“Postwar Social Change”

“Postwar Social Change”
Chapter #13 “Postwar Social Change”

Society in the 1920s How were women’s roles changing during the 1920s?
Chapter 20, Section 1 How were women’s roles changing during the 1920s? How were the nation’s cities and suburbs affected by Americans on the move from rural areas? Who were some American heroes of the 1920s? What made them popular with the American public?

The Flapper Image Came to symbolize a revolution in manners and morals. Many Americans disapproved of flappers’ departure from traditional morals. The Flapper Image The flapper, a type of bold, fun-loving young woman, came to symbolize a revolution in manners and morals that took place in the 1920s. Flappers challenged conventions of dress, hairstyle, and behavior. Many Americans disapproved of flappers’ free manners as well as the departure from traditional morals that they represented. For some people, concern over the changing status of women did not center on participation in politics. Instead, it centered on such matters as wearing short skirts, cutting hair, painting faces, and smoking and drinking in public. Many women and men were deeply shocked by such behavior. They believed it was a symptom of moral decay. Others, in contrast, regarded it as a symbol of freedom and progress. After 1910 women's skirts rose above their traditional street length. That length had been difficult to walk in and had collected street dirt as well. Since fashion is changeable, people predicted skirts would soon go down again. Nevertheless, wartime shortages of fabric and more active occupations kept them nine inches above the ground. Then in the twenties they climbed even higher, finally going just above the knee. During the twenties, too, the whalebone-reinforced corset, which constricted the waist and sometimes damaged the body's internal organs, was thrown into the trash can along with layers of petticoats. Women's hairstyles were next to undergo drastic changes. The short haircut that swept the nation in the 1920's was called a bob, or a boyish bob if very short. Like the new clothing styles, it was sensible, healthy, and neat-and the subject of loud public outcry. Because fads and fashions reflect specific attitudes about life, they can reveal a great deal about a particular period of time. The hippies of the 1960's expressed their alienation from society by their choice of clothing in much the same way that women of the 1920's showed their rebellion with short skirts and bobbed hair.

Flapper pic Why were some Americans opposed to flappers? (A) Flappers opposed the Nineteenth Amendment. (B) Flappers challenged traditional values. (C) Americans preferred sports heroes. (D) Americans thought that flappers encouraged immigration. For all the changes in status during the twenties, it was still generally accepted-even by most women-that "woman's place is in the home." Men should earn more than women, it was thought, because usually they supported wives and children. Women workers generally were single. In some states, women teachers who married lost their jobs. Questions: What amendment gives women the right to vote? 19th Most feel (men and women) that the women's main role is that of a homemaker. Wht do you think? Answers will vary.

Women Working and Voting
Although many women held jobs in the 1920s, businesses remained prejudiced against women seeking professional positions. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in all elections beginning in At first, many women did not exercise their right to vote. It took time for women’s votes to make an impact. One of the most active and controversial women of the period was Margaret Sanger. As an obstetrical nurse in some of the worst slums of New York City, she saw firsthand the burden placed on poor women who had many children in rapid succession. That led her to open the nation's first birth control clinic in 1916. She was arrested and imprisoned eight times for violating the Comstock Law, the national law that prohibited the distribution of birth-control information. Nevertheless, the courts of New York State eventually recognized the right of women to obtain such information. The subject of birth control continues to be extremely controversial. In addition to voting, some women attempted to enter politics. However, the highest elective offices were still closed to them. Most women got their offices because they were chosen as successors to their husbands, such as two women governors, Other political goals of women during the decade ended in disappointment. Florence Kelley led the movement for a constitutional amendment barring child labor, but it was never ratified. An equal rights amendment fared worse; it could not even win the approval of Congress. For most of the public, both measures had become associated with radicalism-a fatal drawback in the 1920's. Women Assume New Jobs and New Roles Between 1910 and 1930 the proportion of women in the labor force remained at about 20 percent. However, there was a notable change in the kinds of work some women did. The number of female cooks, dressmakers, household servants, and farmhands dropped. The number of women doctors, bankers, lawyers, police and probation officers, social workers, and hairdressers rose. Nevertheless, most women remained in the lowest-paying occupations. Unfortunately, in any occupation women were often preferred only because they would work for lower wages than men. As veteran suffragist Anna Howard Shaw explained: "You younger women have a harder task than ours. You will want equality in business, and it will be even harder to get than the vote." Women are discriminated against for professional jobs. Have right to vote, but voter turnout is low.

