Social Science Section 1

Social Science cards for 2026 Academic Decathlon

“He Kept Us Out of the War”

A campaign slogan used by President Woodrow Wilson during the 1916 presidential election, emphasizing his efforts to maintain U.S. neutrality in World War I.

The League of Nations

During the 1919 Peace Conference, what did Wilson succeed in incorporating within the treaty of Versailles?

A severe stroke that incapacitated him.

In the fall of 1919, what did Wilson suffer during a cross-country tour to promote the League of Nations?

A wave of repression and violence, leading to greater tensions between labor and government.

What were the workers strikes met with in various industries in 1919?

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer

Who led crackdowns on suspected Radicals during the 1919-1920 “Red Scare?”

Schenck v. U.S & Abrams v. U.S

Landmark Supreme Court cases that addressed the limits of free speech during wartime, establishing the "clear and present danger" standard.

The Great Migration

Between 1915-1920, over 1 million African Americans left from the South to northern cities, such as New York.

18th Amendment

Infamous amendment that banned Alcohol, taking effect in Jan. 17th, 1920. This is also the only amendment to be repealed in American history.

19th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote in the United States, ratified on August 18, 1920.

“Return to Normalcy”

Slogan by Warren G. Harding to campaign for the election of 1920

Washington Naval Conference

Conference to disarm and limits naval armaments across many powers.

Teapot Dome

Scandal in 1921 within the Harding Administration regarding bribery.

Calvin Coolidge

VP for Harding and acted as POTUS after Harding’s death. Pro-business and pro-limited gov’t, overseeing the Roaring 20s and won the 1924 election.

Farmers and agriculture sector

Suffered economically as other industries were booming

Dawes Plan

Plan to stabilize the global economy and help with German debt through complex loans and reparations relying on American credit.

Woodrow Wilson

President during the First World War, and was an architect of the League of Nations and 14 Points.

Fourteen Points

Peace plan by Wilson that endorsed, self-determination of smaller nations, free seas and trade, and ending secret diplomacy and shadow alliances.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Massachusetts Senator who frequently clashed with Woodrow Wilson

Reservationists

Group of senators consisting of Henry Lodge and 39 others to vote against the the of Nations if no significant reservations or amendments were passed

Mayflower

Private railcar taking Woodrow Wilson for his cross-country tour for a 3-week period

9981 mi

On Sep. 3rd, 1919, how long was Woodrow Wilson’s tour of the nation?

Woodrow Wilson (USA), David Lloyd George (UK), Georges Clemenceau (France), Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (Italy)

Who were the leaders of the US, UK, France, and Italy during the Versailles Conference?

4 million workers from over 100 labor unions for 5 days.

How long did the general strike in 1919 last, and how many workers chose to strike?

The International Workers of the World, who united with the American Federation of Labor in the Seattle strikes.

Who were the Wobblies?

In 1900, 500k were members of the AFL, by 1919, 4.169 million. This is compared to the IIW’s peak of 60k.

How many workers did the American Federation of Labor have membership to? How many did the IWW have?

Red Scare

Led by Mitchell Palmer, this was a full scale crackdown on worker’s unions following the bolshevik revolt in Russia on 1917.

Sedition Act

What bill had the Espionage Act been amended to in 1918 by Wilson and Congress? This bill restricted speech and protests to the government and war effort.

Homemade Bomb

On April 28th, what did Seattle mayor Ole Hanson receive in the mail? Senator Thomas Hardwick of Georgia got the same explosive gift, maiming his maid and wife, and 34 of this thing in NYC were intercepted.

$500k

How much did Congress give Palmer to suppress domestic terrorism?

General Intelligence Division (GID)

What did Palmer found within the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation (BOI)?

200k suspected individuals and organizations

How many files did Hoover log in his work in the GID, the agency before the FBI?

Palmer Raids

Various raids and crackdowns on unions, including the Union of Russian Workers.

Reds

Palmer’s catchall terms to those who opposed the crackdowns on left-wing movements

Schenck v. U.S

Supreme Court case allowing the U.S to suppress liberties during wartime

Debs v. U.S

Court case revolving around anti-war speech during wartime.

Abrams v. U.S

Supreme Court case where Holmes actually sided with the one against the U.S, considering his pamphlet to be insignificant and considers that Abrams wasn’t expressing Bolshevik sentiments that posed immediate danger to the U.S

Sacco and Vanzetti

2 Italian immigrants who were anarchists falsely charged with the death penalty for the murder of a security guard, and became a point in the reach and xenophobia of the Red Scare

Jim Crow

Set of laws discriminating against black people in the South after the Civil War. Leads to the Great Migration

Great Migration

When 1 million African Americans left the South for the North, which didn’t have Jim Crow, between 1915 to 1920.

Sharecroppers

Basically pseudo-slavery where freedmen got paid in a small amount of crops on a plantation which they worked at. They struggled adjusting to the urban life of the North during the Great Migration

Black Bottom, Bronzeville, Black Mecca (Harlem).

Nicknames for different neighborhoods and one such nickname for a borough in NYC.

Harlem Renaissance

Movement in the rise of African literature, music, art, and overall, a boom in African American culture in the 1920s.

Jazz

Music genre arisen from New Orleans to NYC and the Mississippi River in the Harlem Renaissance with musicians such as Jolly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and King Oliver.

The Chicago Defender

Largest African American newpaper with a speak of 500k subscribers, and covered racial discrimination and violence

Creole Jazz Band

Band contained famed Louis Armstrong and King Oliver with hit records such as Dipper Mouth Blues

Charleston

Dance of 400 steps in awkward posture. Extremely popular dance in Harlem with the Lindy-Hop

Cotton Club and Roseland Ballroom

Two locations where Duke Ellington and Paul Whitman defined the Jazz Era

Harlem Hellfighters

Name for the 369th Infantry Division, one of the first all-black military units for World War I. Infantry Band led by James Reeses to spread Jazz to Europe

Josephine Baker

Girl in flapper attire who was famous in France after making a debut in Broadway musical “Shuffle Along”

Stalin in 1928

Who after taking power in the Soviet Union, did they ban Jazz music as an example of “bourgeoisie-capitalism,” and in what year?

