The 1920s as an Age of Reaction?

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The 1920s as an Age of Reaction?
Guess where this picture was taken?
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The 1920s as an Age of Reaction?
Women of the Ku Klux Klan Marching in Front of
the Broome County Court House
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Historical Context The Twenties

• What comes to mind when you think about the
  1920s?
• The New Woman (Flappers)
• New Styles Behaviors
• Speakeasies Bootlegging
• Rapid Economic Expansion
• The Lost Generation
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Political Corruption

The Roaring Twenties
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Reactions to Rapid Social Change

• Nativism
• Political Intolerance
• Temperance (Prohibition)
• Christian Fundamentalism
• Racial Tensions

A Temperance Poster
The Twenties Were Also an Age of Reaction
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Immigration in the 1920s
What is the main idea of the cartoon? What do we
call anti-immigrant feelings?
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Immigration in the 1920s
How did the Quota Acts affect American
immigration?
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Nativism

• Nativism Anti-immigrant feeling
• Quota Acts (National Origins Act) set strict
  limits on immigration, especially from Eastern
  Southern Europe
• Based on scientific racism
• Reflected growing nativist anti-radical
  sentiment by groups like the KKK

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The Second Ku Klux Klan

• Founded at Stone Mountain, GA 1915 by former
  minister William Simmons
• Release of film Birth of a Nation in 1915
  popularized glamorized the KKK
• Targeted not just African-Americans but also
  Jews, Catholics and immigrants in general
• By mid-1920s national membership reportedly
  reached 4.5 million

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The Klan Arrives Broome County
This pamphlet was found on peoples doorsteps in
Binghamton on March 17, 1923. Question Who do
you think the local Ku Klux Klan was
targeting? Answer The Irish and Other
Immigrants (especially Catholics and Jews)
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The Klan Arrives Broome County

• Klan activity in Broome County first noted on St.
  Patricks Day 1923 when KKK pamphlets were left
  on doorsteps
• 20,000 workers (many of whom were immigrants) in
  the Triple Cities during the 1920s, including 12
  E-J factories
• Local KKK was partly a reaction to this
  immigration

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Binghamton as State Klan Headquarters

• 1923 Binghamton chosen as NYS headquarters for
  the KKK
• State-wide conventions held, including
  cross-burnings and rallies in Endicott Whitney
  Point
• In 1924 George F. Johnson received anonymous
  letter from a Klan member threatening a boycott
  of EJ Shoes unless he fired foreign workers
• Question What is currently located at this site?
• Answer The Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade

New York State Klan Headquarters Henry Wall
Streets, Binghamton
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Klan Rally at Stow Flats Fairgrounds
July, 1924
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Local Klan Meetings
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What criteria did someone have to meet in order
to join the KKK?
What does this suggest about how the KKK
understood themselves?
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The Womens Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
-Groups like the Womens Christian Temperance
Union (WCTU) fought to outlaw alcohol,
prostitution, and other vices -In Broome County,
the WCTU appeared to ally with the local KKK. Why
would they do that?
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Religious Revival

• 1920s Marked a Rise in Religious Fervor
• Question What is Christian Fundamentalism?
• Answer A strict, literal interpretation of the
  Bible.
• Sister Aimee, Billy Sunday, and Other Radio
  Evangelists Reached Mass Audiences
• What was the topic of Billy Sundays sermon in
  this clip?

Sister Aimee McPherson
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The Scopes Monkey Trial
-High School teacher John Scopes is tried for
teaching evolution in Tennessee
-Became a debate on evolution religious
fundamentalism -First major trial to reach a mass
audience as it was broadcast live on the radio
Clarence Darrow William Jennings Bryan
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Putting It All Together

• How did Christian Fundamentalists embrace aspects
  of modernism even as they appeared to struggle
  against it?

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Race Riots

• The period between 1919 and 1921 was marked by
  violent race riots in northern cities.
• Why might this have happened?

Chicago, 1919
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The Red Scare
A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General
-Bombs Sent to Attorney General A. Mitchell
Palmer Other Government Officials -Palmer
Raids 10,000 Suspected Communists Anarchists
Arrested -249 Deported to Soviet Union -Labor
Unions like IWW targeted
Put Them Out and Keep Them Out, The
Philadelphia Inquirer (1919)
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Sacco Vanzetti Trial
Sacco Vanzetti
-Italian Immigrants Anarchists -Convicted of
Murder w/out Much Evidence -Reflects both
Nativism Anti-Radicalism -Controversial
Execution
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Putting It All Together

• Why would there have been so much fear of
  radicalism after 1917?
• Hint What else was happening in other parts of
  the world at this time?

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Closing Reflection

• What label should we use to characterize the
  1920s?

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The Jazz Age
The Age of Business
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The Twenties
The Roaring Twenties
The Conservative Decade
The Age of Reaction