The 1920s

  • 1920, Republican Warren G. Harding. Pres 1921-1923   * Promised a “return to normalcy”

  • 1920 census: 50% urban, 50% rural   * Had been a mostly rural area before

  • Economy was explosive   * “Poverty will be over in a couple years”

  • 1923-1929: President Calvin Coolidge

  • Secretary of Treasury: Mellon   * Mellons were among the top 5 families in the US   * Tax cuts, especially for the wealthy

  • Cars   * More Americans are starting to purchase cars    * GM innovation: GMAC. people can buy cars on credit

  • Houses were built   * Generated and signified wealth

  • Radio introduced - consumer good, mass communication

  • Labor union membership dropped from 5M ➝ 3M   * Corporations started to offer benefits to their employees ➝ could afford to bc of the economy

  • 1915: KKK comeback at Stone Mountain   * Peak of membership in 1925   * Targeted blacks   * Also targeted immigrants, Catholics, and Jews   * Highest membership rates were in Indiana and Oregon     * Weren't many black people there - focused more on Jews, etc.

  • 1924 Immigration Act   * Ideas of the Klan are now policy   * “Only people here should have rights” ppl who’ve been there for a while. Nativism   * Reduced immigration. Went from 1M down to 200K   * Quotas on how many ppl could come from a certain country. Favored NE Europe (white people) and Mexico (for their workers)   * Lasted until 1965

  • 1861: Charles Darwin   * Published Origins of Species. Evolution and natural selection   * More mainstream in 1900s   * Protestants are Christians who attach a lot of significance to the Bible   * Catholics have the authority of the Pope - final word   * 1900s - public schools expanding   * By 1920s, Protestants will have split because of Darwin     * Evangelicals and mainline protestants     * Division over how to interpret the bible bc of darwin     * Evangelicals: literal understanding. Forget darwin     * Mainline: a lot of the bible is myth. Incorporate science and religion   * Two types: Baptists and Presbyterians     * Had evangelical baptists and mainline baptists, etc.     * Split the churches     * originally evangelical and mainline baptists, and evangelical and mainline presbyterians     * after the split, there were evangelical baptists, evangelical presbyterians, mainline baptists, and mainline presbyterians

  • By 1920s, 14 states banned the teaching of evolution in high schools

  • ACLU: started for freedom of speech   * Believed religion shouldn’t shape the government

  • 1925 Scopes Trial   * ACLU puts up ad in Tennessee for a teacher of evolution. Sacrifice: teach evolution and have trial     * Potential for ACLU to overturn law   * John Scopes (PE teacher) is the fall guy   * ACLU brings in the best defense attorney: Clarence Darrow   * Popular bc of radio   * William Jennings Bryan     * Hated the idea of Social Darwinism       * Social darwinism: If ppl are more powerful in society, let them be. No government regulation         * Antithesis of progressivism     * Opposes corporation     * Came to Tennessee to join prosecution     * Wanted to take down evolution so he can take down social darwinism   * Darrow puts Bryan on the stand and questions him on the Bible’s contradictions     * Bryan looks a fool - hasn’t studied the bible   * Scopes loses, pays $100 fine   * Bryan died a week later   * Scopes trial perpetuated idea of division between rural and urban areas     * City: people are good science ppl     * Rural: backwards christian (evangelical) ppl

  • 1968: Supreme Court declares all laws banning the teaching of evolution were unconstitutional

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