1919 - 1929

Prohibition

• Al Capone was one of the most famous bootlegging gangsters.  • Temperance movements began to grow in the early 1800s. • Carry Nation, a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, used rocks, hammers, and hatchets to destroy liquor stores and saloons. • 18th Amendment to Constitution prohibited manufacture, sale, transport or import of liquor. • Volstead Act defined alcoholic beverages and imposed criminal penalties for violation of the 18th Amendment. • Prohibition led to bootlegging (illegal production or distribution of intoxicating beverages), corruption of government officials, and speakeasies (secret bars operated by bootleggers). • Al Capone was one of the most famous bootlegging gangsters. • In 1933, the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition, was ratified.

Red Scare and the Palmer Raids

·         United States worker strikes seemed to be harbingers of revolution to many in the country. ·         Fear of revolution fed by anti-German hysteria and the success of the Bolshevik Revolution. ·         Bombs sent anonymously through mail to prominent American leaders encouraged fear. ·         Attorney General Palmer was a target of a failed mail bomb. ·         4,000 arrested as "Communists" and illegal aliens, but only 556 shown to be in those categories. ·         Palmer announced threat of large Communist riots on May Day of 1920, but none materialized. ·         Palmer was discredited and the Red Scare passed.

Post WWI Economy

High wages during World War I and European demand continued after conflict. Demand led to inflation and a good economy. Increase in prices prompted major strikes by workers.

Women's Suffrage

The 19th Amendment provided for women's suffrage, which had been defeated earlier by the Senate. Ratified by States in 1920. Feminists who supported suffrage since the 1860s included Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Carrie Chapman Catt.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Two gunmen robbed a factory and killed two men in Massachusetts. Sacco and Vansetti, Italian immigrants and anarchists, were tried for the murders. Judge Thayer favored prosecution and pushed for execution. Despite years of protesting that they had not received a fair trial, the men were executed in 1927, reflecting anti-immigrant sentiments in the United States.  

Industrial Changes in the 1920s and Effects

Change from steam to electric power allowed more intricate designs, replacing human workers Major research and development projects reduced production costs and products. Expanding industries included automobile, electricity, chemicals, film, radio, commercial aviation, and printing. Led to overproduction by the 1920s.

Harlem Renaissance

Term used to describe the growth of African-American literature and arts. The center of this movement was Harlem, New York, where many African-Americans moved to during the early 1900s. Southern African-Americans brought jazz to Harlem and influenced the music scene; at the same time, writing, sculpting, and photography grew as art forms. Writers from this period include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay. Musicians from this time included Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstong. The Great Depression led to the decline of the renaissance.

Automobile: Economic and Social Effects

Stimulated steel, rubber, glass gasoline, and highway construction industries. Created a nation of paved roads. The need for new paved roads led to employment for many. Led to increased freedom for young people and loss of some parental control.   Tourism increased and rural areas became less isolated.

Rise in the Standard of Living during the 1920s

Advances like indoor plumbing, hot water, central heating, home appliances, and fresher foods emerged. Many did not have the money to benefit from these advances. Availability of credit rose to allow for payments by installment periods. Sales grew out of advertising through new media, such as radio.

Marcus Garvey

Native of Jamaica.          Advocated black racial pride and separatism rather than integration.          Pushed for a return to Africa.         Developed a following and sold stock in a steamship line to take migrants to Africa.          Convicted of fraud after the line went bankrupt.

Shift in Popular Culture, 1920s

         Change from entertainment through home and small social groups to commercial, profit-making activities.          Movies attracted audiences, and Hollywood became the movie center of America.          Professional athletics grew in participation and popularity, especially baseball, boxing, and football.          Tabloids grew in popularity, including the New York Daily News and Reader's Digest.

Ku Klux Klan in the Early 1900s

         Main purpose was to intimidate blacks, who experienced an apparent rise in status due to WWI.          Also opposed Catholics, Jews, and foreign-born.          Klan hired advertising experts to expand organization.          Charged initiation fees and sold memorabilia.          The KKK had membership of five million in 1925, which soon began to decline.

Emergency Quota Act

One of a series of acts by Congress that limited immigration. Immigration limited by nationality to three percent of the number of foreign-born persons from that nation that lived in the United States in 1910. Designation restricted only certain nationalities and religious groups. In effect, restricted Italians, Greeks, Poles, and Eastern European Jews.

Warren G. Harding

29th president Nominated by the Republican Party as a dark horse candidate. Represented opposition to the League of Nations, low taxes, high tariffs, immigration restriction, and aid to farmers. Harding won the election, repudiating Wilson's domestic policies toward civil rights. Promised return to normalcy. Pardoned Eugene V. Debs. Gave United States steel workers eight-hour day. Died suddenly during cross-country tour and was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Bribery scandal involving President Harding's Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall. Fall secured naval oil reserves in his jurisdiction. Leased reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to two major business owners in exchange for cash payouts. The businessmen were acquitted, but Fall was imprisoned for bribery, making him the first cabinet member to go to jail.

Fordney-McCumber Tariff

Increased tariff schedules.          Tariffs were raised on farm produce to equalize American and foreign production.          Gave the president the power to reduce or increase tariffs by fifty percent based on advice by the Tariff Commission.

Fiver Power Treaty

Committed in the United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy to restrict production of new battleship class ships. Pact gave Japan naval supremacy in the Pacific.

Dawes Plan

         Debt restructuring plan for Germany after World War I.          American banks made loans to Germany, Germany paid reparations to Allies, and Allies paid back the United States government.          Cycle based on loans from American banks.          The plan would play a part in the development of the Great Depression.

Calvin Coolidge

30th president. Republican candidate who came to office first after Harding's death and then after a landslide victory. Avoided responsibility for most of Harding's cabinet scandals. Reputation for honesty. Believed in leading through inactivity. Stated, "The chief business of the American people is business."

Creationism and the Scopes Trial

Fundamentalist Protestants supported Creationism as a way to prohibit the teaching of evolution in schools. Hoped to protect the belief in the literal understanding of the Bible. Scopes, a young Biology teacher, broke the law by teaching Darwinism and served as a test case for the ACLU. Darwinism was the concept of evolution created by Charles Robert Darwin and written about in the Origin of the Species.   Clarence Darrow defended Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan defended the Sate of Tennessee. Judge refused to allow expert witness testimony. Scopes was convicted and later fined $100, which was later dropped. Some states passed anti-evolution laws