Changing America

Anarchy

Absence of government.

Communists

People who support or believe the political philosophy in which goods are owned in common and the state owns the means of production.

Dawes Plan

Plan to assure that Germany was able to pay reparations after WWI.

Demobilization

Move from wartime to peacetime economy and society.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Investigative agency – part of Department of Justice.

Fordney-McCumber Act

Raised taxes on imported goods to try and protect American industry.

Immigration

Influx of people moving to America from other countries.

J. Edgar Hoover

FBI leader.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Racial terror group started after the Civil War, expanded to incite violence against immigrants, Catholics, and Jews.

Labor Unrest

Post-World War I demand for better working conditions led to many strikes.

Nativism

Policy of favoring the native born rather over immigrants.

Normalcy

Attempt to return to pre-War 'normal' conditions.

Palmer Raids

Raids on suspected communists ordered by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and carried out by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

Protective Tariffs (Smoot-Hartley)

Taxes on imported goods designed to protect American industry by making foreign made goods more expensive.

Quota System

A plan to limit immigration by imposing restrictions on how many from each country could enter the United States.

Sacco & Vanzetti Trial

Italian born anarchists executed for a murder; many felt they were treated unfairly and were persecuted for their beliefs.

Social Unrest

The rise of the KKK, nativism, Prohibition, and religious fundamentalism in addition to new social norms led to a decade of tensions.

'The Business of America is Business'

Quote attributed to Calvin Coolidge promoting American free-market capitalism.

Vladimir Lenin

Communist leader of the Soviet Union.

Air Conditioning

Invention by Willis Carrier.

Alfred Dupont

American industrialist and financier.

Assembly Line

Process of assembling a product as it moves along with each worker responsible for one step in production; greatly reduced production time.

Bull Market

Stock prices rising.

Buying on the Margin

Buy stock on credit.

Consumerism

Increased interest in buying consumer goods.

Economic Boom

Rapid economic expansion.

Florida Land Boom

Postwar prosperity enabled many people to travel and invest in real estate; burst in 1925.

Installment Buying Plans

Credit system that enabled people to buy goods by paying over a pre-set period.

Materialism

Interest in obtaining material items.

Roaring Twenties

Period of rapid economic growth and social change.

Speculation

Purchasing stocks and other investments in the hopes that they will increase in value.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall gave rights to US held oil reserves in exchange for bribes.

18th Amendment 1920

Banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol.

21st Amendment 1933

Repealed the 18th Amendment.

Al Capone

Chicago gangster and bootlegger.

Al Jolson

Singer and actor known for appearing in blackface; starred in the 1st talking movie.

Bessie Smith

African American blues singer of the 1920s.

Bootlegger

Term used for someone who sold alcohol illegally.

Carter G. Woodson

African American scholar who introduced Negro History Week which has now become Black History Month.

Duke Ellington

African American pianist, composer, and leader of a jazz orchestra.

Earnest Hemingway

'Lost Generation' American journalist and novelist; wrote The Sun Also Rises.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Author of The Great Gatsby.

Flappers

Young women who defied social norms by wearing shorter dresses, cut their hair, drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes, and visited speakeasies.

Fundamentalist Movement

Reaction to the changing social norms of the 1920s – movement to a stricter interpretation of biblical beliefs.

Great Migration

Movement of millions of African Americans from the South to the North in search of employment and as escape from racial terror.

Harlem Renaissance

African American artists flourished in Harlem, a predominantly black NYC neighborhood – music, art, writing, and more.

James Weldon Johnson

African American civil rights activist and a leader of the NAACP.

Jazz Age

Time of increased prosperity and loosened social norms.

Langston Hughes

African American writer and a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

Lost Generation

Generation that came of age after World War I, in a time of increased prosperity and changing society.

Louis Armstrong

African American bandleader and trumpet player; part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Florida novelist who wrote of rural themes.

Organized Crime

Organizations created for the purpose of illegal activities; in the 1920s often focused on the illegal manufacture, sale and distribution of alcohol.

Prohibition

Time from 1920 – 1933 when alcohol was illegal or prohibited.

Scopes Trial

Example of religious fundamentalism – Tennessee biology teacher John Scopes was convicted for teaching about evolution in defiance of law requiring him to teach creationism.

Sinclair Lewis

First American writer to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Speakeasy

An establishment that served alcohol illegally.

Volstead Act

Law that carried out the provisions of the 18th amendment.

Zora Neale Hurston

African American writer who portrayed racial struggles in her works.

19th Amendment 1920

Voting rights were not restricted due to gender.

Back to Africa

Marcus Garvey’s movement for African Americans to escape racism by establishing a colony in Liberia in Africa.

Booker T. Washington

African American, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, encouraged African Americans to concentrate on industrial education to gain equality.

Marcus Garvey

African American civil rights activist and leader of the Back to Africa Movement.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Universal Negro Improvement League

Started by Marcus Garvey to promote racial pride, economic self-sufficiency and advocated for African Americans to move to Liberia.

W.E.B. DuBois

African American civil rights leader, founder of the Niagara Movement to demand racial equality and the first director of the NAACP.

100% Americanism

Post-World War I intense patriotism and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Ocoee Election Day Massacre

1920 Election Day violence against African Americans attempting to vote, led to countless murders and the destruction of the African American community.

Rosewood Massacre

1923 incident in northwest Florida that led to the destruction of an entire African American community.