Changes in the 1920s

Social Changes

1. Prohibition- 18 th Amendment Cause – Progressive Reformers wanted alcohol banned to eliminate family poverty

Effects Prohibition did not work because people smuggled alcohol and continued drinking. Gangsters got rich making, smuggling and selling illegal alcohol. Crime increased. Prohibition finally ended in 1933.

Effects of Prohibition

2. Immigration Restriction Causes Red Scare Large number of immigrants coming to America.

Immigration Restriction Effects Immigration Act of It set up a Quota system. The quota was set at 3% of the number of immigrants present in America before The effect of this law was to limit the number of Southern and Eastern European Immigrants coming to America in the 1920s.

Effects of Immigration Restriction

3. Red Scare Red Scare was the fear of communism in the 1920s. Cause: Communist Revolution in Russia

Red Scare Effects Immigration Act of 1924 Sacco and Vanzetti are convicted and sentenced to death

4. New KKK Causes: Great Migration – African Americans moving North for jobs during WW1 Red Scare Large numbers of Immigrants coming to America from Eastern and Southern Europe

New KKK New KKK discriminated against African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants Effects: Increase in the number of lynchings.

5. Automobile Cause: Invention of the assembly line speeded up the production and brought down the price of cars. Henry Ford began mass producing Model T.

Automobile The price of cars went down. By 1925, an average American could afford a car. Number of cars on the roads increased. More roads were built, drive in restaurants and billboards began to change the landscape. Inner cities became depopulated. People were able to commute and moved further away from their work places.

6. Flapper – The New Independent woman Causes: Desire for equal rights Women gained the right to vote in 1919 ( 19 th amendment )

Flapper Effects: Women began to dress in a more modern way. The skirts became shorter; one inch below the knee. Women begin to wear their hair short. They also begin to have a more independent and care free attitude.

Economic changes Economy was booming Wages increased Assembly line made production of goods faster and cheaper. People began to buy more and more material possessions as installment plan (buying on credit ) became available.

Cultural Changes Radio became most popular way or receiving news.

Harlem Renaissance In the 1920s Harlem was home to a literary and artistic revival known as the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem Renaissance was the time when African American culture flourished. Jazz became the most popular music of the 1920s

Harlem Renaissance

Missouri-born Langston Hughes was the movement’s best known poet Many of his poems described the difficult lives of working-class blacks Some of his poems were put to music, especially jazz and blues

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was primarily a literary movement Led by well-educated blacks with a new sense of pride in the African- American experience Claude McKay’s poems expressed the pain of life in the ghetto

Harlem Renaissance Zola Neale Hurston wrote novels, short stories and poems She often wrote about the lives of poor, unschooled Southern blacks She focused on the culture of the people– their folkways and values

Scopes Trial Tennessee state government passed a law outlawing the teaching of evolution in public schools. John Scopes (biology teacher ) decided to challenge the law by continuing to teach evolution. He was charged and put on trial.

Scopes Trial Fundamentalist were the people who believed that the Bible should be interpreted literally. In other words, every word in the Bible was true. One of the fundamentalists was William Jennings Bryan. These people were associated with rural values, religion, anti evolutionary views and fundamentalism. Modernists were people who were associated with urban values, belief that schools should be allowed to teach evolution, and modern views. One example was Clarence Darrow

SCOPES TRIAL Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the era defended Scopes The prosecution countered with William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential nominee

Scopes Trial Trial opened on July 10,1925 and became a national sensation. In an unusual move, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert on the bible – key question: Should the bible be interpreted literally? Under intense questioning, Darrow got Bryan to admit that the bible can be interpreted in different ways Nonetheless, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100

Conflict in the 1920s Scopes Trial 1925 – Issue: Should evolution be taught in schools? This trial shows a conflict between people who 1. believed in the Bible and people who believed in Science. 2. clash between rural and urban values 3. Fundamentalism and modernism

Scopes Trial The Religious Fundamentalists who did not want evolution taught in public schools won in this trial. In this case, the government decided what will be taught in schools in Tennessee. Is it a good idea to have the government decide what should be taught in schools?