New Woman One of the most active and controversial women of the period was Margaret Sanger. Open 1 birth control clinic, led to her arrest. (8-times) As an obstetrical nurse in some of the worst slums of New York City, she saw firsthand the burden placed on poor women who had many children in rapid succession. That led her to open the nation's first birth control clinic in 1916. She was arrested and imprisoned eight times for violating the Comstock Law, the national law that prohibited the distribution of birth-control information. Nevertheless, the courts of New York State eventually recognized the right of women to obtain such information. The subject of birth control continues to be extremely controversial. Margaret Higgins Sanger (September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966) was an American birth control activist, an advocate of negative eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League (which eventually became Planned Parenthood). Initially met with fierce opposition to her ideas, Sanger gradually won some support, both in the public as well as the courts, for a woman's choice to decide how and when she will bear children. Margaret Sanger was instrumental in opening the way to universal access to birth control.

A Consumer Economy One that depends on a large amount of spending by consumers. Installment plans and clever advertising to encourage consumers to buy on credit. The 1920s saw the development of a consumer economy, one that depends on a large amount of spending by consumers. Until the 1920s, middle-class Americans generally paid cash for everything. Manufacturers developed installment plans and clever advertising to encourage consumers to buy on credit. Many new electric appliances created a surge in demand for electricity. Between 1913 and 1927, the number of electric power customers quadrupled. By the 1920s, marketers developed a new approach to advertising. Advertisers used psychology to appeal to consumers’ emotions and insecurities to sell products. As consumption rose so did productivity. A measure of productivity is the Gross National Product (GNP). The GNP is the total value of goods and services a country produces annually. Productivity rose to meet consumer demand, but it also rose because the nation developed new resources, new management methods, and new technologies.

Ford and the Automobile
In 1896, Henry Ford perfected his first version of a lightweight gas-powered car. He called it the “quadricycle.” The improved version was the Model T. Ford wanted to produce a large number of cars and sell them at prices ordinary people could afford. To sell less expensive cars, he adapted the assembly line for his factories. An assembly line is a process in which each worker does one specialized task in the construction of a final product. Ford’s success came partly from vertical consolidation—controlling the businesses that make up the phases of production. Ford was a complex businessman. His pay rate was very generous, but he used violence to fight unions. Produced a car people could afford. Used the moving assembly line and vertical consolidation to improve production.

Automobile gave the economy the boost it needed to provide
sparked the creation of a whole new industry in the 20s Gas Stations, motels, etc... Henry Ford Invents the Automobile Being one of the most significant inventions of the 1920s, the automobile drastically changed the lives of Americans for the better. It not only improved transportation (obviously), it also gave the economy the boost it needed to provide America with the age of prosperity that the 20s is known for. The first automobile developed with a combustion engine was invented by Henry Ford who later founded the Ford Motor Company, which was known for its achievements in bringing America its first affordable car, the Model-T. However, the first automobile was created much earlier, in 1866 by Richard Dudgeon of New York City who developed it with a steam engine. The Effect of the Car on America By 1927, the Model T had really taken off Over the first few years of the 1920s, the automobile became a hit with everyone, especially young people who wanted freedom and excitement. Soon virtually every household in America owned an automobile, and it quickly became an integrated part of American life. Parents would drive to work in their automobiles. Families could visit friends and family who lived farther away. And young people found a whole new way to have fun. Affecting not only American culture during the 1920s, the automobile also helped American industries. The sharp demand for automobile sparked the creation of a whole new industry in the 20s, the automobile industry. Ford had to provide for his clients somehow, so he expanded his factories, creating more jobs, more revenues, and improving the American economy in virtually every way. Automobiles that drove around a lot found it hard to drive on the poor dirt roads that were common back then, and they required a lot of fuel to run also. So nation wide road construction took place, which created even more jobs, and strengthened the economy even further. As a result of the automobile, Americans and America itself benefitted greatly from the advantages it brought to them. Improved transportation and an improved economy made the automobile one of the most important inventions of the 1920s.

Heroes of the 20s Sports become very popular.
Media turns sports stars into larger-than-life heroes. Radio: Newest and most important median for communicating with the masses.

