaries for trying to take over and duplicate anarchy of Russia

6. Palmer Raids – A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General (home bombed)

a. special division of Justice Department created – General Intelligence Division

- led by J. Edgar Hoover

- later becomes FBI

b. over 4,000 people arrested in 33 US cities, 556 found to be communists or aliens

c. Red Scare slows after May 1, 1920 passed without violence as Palmer had predicted

7. Nativism – new immigrants were competing with 4 million unemployed and inflation rising

a. Immigration Acts

- Emergency Quota Act (1921) – only 3% of the number of residents from a country living in the US in 1910 could enter

- Immigration Quota Act (1924) – limited the annual number of immigrants

- Both acts focused on reducing immigration, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia

8. Sacco and Vanzetti case

a. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian born anarchists, were arrested in Massachusetts for armed robbery and murder

b. Both plead innocent and thought their politics were being attacked

c. Sentenced to death with weak case – basically put to death for their foreign accents and anarchist views

9. Rebirth of the KKK – targeted Catholics, Jews, blacks, immigrants, and other “non-Americans”

a. Edward Young Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler led the recruitment effort, membership reached almost 4 million by 1924

E. Republicans win the 1920 Election after Wilson administration was blamed for county’s condition

1. Senator Warren Harding, – defeated Democrats – James Cox (Ohio), VP Franklin Roosevelt

2. “Return to Normalcy” was Harding’s campaign message, return to isolationism and a more traditional society

a. lowered taxes and encouraged investment in the Stock Market

3. scandals hit his administration

a. Teapot Dome – Sec. of Interior Albert Fall secretly leased oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming to Harry Sinclair and at Elk Hills, CA to Edward Doheny

- An example of the scandals that hit Harding’s administration

4. Harding had a heart attack in San Francisco after a trip to Alaska – Aug. 2, 1923

5. Vice President Calvin Coolidge became President, and was re-elected in 1924

a. Coolidge born in Vermont, lived in Massachusetts, believed “the man who builds a factory builds a temple” and “four-fifths of all our troubles in this world would disappear if only we would sit down and keep still”

b. Business of America is Business

- Continuation of laissez-faire economic policies

- Lowered taxes even more

- Reduced the power of the Federal Trade Commission and Interstate Commerce Commission

- Against unions

F. Economic boom - 1922 to 1929

1. industry moved from coal to electric power, assembly line was widely used which decreased number of industrial workers

2. automobile – ownership moved from 8.1 million to 26.7 million during the 20s

3. electrical appliances invented

a. 2/3 of homes had electricity

4. installment plans – larger purchases were made on credit, consumer credit expanded

5. banking

a. growth in branch banking – most loans went to real estate, to brokers for stocks and bonds, and the purchase of stocks and bonds

b. 25,568 banks in US by 1929

6. Tough times for Farmers

a. European demand for products dropped after the war

b. Farm costs went up with new machinery and prices dropped

c. Foreshadowed an economic decline

G. American Society

1. Age of Excess

a. standard of living increased

b. mass advertising created consumer enthusiasm

c. entertainment – radio, phonograph, movies

- 90 million a week at movies in 1929 – “Jazz Singer” (first sound movie in 1927)

d. celebrities – athletes, actors were worshiped by the public

2. Sexual revolution

a. Causes: women’s suffrage, increased college attendance, advertising and consumerism, Hollywood, the Jazz Age

b. flappers – young, independent women thought to be promiscuous

c. Birth control was promoted, still illegal though

- Margaret Sanger pushed for it

3. Education – free elementary education was available to most whites

a. Creationism vs. Science - William Jennings Bryan led Fundamentalists against teaching of evolution

b. Aimee Semple McPherson – conservative Christian minister who spoke out against the changes of the 1920s

c. Scopes Trial

- Dayton, TN in July – biology teacher John Thomas Scopes illegally taught evolution

- Creationism was put on trial, William Jennings Bryan argued against the theory of evolution

4. Harlem Renaissance

a. Causes – Great Migration, modernization of US cities, new opportunities away from Jim Crow South

b. Great Migration – city growth during WW I

c. Langston Hughes – leading writer of the time, voice of black experience

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