Economic and Cultural Changes in South Carolina (1920s-1945)

Credit

an arrangement to pay later; in the 1920s many people bought goods like radios on credit

Boll Weevil

a small bug that eats cotton fibers- it is a major pest in the American south and caused many crop failures in the 1920s

Struggles of SC Farmers

the struggles of farmers included lower demands for crops after WWI, boll weevils and drought, and low production rates which meant that farmers could not pay back their loans

Migration

over 80% of male highschool graduates left the state

Harlem Renaissance

a celebration of Black literature, music, theater, and visual arts centered in New York City's Harlem District

Charleston Renaissance

a movement in which artists, writers, musicians, historians, and preservationists wanted to preserve the history and architecture of Charleston

Langston Hughes

a leading writer in the Harlem Renaissance

Alice Smith

a watercolor artist who led the way to preserving and restoring historic Charleston

Jazz Age

The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity

Dizzy Gillepsie

native South Carolinian Jazz Age bandleader, composer, singer, and trumpet virtuoso

Depression Cycle

People lose their jobs → they cannot buy things → stores close → they do not order from factories → factories do not get orders → they produce less → people lose their jobs

October 29, 1929

Black Tuesday: the day of the stock market crash

Bank Failures

caused by banks borrowing money to speculate in the stock market and running out of cash

Barter System

South Carolinians had to trade goods for other goods and services because many did not have cash

South Carolina in the Depression

started in the 20s- cotton prices fell further and people had to barter because very few people had cash

Herbert Hoover

president of the United States at the start of the depression- he did not believe that it was the government's role to get involved in the economy

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

elected president during the depression he created many new deal programs and led the United States during World War II

The New Deal

created by FDR this was a new deal of cards for the American People and created many jobs and programs during the 1930s

New Deal Programs

public service programs designed to provide jobs for workers and improve American's lives and the country's infrastructure

Hirohito, Hitler, and Mossolini

the axis of evil

December 7, 1941

the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack on this day

SC Military Bases

Colombia Air Force Base, Charleston Naval Shipyard, Camp Croft, Fort Jackson

Fair Employment Practices

FEPC an executive order from FDR began the process of desegregation in the Armed Forces

Doolittle Raid

a group of 80 men who trained in Columbia SC and launched a surprise attack on Japan on April 18, 1942

James Doolittle

an American General and flyer who trained and led the Doolittle Raid

Navajo Code-talkers

a group of Native Americans who created an unbreakable code using the Navajo language

Rationing

the government needed to be sure that the Armed Forces had what they needed, so the American people used ration stamps to ensure that goods stayed available for troops

Help from Home

Americans grew victory gardens, collected scraps to recycle, and made knitwear to help the war effort

War bonds

essentially a loan to the government that private individuals would be repaid with interest- many celebrities helped sell war bonds

Pow camps

South Carolina had several prisoner of war camps where foreign prisoners were kept sometimes helping with farm work

Holocaust

Hitler's final solutions to exterminate the Jewish people- 11 million people were killed

Japanese Democide

Japan's indiscriminate murder of 11 million people (mostly Chinese citizens) by experimentation and cruelty

Harry S. Truman

United States president at the end of World War II

The Manhattan Project

A secret project which led to the development of the Atomic Bomb

Potsdam Declaration

Truman's ultimatum demanding unconditional surrender of the Japanese leading up to the Atomic bombing of Japan

VE Day

May 8 1945 was the end of the war in Europe

VJ Day

August 15, 1945 was the end of the war in Japan

Nagasaki

one of two cities that the Americans used the Atomic Bomb against

Hiroshima

one of two cities that the Americans used the Atomic Bomb against

Post-war economy

many South Carolinians feared a return to the 1920s, but post-war America's economy was better than ever after the war