Lucky Lindy Lindbergh, the Hero.
Even when the ballyhoo specialists had a genuine hero, they misrepresented him. On May 20, 1927, ,Charles A. Lindbergh began his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He flew nonstop from New York to Paris in thirty-three and a half hours. It was a startling feat, and the papers played it up to the hilt. They did it using such terms as Lucky Lindy and the Flying Fool. Lindbergh was no fool, and luck had nothing to do with his achievement. He succeeded by working out every possible detail of his flight in advance. Nevertheless, the press felt it had to present him in the most startling way possible. Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler. Heavyweight boxing was particularly open to ballyhoo treatment. It was easy to work up popular frenzy over the periodic world-charnpionship bouts. Here, a million-dollar gate in paid admissions was the goal. One of the most popular figures was Jack Dempsey of Manassa, Colorado. Thousands watched the career of this champion fighter. In 1927, when ex-champion Dempsey met Gene Tunney for their second bout and Dempsey's second defeat, the promoters raked in $2,650,000. Other Sports Idols. Men's tennis had its hero in Big Bill Tilden, and the women's game was dominated by Helen Wills. Their games and lives were followed by millions of people through radio, the press, and newsreels. Atlanta's Bobby Jones was the only golfer in history to make a' , grand slam' , by winning all major British and American open and amateur matches in a single year (1930), after which he retired. Even racing had its wonder horse, Man-of-War, whose descendants are still prized animals .

Babe Ruth, the Babe. Interest in what one historian called "children's games played by grown men for money," that is, professional athletics, reached a new peak in the twenties. Each sport had a single figure of legendary accomplishment. In baseball the figure was George Herman Ruth, commonly known as Babe Ruth. He was a hard drinking, salty-talking character whom the fans took to their hearts as they would a good-natured, unruly younger brother. Ruth's record of sixty home runs hit in one season for the New York Yankees in 1927 has been surpassed, but many claim that only a longer playing season and a livelier ball made that possible. In any event, Ruth led the Yankees to seven world-series between 1921 and 1932. Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923, was called the house that Ruth built. Ruth was noted for paying visits to youngsters in hospitals, and shortly before his death in 1948, he set up a foundation to help underprivileged children. Grange, the Galloping Ghost. College football had its hero in Harold Edward "Red" Grange, otherwise known as the Galloping Ghost for his feats at the University of Illinois. Why a college sport caught the attention of so many people who never finished high school is hard to determine perhaps it was because in those years its dominance passed from Eastern Ivy League schools to the huge Midwestern universities. Loyal citizens of Michigan or Ohio could pile into new stadiums seating seventy or eighty thousand people on Saturday afternoons and scream themselves hoarse for , 'their' , team. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame appealed to Americans of Irish descent. This was despite the school's legendary coach having the Norwegian name of Knute Rockne, as well as many of its players being the sons of Slavic coal miners from Pennsylvania.

Society in the 1920s—Assessment
Chapter 20, Section 1 Why were some Americans opposed to flappers? (A) Flappers opposed the 19th Amendment. (B) Flappers challenged traditional values. (C) Americans preferred sports heroes. (D) Flappers encouraged immigration.

Which of the following was a migration pattern in the 1920s? (A) From cities to suburbs (B) From suburbs to cities (C) From suburbs to rural areas (D) From the US to Canada and Mexico

Which of the following was a migration pattern in the 1920s? (A) From cities to suburbs (B) From suburbs to cities (C) From suburbs to rural areas From the US to Canada and Mexico

Mass Media and the Jazz Age
Mass media--instruments for communicating with large numbers of people. Movies, Newspapers, Tabloids, Magazines, and radio. helped form a common American popular culture. Movies and the Theater Become Popular By 1925 making and exhibiting films had grown to be the nation's fourth largest industry. More than 20,500 movie houses were operating throughout the United States. The smallest community had at least one cranking away for seven or eight hours a day and showing six pictures a week in three "double bills" (two movies for the price of one). Larger communities had one or more first-run houses downtown, where new films played before being shown in neighborhood theaters. The downtown "palaces" featured a mighty Wurlitzer organ or even a small symphony orchestra to accompany the films. Neighborhood theaters made do with tiny pianos. Hollywood, a small town near Los Angeles, became the film capital of the country and, later, of the world. There, director D. W. Griffith introduced the close-up and the moving camera. In Hollywood, actor Charlie Chaplin invented his world-famous character of the Little Tramp, a funny-looking little man, pretentious and impish, but warmhearted under it all. There, in 1927, the first major film with sound was produced. It was The Jazz Singer, starring AI Jolson, and it marked the start of a new age in motion pictures. Yiddish Theater. The theater also bloomed during the 1920'5, especially the Yiddish theater in New York City. (Yiddish is the language that developed from a combination of languages spoken by Eastern European Jews.) Many of the developments that took place on the Yiddish stage showed up a few years later in the English-speaking theater on Broadway. Yiddish theater continued the tradition. Which of these best describes how the growth of mass media affected American culture? (A) It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish. (B) It made learning the Charleston easier. (C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers. (D) It helped create a common American popular culture.

