1920's

What happened in Tulsa in 1921?

• Who was targeted and why?

A massacre in Tulsa Oklahoma on African American and businesses and homes. Specifically on black wall street.

White mob burned down an entire African American neighborhood

Black wall street was gone - before, it was economically doing well

Black boy was accused for doing something bad to a white girl so an angry white mob responded

Some White people didn’t want black people to thrive economically

What was the Red Summer of 1919?

Why did it happen? Give a specific example of one event that happened that summer.

the red summer of 1919 was a period if untense racial conflict in the us, marked  widespread riots and violence against black communities due to racial tensions after WWI

One example is the Chicago race riot where a black teenager swam across the invisible color line at a public beach and was stoned to death by white people

They threw rocks at his floatie, deflating it and lead to him drowning.

 

Red represents blood

What was the Ku Klux Klan

• Why did it experience a resurgence in the years after World War I?

• Besides Black people, who did the KKK target?

viciously racist white supremacist organization that first arose in the South after the end of the Civil War. The Klan employed violence and terror in the hopes of overthrowing Republican state governments in the South and maintaining the antebellum racial hierarchy. Asians and eastern Europeans. African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, liberals, and progressives from attaining wealth and social status. They arose after WWI because they wanted to target black people as soon as they began to thrive.

What was the Great Migration?

• Where were Black people moving?

• From where?

black people moving to the urban north from the rural south.

Came from: Georgia, south Jacksonville, Oklahoma, Alabama

Migrated to: Chicago, Philly, DC, LAX, Harlem, (Only non-segregated city in NY) North Boston, Kentucky

What were the PULL factors that convinced Black people to move?

got opportunities to join the military

Factory jobs

War opens jobs

Education

Less racism

What were the PUSH factors that convinced Black people to move?

smell of burnt flesh from lynchings

Racial terror

Exodus from dickie

Women raped

Scott + violet Arthur story

Sharecropping

Boll weevil (insect diseases from cotton)

Forced into fields

What was Black people’s experience in their new homes?

Jazz, gospel, blues music. Poetry, visual arts, Harlem Renaissance. EX: Louis Armstrong (defiant figure of 20th century) Black people stood up for themselves now, new sense of race pride, told their stories. "new negro" - protests. Langston Hughes - poet + busboy

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

 cultural movement - rise of African American music, dance, art, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship. Specifically in Harlem, NY is where it all began b/c it was unsegregated and where black people migrated to.

Give two examples of artists/writers who were prominent during the Harlem Renaissance. What did they do?

 Langston Hughes - poet and busboy. Louis Armstrong - jazz musician. Jacob Lawrence - famous painter

What was Prohibition?

Prohibition was the banning of selling and acquiring alcohol in the U.S. it didn’t ban drinking or making at home. - Volstead act

Which Constitutional Amendment started Prohibition? What year was it ratified?

 18th Amendment, prohibiting “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. - 1919

Who were the supporters of Prohibition? Why did they support it?

women - domestic drunk abuse from their husbands

Describe the unintended side-effects of Prohibition

 rise in crimes, gang violence, bootlegging, speakeasies, illegally distilling alcohol, bribing police.

What was the Scopes Trial? Where did it take place?

The scopes trial was a nationally well-known trial about a teacher; John Scopes who was found guilty for teaching the scientific version of evolution in his class. It was illegal because in rural southern areas like Dayton Tennessee, (where the trial took place) because it didn’t support what is written in the bible. It's a different point of view that is not at all related to Christianity and the Christians figured it was immoral to not believe and act on everything the bible says.

How did the Scopes Trial represent a clash between rural and urban America?

 rural areas were typically affiliated with the religious side whereas urban areas and bigger cities were affiliated with the secular side

How did the Scopes Trial represent a clash between religious and science?

 many people in urban cities were branching off from the bible, going to jazz clubs, and overall letting a bit looser. In rural southern parts of the country the opposite was happening, and the scopes trial was a prime example of how religion and science represent a major conflict and clash.

What is consumerism? How did it shift in the 1920s?

during this time people were able to afford more products

They were able to use credit, paying over periods of time

This method of business was booming

 cars were more affordable thanks to the assembly line

Airplane industry began

New home appliances for women to make housekeeping easier

increasing market driven consumption

economic theory that consumer spending is the key to well being

Give two examples of new consumer goods that people were buying in the 1920s

 automobiles, cosmetics and beauty, electric washing machines.

