1. The Roaring 20s
Did the 20s set the stage for a permanent culture change in the United States?

2. Prohibition 18th Amendment (January 1919) Volstead Act Effects
Prohibits the production, transport and sale of alcohol
Enables Congress to enact laws to enforce
Volstead Act
.5% of the beverage is alcoholic
Permitted for religious, scientific, medicinal purposes
Did not regulate owning or consuming
Gave enforcement responsibility to the Federal and State governments
Effects
Increase in need for law enforcement
Corruption in law enforcement
Organized crime grew
Thousands arrested
21st Amendment (1933) – repealed the 18th

4. Consumerism More than 50% of Americans lived in Urban areas
Electricity
By 1930s 2/3 of homes had
Modern conveniences: washing machines, vacuums
Automobiles
Henry Ford and perfection of assembly line and mass production
Challenge to the railroads
Need for new roads
Increase in traffic and accidents
“Every” family had a car by 1930
Chain Stores
40% of Americans lived under the poverty line
Many in rural areas

6. Republican Party Business of America is business. Andrew Mellon
Calvin Coolidge
Andrew Mellon
Advocated the reduction of taxes on the rich and businesses to spur the economy

7. Women Shorter skirts Shorter hair Birth control
Divorce Laws – made it somewhat easier for a woman to sue for divorce

9. Sports and Culture Compulsory high school education in many states
Radio – 800 stations by 1930 (NBC, CBS)
Movies – 80 million tickets/week by 1929
Charles Lindbergh – flies across the Atlantic
Jazz – Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong
Blues – Bessie Smith
Sports
Jack Dempsey – boxing
Jim Thorpe – football
Babe Ruth – baseball
Bobby Jones - golf

10. Nativism Quota System Ku Klux Klan
1st Quota in 1921 – 3% of population in America by 1910
Quota – 1924 – 2% of population in America by 1890
All Japanese barred from immigration
No regulation of Mexican and Canadian migration
By 1927 – only 150,000 immigrants permitted to enter per year
Ku Klux Klan
Hay Day
Against Blacks, Catholics, Jews, Communists…
Politically connected
1925, Indiana Grand Dragon David Stephenson convicted of murder
Other issues of corruption stain the reputation of the Klan
Continues into the 1960s

12. Key Trials Marcus Garvey – black Jamaican for fraud – 1925
Back to Africa movement
Black pride, separatist
Owned part of Back Star Steamship
John Scopes – Science v Religion – 1925
Clarence Darrow v William Jennings Bryan
Evolution v. Traditional Christian belief
No change in state laws regarding evolution
Set up by ACLU (remember Plessy v Ferguson)
Overturned on technicality
Sacco and Vanzetti – robbery and murder case – 1921
Sentenced to death
Many believed because they were poor Italian immigrants, association with anarchists