Charlie Chaplin

The Jazz Age Jazz, a style of music that grew out of the African American music of the South, became highly popular during the 1920s. Characterized by improvisation and syncopation, jazz became so strongly linked to the culture of the 1920s that the decade came to be known as the Jazz Age. Harlem, a district in Manhattan, New York, became a center of jazz music. Flappers and others heard jazz in clubs and dance halls; the Charleston, considered by some to be a wild and reckless dance, embodied the Jazz Age. Jazz pioneers Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong made important contributions to jazz music. Jazz is generally considered America's outstanding musical achievement. It originated in the latter part of the nineteenth century and was based mostly on black work songs and spirituals, or deeply emotional religious songs. In 1915 New Orleans, or Dixieland, jazz found its way to Chicago. There, King Oliver and a small group, including trumpeter Louis Armstrong, played what was probably the first jazz heard north of the Mason-Dixon line, the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which had become a symbol of division between North and South. The music quickly spread from Chicago to Kansas City, Los Angeles, and New York. Black composers and performers such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, and Bessie Smith helped create the jazz sound in the 1920's and over time planted it firmly in American culture. Many black musical artists achieved great fame in Europe. Perhaps the most popular was Josephine Baker, who lived and worked in Paris. She was a star dancer and singer for forty years. After World War II, the French government awarded her the Legion of Honor for her devotion to her adopted land.

Jazz, a style of music that grew out of the African American music of the South, became highly popular during the 1920s. Radio: is a huge influence on the spread of culture and ideas.

Writers of the 20’s Spoke out against the “materialism” of the 20’s.
Writers Speak for the Twenties A common theme of most novels of the period was opposition to materialism. Materialism is usually defined as the single-minded pursuit of money and possessions. Most writers were against the modern business culture. F. Scott Fitzgerald, fresh from Princeton and the army and as handsome as a film star, published This Side of Paradise in 1920. He won instant acclaim as the spokesman for the twenties generation. In this novel and others, he described the confusion and tragedy caused by a frantic search for material success. Sinclair Lewis, author of Babbitt and Main Street. was the sharpest critic of materialism and of the narrowness of small-town life. He also attacked American medicine in Arrowsmith and religion in Elmer Gantry. The harsh views of Lewis had little effect. Nevertheless, he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1930. In The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. Ernest Hemingway expressed disgust with prewar codes of behavior and the glorification of war. He also developed a clear, straightforward prose that set a new, tough, "hard-boiled" literary style. Poet T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land was perhaps the most agonizing view of the dehumanizing effects of the machine age. It is considered by some critics to be the great poem of the twentieth century Many American writers and artists felt stifled in what they called the "vulgar, money-grubbing" society of the 1920’s. They fled to Europe where they felt they could live a richer cultural and intellectual life. From there they watched with dismayed fascination the fast-paced business life of the United States, which you will read about in the next chapter. Spoke out against the “materialism” of the 20’s. Writers such as Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald.

Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald

The Lost Generation The "Lost Generation" were a group of writers in the 20s who shared the belief that they were lost in a greedy, materialistic world that lacked moral values, and often chose to flee to Europe. Lost Generation refers to a group of American literary notables who lived in Paris and other parts of Europe from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, Waldo Peirce, John Dos Passos, and T. S. Eliot. The coining of the phrase is traditionally attributed to Gertrude Stein[1] and was then popularized by Ernest Hemingway in the epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises and his memoir A Moveable Feast. More generally, the term is used for the generation of young people coming of age in the United States during and shortly after World War I. For this reason, the generation is sometimes known as the World War I Generation. In Europe, they are most often known as the Generation of 1914, named after the year World War I began. In France, the country in which many expatriates settled, they are called the Génération du Feu, the Generation of Fire. Broadly, the term is often used to refer to the younger literary modernists. William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations list this generation's birth years as 1883 to Their typical grandparents were the Gilded Generation; their parents were the Progressive Generation and Missionary Generation. Their children were the G.I. Generation and Silent Generation; their typical grandchildren were Baby boomers[citation needed]. The "Lost Generation" was said to be disillusioned by the large number of casualties of the First World War, cynical, disdainful of the Victorian notions of morality and propriety of their elders and ambivalent about Victorian gender ideals. Like most attempts to pigeon-hole entire generations, this over-generalization is true for some individuals of the generation and not true of others. It was somewhat common among members of this group to complain that American artistic culture lacked the breadth of European work—leading many members to spend large amounts of time in Europe—and/or that all topics worth treating in a literary work had already been covered. Nevertheless, this selfsame period saw an explosion in American literature and in art, which is now often considered to include some of the greatest literary classics produced by American writers[citation needed]. This generation was also involved with the first flowering of jazz music.

