US History 1920s

Red Scare

Most instense outbreak of national alarm, began in 1919. Success of communists in Russia, American radicals embracing communism followed by a series of mail bombings frightened Americans. Attorney General A. MItchell Palmer led effort to deport aliens without due processs, with widespread support. Did not last long as some Americans came to their senses. Sacco/Vanzetti trial demonstrated anti-foreign feeling in 20's. Accused of armed robbery & murder, had alibis. "Those anarchists bastards". Sentenced to death and executed.

Palmer Raids

a series a government attacks on suspected radicals in the United States led by the U.S. attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer

Installment Plan

a system for paying for goods by installments

Sacco & Vanzetti

Italian radicals who became symbols of the Red Scare of the 1920s; arrested (1920), tried and executed (1927) for a robbery/murder, they were believed by many to have been innocent but convicted because of their immigrant status and radical political beliefs.

Henry Ford

United States manufacturer of automobiles who pioneered mass production (1863-1947)

Moving Assembly Line

henry ford introduced this in his automobile plants in 1914; raise wages, cut hours, cut prices

Fundamentalism

A movement that pushed that the teachings of Darwin were destroying faith in God and the Bible. It consisted of the old-time religionists who didn't want to conform to modern science.

Flapper

women in the 1920's who bobbed their hair, wore short skirts, and defied the morals and restrictions of the earlier generations

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Harlem Renaissance

a period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished

Prohibition

Amendment 18 prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages

Speakeasies

bars that operated illegally during the time of Prohibition

Scopes Trial

1925 court case in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the issue of teaching evolution in public schools

KKK

founded in the 1860s in the south; meant to control newly freed slaves through threats and violence; other targets: Catholics, Jews, immigrants and others thought to be un-American

Quota System 1921

Congress set limits on immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Asia. Document that limited the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe

Quota System of 1924

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Warren Harding

29th president of the US; Republican; "Return to Normalcy" (life as it had been before WWI-peace, isolation); presidency was marred by scandal

Margaret Sanger

1921 - founded American Birth Control League; which became Planned Parenthood in the 1940s. Advocated birth control awareness.

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of African American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

Washington Naval Conference

1921 - President Harding invited delegates from Europe and Japan, and they agreed to limit production of war ships, to not attack each other's possessions, and to respect China's independence

18th Amendment
1919

Prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages 1919

19th Amendment 1920

gave women the right to vote 1920

21st Amendment 1933

1933; prohibition repealed officially

Buying "on margin"

buying stock by paying only a portion of the full cost up-front with promises to pay the rest later

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929; the day the stock market crashed. Lead to the Panic of 1929

Hoovervilles

Shanty towns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression; the name given to them shows that thte people blamed Hoover directly for the Depression.

Dust Bowl

Region of the Great Plains that experienced a drought in 1930 lasting for a decade, leaving many farmers without work or substantial wages.

Bonus Army

Group of WWI vets. that marched to D.C. in 1932 to demand the immediate payment of their goverment war bonuses in cash

Herbert Hoover

President of the U.S from 1923-1933 leader of the US in the beginning of the Great Depression. He didn't want the gov involved in the peoples lives and thought that the people should express their individual rights.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt, the President of the United States during the Depression and WWII. He instituted the New Deal. Served from 1933 to 1945, he was the only president in U.S. history to be elected to four terms

Eleanor Roosevelt

wife of Franklin Roosevelt and a strong advocate of human rights (1884-1962)

Frances Perkins

U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet.

Dow Jones Index

Index of 30 largest largest and most widely held public companies in the United States.

New Deal

The name of President Roosevelt's program for getting the United States out of the depression

Relief, Recover, Reform

Established to serve the "three Rs" Relief for the people out of work, Recovery for business and the economy as a whole, and Reform of American economic institutions

Great Depression

a severe, world wide economic crisis which lasted from the end of 1929 to the outbreak of World War II.