The Downfall of the United States

What were the 2 main temperance organisations against prohibition?

Anti-Saloon League

Women's Christian Temperance Union

What are the arguments for prohibition? (2)

1) Alcohol damages family life

2) Health issues particularly mental health

What groups of people supported prohibition? (2)

1) Politicians backed it because it won them votes in rural areas

2) Industrialists as they believed workers would be more reliable

How effectively was prohibition put into practice initially?

21 states banned saloons in 1916

Who were dries?

Supporters of prohibition

What were the arguments of most dries? (3)

1) Claimed that 3000 infants smothered yearly in bed by drunken parents

2) Drinkers accused of being unpatriotic cowards during WW1 _ the big breweries were run by Germans

3) Communism supposedly thrived on alcohol and led to lawlessness in cities destroying immigrant communities

When was the 18th Amendment ratified and what did it entail?

1917, prohibiting the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors

What is the Volstead Act?

18 Amendment made clearer

How long did prohibition last?

1920-1933

What were the general results of prohibition?

Levels of alcohol consumption dropped about 30% in the early 1920s

How was Prohibition enforced? (2)

1) Information campaigns

2) Prohibition agents arrested offenders e.g., Moe Smith and Isadore Einstein who made 4392 arrests

Why was Prohibition hard to enforce in cities? (3)

1) Not enough money to finance all the raids

2) Not enough agents and they were poorly paid and responsible

3) People simply didn't obey the law

Who was George Cassidy?

Bootlegger for members of Congress making around 25 deliveries of alcohol to Congress weekly and when he was finally caught he was only given 18 months

How much did Al Capone make from speakeasies and what was his famous quote on Prohibition?

$60 million annually claiming that 'Prohibition is business' and all he does is 'supply a public demand

What was moonshine?

Illegal whiskey

How did Prohibition lead to corruption?

Local government officials were bribed and many law officers were involved in the liquor trade e.g., Roy Olmstead fired for importing alcohol then becoming a full time bootlegger going on to build

Who were some main gangsters? (3)

1) Dan O'Banion - Irish leader murdered by Al Capone

2) Pete and Vince Guizenberg (died in Valentines Day Massacre)

3) Lucky Luciano - Italian murderer who spent 10 years done

What were some key moments in Al Capones life? (2)

1) Built up huge network of corrupt officials among Chicago's police, govt, lawyers and others in power

2) By 1929, Capone committed 300 murders at least destroying the influence of other gangs

What was the Valentine's Day Massacre?

1929, Capone's men murdered seven of Moran's gang using a fake police car and 2 gangsters in police uniform as bait

Why was Prohibition ended? (3)

1) St Valentine's Day Massacre showing that Prohibition didn't stop lawlessness and only increased competition

2) Corrupt people in power

3) Wall Street Crash October 1929 - legalising alcohol would provide jobs and increase tax revenue and free up resources used to enforce Prohibition

What was the 'Red Scare'?

Fear of communism leading to prejudice against Eastern Europeans as Americans were scared they would try and bring communism over and revolt leading to disturbances e.g., 400,000 (seen as communist interference) strikes and 25 race riots

What are anarchists?

People who opposed the government

What were the justifications for fear of communist interference? (4)

1) Anarchists publishing pamphlets calling for the overthrow of the government

2) April 1919, bomb planted in Milwaukee church killing 10

3) May 1919, bombs posted to 36 prominent Americans

4) June 1919, bombs went off in 7 cities almost killing attorney-general Mitchell Palmer

What were the Palmer Raids?

In response to the violence, those would radical beliefs would be rounded up (usually immigrants with flimsy evidence against them). J. Edgar Hoover, appointed by Palmer, built up files of 60,000 and in 1919-20 around 10,000 were informed they'd be deported

Who were Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti?

Italian immigrants convicted of murder in 1921 mostly due to their radical ideas as well as prejudice and xenophobia and finally executed in 1927

What statement did Judge Thayer of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial make?

They are "morally culpable because he is the enemy of our existing institutions"

What was America's reaction to the Red Scare (2) and what were the consequences?

1) Ensuring largest proportion of immigrants came from Western Europe

2) No Asians allowed at all

1 million immigrants a year from 1901-1910 -> 150,000 by 1929

Why were Jim Crow Laws introduced?

After slavery ended, there were more African Americans than white people in the south so to ensure that they didn't overpower the white people they tried to control the freedom of black people

What were some key moments for the KKK? (3)

1) Started after Civil War by white Americans to make sure they stayed in power

2) Died down in 19th century but started up again after release of 'The Birth of a Nation' in 1915 of which President Wilson said was 'terribly true'

3) Rapidly spread in 1920s and by 1924 there were 4.5 million members including politicians like governors of Oregon and Oklahoma

What is one case of lynching that happened during the 1920s in America?

In 1930, 16yro James Cameron and two other men accused of rape and murder of white people and jailed in Indiana until a mob broke in intending to lynch them and only James survived

What were some of the achievements and opportunities that African Americans did have? (4)

1) Howard University set up exclusively for black people and overall better opportunities up north

2) 'Black capitalist' movement encouraging black people to start up their own businesses and boycott stores that didn't employ black people

3) Harlem Renaissance which also became a magnet for white customers

4) Paul Robeson, lawyer turned singer

What is the NAACP and what did they achieve?

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded by W.E.B DuBois with around 9000, stood for the end of segregation and laws against lynching and eventually lynching did fall but not much else

What was UNIA and what did it stand for?

Universal Negro Improvement Association, founded by Marcus Garvey, urged African Americans to be proud of their race and also helped them to move to Africa. There were also many UNIA businesses and stores

What were the limitations put against black people?

1) Life expectancy = 48 in 1930 whereas white people had a life expectancy of 59

2) Poor in the north with worse housing but higher rents

3) Poorer education and health services

What were athletic clubs?

Irish and Polish American gangs beating up African Americans for attempting to use their parks and playgrounds