The Harlem Renaissance
An increase in African-American culture in the 20’s. Supported by large developing black middle-class and white audiences. In addition to being a center of jazz, Harlem emerged as an overall cultural center for African Americans. A literary awakening took place in Harlem in the 1920s that was known as the Harlem Renaissance. Expressing the joys and challenges of being African American, writers such as James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes enriched African American culture as well as American culture as a whole. The Harlem Renaissance Begins Living conditions in the black ghettos of Northern cities were appalling. Like European immigrants before them, African Americans moved into run-down buildings in slum neighborhoods where they paid high rents for cramped and unsanitary quarters. They were likely to be victimized by landlords and criminal elements, and their children often died of diseases that, in other circumstances, were preventable. Nevertheless, the move north, especially to New York City's Harlem, released a great burst of creative energy. Harlem was the center of the nation' s black intellectual and cultural life , and out of it flooded achievements in literature, music, drama, dance, and painting. These achievements are known collectively as the Harlem Renaissance, though some of the best work was done elsewhere. Tenor Roland Hayes won renown as a concert singer, as did Paul Robeson, the son of a runaway slave. Robeson, after making a brilliant record as a student and athlete at Rutgers, went on to Columbia University Law School. His magnificent bass voice and commanding presence brought him early fame as an actor. In 1924 he was the original Emperor Jones in Eugene O'Neill's play of the same name. His performance in Shakespeare's Othello, first in London and later in New York, made stage history. Nevertheless, the slights and indignities he experienced turned him away from the United States. He spent most of his later years in England and the Soviet Union. What was the Harlem Renaissance? (A) A style of jazz music (B) An African American literary awakening (C) An increase in the popularity of newspapers and magazines (D) A type of jazz club found in Harlem

Which of these best describes how the growth of mass media affected American culture?
(A) It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish. (B) It made learning the Charleston easier. (C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers. It helped create a common American popular culture.

Which of these best describes how the growth of mass media affected American culture?
(A) It allowed local cultural traditions to flourish. (B) It made learning the Charleston easier. (C) It spread the work of Lost Generation writers. (D) It helped create a common American popular culture.

What was the Harlem Renaissance?
(A) A style of jazz music (B) An African American literary awakening (C) An increase in the popularity of newspapers and magazines (D) A type of jazz club found in Harlem

Prohibition--pic

Prohibition 18th Amendment-prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. Goes into effect—Jan

Prohibition Liquor consumption drops, but illegal drinking by millions created an illegitimate billion-dollar industry. Many supported prohibition during the day, but supported the illegal drinking businesses at night. A. Did it fail? 1. Incidents of liver related diseases decreased by 2/3rds. 2. Alcohol related crimes and illness go down. (Over-all crime goes up). Myth that drinking actually increased was not true. For some the fact it was illegal did add to the attractiveness of it. Bootlegging--providers of illegal drink were known as bootleggers. They smuggled beer and whiskey in from Canada or stole it from government warehouses. Most large scale operations could only exist through corruption of government officials. As a result people grew skeptical about the honesty of public officials, and disrespect for the law increased.

Prohibition More support in the rural areas than in the cities.
Gave rise to organized crime Goes into effect in 1920, Eighteenth amendment. Progressive reformers saw alcohol as the source of corruption. PR pushed it, but it took the Temperance Union, and the Anti-Saloon League to get the measure passed. As with suffrage, large areas of the country already had prohibition.