Vulgar and immoral

How did some, especially in the South and social conservatives, feel about the spread of Jazz?

Red Summer

Coined by James Weldon Johnson, this term is used to describe the surge in racial violence from April to November 1919.

76

During 1919, how many lynchings occur? This was double of 1917, and the highest since 1904.

18. In cities such as Omaha, Philly, Houston, D.C, and Knoxville

How many race riots were there in 1919?

Elaine Massacre

When white mobs raided a church of sharecroppers in Phillips County, Arkansas. Due to return fire killing one man, a mob, joined by 500 federal troops, killed over 200 African-Americans over 5 days.

Eugene Williams

Stoned and drowned after straying to a segregated sector of a beach, his death led to a race riot leaving 38 dead and 500+ injured over a week’s course. Took place on July 27th, 1919.

Home Defense League

Organization who encited racial violence caused by racist and sensationalist news.

250 million

How much dollars worth of liberty bonds were bought by African-Americans during WWI?

400k

How many African-Americans had enlisted to fight in WWI?

Marcus Garvey

Born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica in 1887, and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

“To match fire with hellfire” and for a “new emancipation.”

What did Garvey call to prepare for after the race riot in Omaha, and what did he announce for?

To abandon the U.S to return to Africa.

What did Garvey call for African-Americans to do involving migration?

The Negro World

Newspaper by the UNIA that reached up to 50k-200k subscribers.

2 million

What was the peak number of UNIA membership?

Liberty Hall

The 6000-seat headquarters of the UNIA

Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall

On August 1920, 25000 supporters of Garvey gathered on these two locations to hear out Garvey’s denouncement of the treatment of Africans in the U.S.

African Legion and the Black Cross Nurses

This part of the UNIA and their female auxiliary marched through Harlem alike to a military parade or Napoleon, and aimed to subvert negative stereotypes of submission.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Led by W.E.B Du Bois, a more peaceful ivil rights group that stood as the rival of the UNIA.

Black Star Line

What shipping company did Garvey own that led to his arrest of a felony for mail fraud, leading to the UNIA’s collapse?

Volstead Act

Infamous law banning the consumption, sale, and transport (but not owning) of alcohol.

0.05%

During Prohibition, what percent of alcohol was forbidden in drinks?

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Women’s movement that pushed for the ban on alcohol, on account of degrading morals in the United States

German-Americans

This group of immigrants were targeting during the war as spies, and for their relationship to alcohol.

62 million and 52 million

What were the respective population of urban and rural dwellers.

Went to “speakeasies” to get contraband alcohol, or went to exempt places, such as wine-providing churches or doctors. Smuggling from Canada and the Caribbean were also prevalent.

How did people went around the Volstead Act?

Poor pay, corruption, small personnel force, hated by public

What were the main problems that federal agent have when enforcing Prohibition?

Their stance on Prohibition

During the 20s, what was one of the most important concerns that voters had on a politician?

Dry Counties

What were counties in the U.S called before Prohibition that banned alcohol?

30

How many states had defunded their agency enforcing Prohibition by 1927?

Wyoming

What state was the first to allow women’s voting rights?

Jeanette Rankin

First woman to take up a national office, specifically a House representative for Montana.

National Women’s Party (NWP)

Led by Alice Paul, this women’s organization was more militant, using tactics inspired by British suffragettes to protest for voting rights for women.

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

Led by Carrie Chapman, this moderate women’s organization rejected the NWP’s ways as unpatriotic, and stressed on the Women’s Land Army of America to advocate for women’s rights.

Chained themselves to the White House gates and started a hunger strike.

What did Alice Paul and other arrested women were arrest for, and how did they respond?

Forcefeeding via tubes down to the esophagus.

What did prison officials do to feed the striking women, causing public outrage and pushed for more women’s rights?

Due to disenfranchisement and not-so different voting patterns, women never really changed how politicians do.

After the 19th amendment, what happened to turnouts after?

From 2 million to only 100k, a 95% decrease.

How badly did the NAWSA membership drop between 1920-30?

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Pivoted by the NWP, this bill was meant to end all discrimination on the basis of sex. Shot down in both the 20s and 70s due to concerns of losing landmark legislation for women.

League of Women

Organization that led the charge for the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act

Act in 1921 securing funding for women to have health and maternity care. Phased out in 1929.

Marian Daily Star

The newspaper that Harding ran before heading to national office.

6th out of 8th

In the primary, how many candidates were for the Ohio primary for Republican nomination, and what was Harding’s rank there?

36795

How many voters did Harding gain out of the 1,089,307 Ohioan voters during the primaries?

Felt the most ordinary. Not too high of ambitions, which people were wary of after Wilson’s administration.

What was a thing that Harding had over other candidates?

Marion, Ohio

Instead of large campaigns, Harding chose to debate on the from his porch in what city and state?

James Cox

Former governor of Ohio that lost to Harding.

60.1% of the popular vote, and 404 of 531 electors of the Electoral College.

How many voters did Harding win over Cox, and how many electors did Harding win?

5:5:3 ratio

Limited amount of capital chips for U.S, U.K, and Japan respectively.

Overwhelming public and bipartisan support, with some concern regarding loss of American hegemony.

How did people feel about the Washington Treaty?

11 American ships to 125 Japanese ships.

How many ships did the U.S build compared to Japan between 1925-1929?