How did cinema and mass media (radio) change culture in the 1920s?

RADIO, SPORTS, MOVIE PRODUCTION

 

•  movies were used as an escape from daily life

• Leisurely

• Only 25 cents

• After WWI radio became a home staple

• "Radio advertising connected companies directly to vast audiences and helped create a shared national culture. For the first time, Americans from coast to coast could listen to the same programs, smoothing out regional differences in language and taste."

•  untied Americans

• Radio revolutionized sports

•  live play by play broadcasts

 

ART

•  gave artists the chance to create original and meaningful pieces

•  Lost generation - writers artists and musicians who became adults in WWI

•  made recordings

• Possible to listen to music anywhere

• Boosted music culture and consumerism

What was the “Lost Generation”?

group of white writers and artists and poets who went to Paris before WWI to get art opportunities. After WWI things changed and then were not able to write and speak freely so instead they died out.

Moved to Paris for better writing opportunities.

What was jazz?

 Jazz was a popular form of music created in New Orleans. Louis Armstrong was a jazz musicians.  It was popular and well known for African Americans using it to express themselves more after all the discrimination they faced.

How did women’s roles change during the 1920s?

 women started rebelling against strict gender roles, gained the right to vote, and were leaving the kitchen and house slowly.

How did women’s changing roles worry some people?

 some people, specifically Christians were worried that since women started rebelling against the strict gender roles, (wearing makeup, drinking, smoking, dressing less modestly) they were going to attract he wrong kind of attention from men and that they would get too carried away with their new rights and end up wanting even more.

What were flappers?

 flappers were young women who decided to embrace their newly given rights and more. Their styles were changing for clothes and hair. They cut their hair short to be able to dance more freely, were wearing makeup, drinking, smoking, and dressing less modestly.

Where were immigrants coming from in the 1920s?

many African Americans migrated from the south to the north to escape racism.

Women in African American took many jobs in the north. Helped fill factory jobs after the men went to go work in the military (overseas)

There was a lot of inter migration with the U.S.

What was nativism?

opinions and beliefs were changing

Rapid social changes of modern life

the political idea that favors native born people ober immigrants b/c its a beleif that immigrantd werre a threat to economy

What legislation did the government pass in the 1920s around immigration?

congress passed laws that slowed down immigration immensely

The espionage and sedition act silenced Americans of free speech

Xenophobia widespread

Against European immigrants specifically polish Germans jews and Irish people

What was the First Red Scare?

 the red scare was the American fear of rising communism spreading from the soviet union.

Red= Communism

What were the Palmer Raids?

 Attorney general palmer arrested thousands of people he accused of being communists but were not. Caused union membership to drop bombs on his front yard.

What were the effects of the Red Scare?

 made people scared of soviet union and communism

Describe the Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

Italians who allegedly killed people and were sentenced to death - many people thought that they didn’t deserve it. they were accused of being communists b/c they were immigrant anarchists

Describe the presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding.

• 1920 campaign, warren G promised America a return to normalcy

• Sounded reassuring but Americans didn’t fully understand what that looked like or meant

• Republican party won in 1920 - first presidential election women could vote in

What were some political scandals that took place during Harding’s presidency? Describe them briefly.

• Harding gave political supporters jobs - Ohio gang

• Many unqualified

• Albert Fall guilty of bribery

• Leased govt oil to two oil companies - in return he got 400k

• First cabinet member to go to prison

• Teapot Dome (named after oil reserves)

• Affair became a symbol of dishonesty in the Harding govt

How did Calvin Coolidge become president?

 Harding died from heart attack in 1923 and Coolidge took place after being vice president

How did Coolidge support businesses? Give a few examples.

 he believed in laissez faire - (idea that govt should be minimally involved in citizens' life and businesses)

Cut spending

What was American foreign policy in the 1920s?

• lots of Americans supported minimal American involvement with other nations (isolationism)

• Harding and Coolidge also agreed

• They both wanted world piece but did not want America to join league of nations or foreign alliances

• Harding promised the American people that he would not lead them into the League "by the side door, back door, or cellar door."