Unit VIII

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Unit VIII Boom Times and Challenges (1919-1945)

• Chapter 24 Section 2
• Life during the 1920s

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Main Idea 1In 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 countrys
  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.

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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 Attendance

School attendance and enrollment increased as
industry grew because more people could afford to
send their children to school, not to work.
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The Flapper
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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.

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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
  nations 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?

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Main Idea 2Postwar 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 officials 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.

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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.

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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?

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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

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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?

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Main Idea 3Competing 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
• 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.

Religious Ideals
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Prohibition

• Throughout U.S. history, groups like the Womans
  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 societys 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.
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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
  Capones 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.

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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.

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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.

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Prohibition - Problems

• Alcohol 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.
• No measurable gains were made in productivity or
  reduced absenteeism.
• Prohibition removed a significant source of tax
  revenue and greatly increased government
  spending.
• It 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.

St. Valentines Day Massacre
Eliot Ness
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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.

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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 Americas ideals.
• Sundays 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.

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The Scopes Trial

• Charles Darwins 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, three-time 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.

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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
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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?

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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?

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Main Idea 4Following 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, womens rights, and
  modern technology
• Became influential in politics
• More than 5 million members

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois
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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?

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Minority Rights

• Recall Which group was granted citizenship in
  1924?
• Explain Why do you think some black leaders
  were opposed to Garveys ideas?
• Identify Cause and Effect What helped bring
  about Native American citizenship?

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Jazz Age 518 min.
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Scopes Monkey Trial Teaching Creationism or
Evolution in School (0256)
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Prohibition and Gangsters- 431 min.
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The Rise of Prohibition -431
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Changing the Shape of American Organized Crime
Al Capone and Prohibition   (0452)
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Capone Begins Long Jail Term (0047)