1. The 1920s as an Age of Reaction?
Guess where this picture was taken?

2. The 1920s as an Age of Reaction?
Women of the Ku Klux Klan Marching in Front of the
Broome County Court House

3. 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”

4. 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”

5. Immigration in the 1920s What is the main idea of the cartoon?
What do we call anti-immigrant feelings?

6. How did the Quota Acts affect American immigration?
Immigration in the 1920s
How did the Quota Acts affect American immigration?

7. 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

8. 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

9. The Klan Arrives Broome County
This pamphlet was found on people’s 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)

10. The Klan Arrives Broome County
Klan activity in Broome County first noted on St. Patrick’s 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

11. 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

12. Klan Rally at Stow Flats Fairgrounds
July, 1924

13. Local Klan Meetings

14. What criteria did someone have to meet in order to join the KKK?
What does this suggest about how the KKK understood themselves?

15. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
-Groups like the Women’s 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?

16. “Sister” Aimee McPherson
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 Sunday’s sermon in this clip?
“Sister” Aimee McPherson

17. 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

18. Putting It All Together…
How did Christian Fundamentalists embrace aspects of modernism even as they appeared to struggle against it?

19. Race Riots
The period between 1919 and 1921 was marked by violent race riots in northern cities.
Why might this have happened?
Chicago, 1919

20. 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)

21. Sacco & Vanzetti Trial -Italian Immigrants & Anarchists
-Convicted of Murder w/out Much Evidence
-Reflects both Nativism & Anti-Radicalism
-Controversial Execution
Sacco & Vanzetti

22. 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?

23. What label should we use to characterize the 1920s?
Closing Reflection
What label should we use to characterize the 1920s?

24. ? The Twenties The Jazz Age The Age of Business The The
Roaring Twenties
The
Conservative
Decade
The
Age of Reaction