Prohibition Black market develops
US spends lots of cash to enforce, plus is out the money they would of received if they taxed liquor. Speakeasies—illegal bars, operated openly in most neighborhoods. For some

Prohibition Repealed by the 21st Amendment to the Constitution in 1933. Before the 1920’s were far advanced, many Americans decided that Prohibition’s social benefits were not worth the costs. Organized crime had increased to a fantastic extent, and taxes (to pay the law) had gone up. Many felt it invaded there rights. Religious and leaders in the rural communities would not let up. Skilled politicians just avoided the issue (FDR) Hoover--called it the “noble experiment” meaning it may or may not work.

Racial Tensions Violence Against African Americans
Chapter 20, Section 3 Violence Against African Americans Mob violence between white and black Americans erupted in about 25 cities during the summer of 1919. The worst of these race riots occurred in Chicago. Until about 1900 most black people in the United States generally accepted Booker T. Washington's advice, which you read about in Chapter 8-9. He advised blacks to learn vocational skills, live a quiet life (preferably in the country), and avoid strife and competition with whites. Gradually, however, many blacks grew dissatisfied with a life that seemed to promise little future for them economically or intellectually. Consequently, new movements arose in the black community. African Americans Migrate Northward Beginning in 1910 the black population of the United States became more urban than the white population. It also began to shift from the South to the North. In 1914 Henry Ford opened his assembly line to black workers. The outbreak of World War I and the drop in European immigration increased job opportunities in steel mills, munitions plants, and stockyards. In addition, many cotton fields, where African Americans traditionally had been employed in large numbers, were ruined by the boll weevil, an insect that had come to the United States from Mexico. Floods and drought added to the economic difficulties of black sharecroppers and field hands. So Southern African Americans boarded railroad trains and headed for the top of the world. Between 1910 and 1920 about 1 million African Americans migrated to such Northern cities as Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Another 800,000 migrated during the 1920's. This movement is known as the great migration . Black migrants faced considerable prejudice in their new surroundings. Part of the prejudice was economic. Blacks not only competed with unskilled whites for jobs but also were used as strikebreakers in many Northern industries. Part of the prejudice was racial. Some whites believed they were better than blacks and tried to assert the superiority of the Caucasian race. Violence Against African Americans Mob violence between white and black Americans erupted in about 25 cities during the summer of 1919. The worst of these race riots occurred in Chicago, where the African American population had doubled since 1910. A white man threw a rock at a black teenager swimming in Lake Michigan, and the boy drowned. The incident touched off riots that lasted several days, destroyed many homes, killed several people and wounded many more.

Racial Tensions Revival of the Klan
Focus shifted to include terrorizing not just African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and others. Revival of the Klan Although it had been largely eliminated during Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan regained power during the 1920s and greatly increased its membership outside the South. The Klan’s focus shifted to include terrorizing not just African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and others. After the arrest of a major Klan leader in 1925, Klan membership diminished once again.

Racial Tensions It reached a peak membership of 4.5 million in 1924.
The Klan Becomes More Powerful Meanwhile, another group, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), was growing swiftly. The Klan of Reconstruction days had more or less died out in the 1870's. Revived in 1915, it reached a peak membership of 4.5 million in 1924, a membership it described as white males who were native-born gentile citizens. The old practices of wearing hoods and of burning crosses were still used, but the KKK widened its interests and its appeal. As well as keeping black people "in their place," it sought to drive Catholics, Jews, and other "foreigners" from the land. It opposed union organizers and helped enforce Prohibition. Klan members, as Grand Wizard Hiram Evans explained, were "plain people. ..the everyday, not highly cultured, not overly intellectualized, but entirely unspoiled and not de-Americanized, average citizens of the old stock." In other words, they were people who felt threatened by the changes taking place in American society. Klan members resented the small advances made by African Americans during the war. They felt that their moral values were being attacked by urban intellectuals. They feared job competition from immigrants. They were convinced that foreigners were going to overthrow the American way of life. Klan members expressed some of their frustrations through racial violence. They also tried to influence national and state politics. Klan leaders in Indiana, however-the only state to fall under its c;ontrol-committed such outrages that the law finally moved against them. After a while, most of the Klan's members drifted away.

~ ~ Racial Tensions The Ku Klux Klan marches down Pennsylvania Ave. in The organization opposed Catholics, Jews, and "foreigners" as well as African Americans.

Fighting Discrimination
Chapter 20, Section 3 The NAACP fought for anti-lynching laws and worked to promote the voting rights of African Americans. These efforts, however, met with limited success. During the 1920s, the NAACP fought for anti-lynching laws and worked to promote the voting rights of African Americans. These efforts, however, met with limited success. African Americans Turn to Congress and the Courts The NAACP attempted to do just that, mostly through legislation and court cases. In 1919 its secretary, poet and lawyer James Weldon Johnson, managed to have an anti-lynching law introduced in Congress. (Between 1889 and 1919, 3,224 black men and women had been shot, bummed, or hanged without trial. Between 1919 and 1927, another 400 blacks were lynched, 10 while wearing their World War I uniforms.) The bill passed the House but was filibustered to death in the Senate. (To filibuster means to hold the floor by talking at length, sometimes for days, in an attempt to postpone or avoid a vote being taken on a subject.) However, the NAACP kept up its campaign through numerous anti-lynching organizations that had been established earlier by Ida B. Wells Barnett. Gradually the number of lynchings diminished. The NAACP had little success in its legal battle to do away with white primaries. In most parts of the South, there was virtually no Republican party after Reconstruction. November elections, therefore, were no more than empty formalities. The real decisions were made in Democratic primary elections. Because primaries were open only to party members, it was easy to keep blacks from voting since only whites could join the Democratic party. Although a court victory to bar this practice was obtained in 1927, it proved to be a hollow one. Over time, state officials were able to get around the ruling and find other ways to keep black voters away from the polls.

Fighting Discrimination
Movement led by Marcus Garvey. Sought to build up African Americans’ self-respect and economic power. Encouraged his followers to return to Africa and create a self-governing nation there. A movement led by Marcus Garvey, an immigrant from Jamaica, became popular with many African Americans. Garvey, who created the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) sought to build up African Americans’ self-respect and economic power, encouraging them to buy shares in his Negro Factories Corporation. Garvey also. Although corruption and mismanagement resulted in the collapse of the UNIA, Garvey’s ideas of racial pride and independence would affect future “black pride” movements. "Black Is Beautiful" Another important figure was Marcus Garvey, who began the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in his native Jamaica in Two years later, he moved the UNIA to New York City, and by the mid-1920's, he had enrolled more than 500,000 African Americans in its ranks. Garvey's organization was based on two ideas. First, black people should go back to their African homeland and build a country of their own. This was an idea as old as Paul Cuffe's effort in Sierra Leone in 1815 and the founding of Liberia. (See Chapter 11.) Garvey wanted African Americans to found "a free, redeemed and mighty nation. Let Africa be a bright star among the constellation of nations." The second idea was the slogan "black is beautiful." Blacks should not envy or imitate whites or seek integration. "You are better than white people," Garvey told his followers. He reminded them of their African heritage and urged them to be proud of it. The slogan "black is beautiful," which first appeared in the 1920's, was revived during the 1960's and 1970's. Then in the 1980's, many black Americans stated that they would rather use the term African American than the word black to identify themselves, preferring to be known in terms of their origins rather than in terms of their skin color. Today, African American is widely used in the United States. Marcus Garvey would have strongly supported its usage. To finance his colonization scheme, Garvey collected money from his followers and started a successful newspaper, The Negro World. However, his plan for a steamship company, the Black Star Line, failed and led to his being sent to prison for mail fraud. Upon release, he was deported to England. Many African Americans, especially from the working class, were swept along by Garvey's oratory and developed a strong pride in being black. His scheme for resettlement in Africa, however, held no appeal. Black people were, after all, Americans and had been for generations. Instead of trying to redeem Africa, they felt they should redeem their own country by fighting for equal rights.

Two Perspectives on African American Education
W.E.B. Du Bois Booker T. Washington

Two Perspectives on African American Education
W.E.B. Du Bois Believed that the brightest had to lead for political equality and civil rights Argued for future leaders to seek a liberal arts education. Du Bois helped found the NAACP. Booker T. Washington put aside desire for political equality. should focus on vocational skills. reassured whites Booker T. Washington Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Atlanta Taught students to put aside temporarily their desire for political equality Thought African Americans should focus on building economic security by gaining vocational skills Washington’s ideas reassured those whites who worried that educated African Americans would seek more equality. W.E.B. Du Bois Became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard Believed that the brightest African Americans had to lead their people in their quest for political and social equality and civil rights Argued for future leaders to seek a liberal arts education rather than the vocational education promoted by Washington In 1905, Du Bois helped found the Niagara Movement that called for full civil liberties.

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