Lecture 8: The Roaring Twenties and Jim Crow

Lecture 8: The Roaring Twenties and Jim Crow

Background

• Post-World War I: The US is victorious but faces domestic issues.
• Problems brewing: Race issues, labor unrest, and economic concerns.
• These problems dominate Woodrow Wilson's last years and his successors' presidencies.

The Great Migration

• 1900-1940: Large-scale movement of African Americans from the Deep South to the North, Midwest, and West.
• 1900: Approximately 90% of African Americans resided in the South.
• By 1910: African Americans were fed up with poverty, segregation, violence, racism, and white supremacy, despite the Civil War ending 50 years prior.
• Motivations for moving:
  • Seeking factory jobs and industry opportunities in the North.
  • The Industrial Revolution was not prominent in the Deep South.
  • Industries actively recruited African Americans, e.g., Carnegie Steel sending agents to the South.
  • Reduced immigration during World War I created more job opportunities.
• By 1930: Over 1 million blacks had moved North and West.
• New racial tensions emerged:
  • Northern cities were not accustomed to large African American populations.
  • Racism and segregation began to appear in the North.
  • Labor unions were unwelcoming to African Americans, missing the opportunity to increase their influence by including them.
  • African Americans formed their own unions due to exclusion.

Race Riots

• Over 25 US cities experienced race riots during this period, especially in 1919.
• Locations: Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Atlanta, Omaha, among others.
• Common characteristics:
  • Initiated by white mobs, often due to misunderstandings or false accusations.
  • Rumors and false stories escalated tensions, leading to violence.
  • White mobs attacked black neighborhoods, resulting in deaths, injuries, and property destruction.
  • The army was often deployed to quell the violence.

Homeowners Associations (HOAs)

• HOAs initially designed to promote segregation.
• Actively worked to exclude African Americans from certain city areas.
• Some HOAs engaged in violent tactics, such as bombings in Chicago.

Tulsa Race Massacre

• 1921: Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as "Black Wall Street," was a prosperous African American neighborhood.
• Incident: A young black man tripped in an elevator, bumping into a white woman, leading to escalating rumors of assault and rape.
• White mobs attacked the Greenwood District over two days.
• Consequences:
  • Hundreds killed, thousands injured.
  • Thousands of homes destroyed.
  • Approximately 34,000,000 in damages.
  • Law enforcement aided the white mobs.
  • The local sheriff's department used an airplane to shoot at people.
• The Greenwood District was almost entirely destroyed.
• Residents moved away, and the area never fully recovered.
• The event was omitted from local and state history textbooks for decades.
• Bodies from the massacre are still being discovered in mass graves.

Labor Problems

• Post-war issues: Soldiers return, industry declines, women are fired.
• Job losses: Factories reduce employment due to decreased production.
• Rising inflation: Increased cost of living.
• Strikes: In 1919, 1 out of 4 workers in the US went on strike.
• Lack of government support: Woodrow Wilson's promises to workers were abandoned after the war.

The Red Scare

• Fear of communism infiltrating American life due to the communist revolution in Russia (1917).
• Appealed to the working classes in America.
• Fear of a communist movement due to disgruntled workers.
• Political cartoon: A slippery slope from labor to strikes, riots, Bolshevism, murders, and chaos.
• Anarchist fears: Fear of anarchists undermining the government.
• Truth: Small communist and anarchist movements existed, but fears were largely irrational.
• Bombings: Anarchists mailed bombs to politicians, businessmen, judges, and journalists.
• Government overreach: Attorney General Mitchell Palmer led illegal raids.
• Palmer Raids: Raids led by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer against suspected radicals.
  • Over 10,000 people arrested, 600 deported.
  • Targeted immigrants, Jewish people, labor unions.
  • Illegal wiretaps and searches without warrants.
  • Conflict with the Department of Labor.
• J. Edgar Hoover: Appointed by Palmer to head a task force, aggressively targeting immigrants and minorities.
• Fear: People were afraid to speak out against the government due to fear of being targeted.
• Turning point: Brutal raids in January 1920 led newspapers to criticize Palmer, and staff members resigned in protest.
• ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union was founded to push back against Palmer's raids, citing violations of free speech, search and seizure, and due process.
• End of the Red Scare: Palmer's influence waned after Woodrow Wilson's administration ended.

Presidential Election of 1920

• Republicans: Nominated Senator Warren Harding of Ohio.
• Teddy Roosevelt: Died before the election, removing the risk of a split party.
• Democrats: Nominated James Cox, the governor of Ohio.
• Eugene Debs: Socialist candidate ran from federal prison after being charged with sedition.
• Rarity: Cox and Harding were both from Ohio.
• Issues: Reaction to Wilson's foreign policy and progressivism.
• Harding's message: Return to normalcy.
• First election covered by radio.
• Harding won in a landslide.

Warren Harding's Presidency

• Good president, popular.
• Actions:
  • Slashed government spending.
  • Cut taxes.
  • Federal Highway System.
  • Anti-lynching bill.
  • Hired more African Americans in the executive branch.
  • Commuted Eugene Debs' sentence.
• Death: Died suddenly in August 1923 due to heart failure.

Calvin Coolidge's Presidency

• Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.
• Policies: Conservative, quiet, intelligent, dry humor.
• Took office at his parents' house in Vermont, sworn in by his father (a local judge) in his pajamas.
• Continued Harding's policies.
• Economic boom.

Presidential Election of 1924

• Coolidge elected in his own right.
• Clear division: Democrats won the South, Coolidge won everything else except Wisconsin.
• Robert LaFollette: Won his home state of Wisconsin as a third-party candidate.

The Roaring Twenties

• 1920-1929: Wealth doubled, economic growth of 42%.
• Unemployment dropped to 3%.
• The US became the richest nation in the world.
• Mass consumerism: People buying more goods.
• National advertising and increased disposable income.
• Common products: People wore the same fashions, ate the same foods, listened to the same music, and saw the same movies.
• Return to normalcy: Promised by Harding in his campaign.
• Pushback on progressivism: Emphasis on individualism.
• Spread of culture: Mass communication and transportation accelerated the transfer of information and cultural changes.

Products of the Roaring Twenties

• Automobiles: Mass production made cars affordable for the middle class.
• Movies:
  • Silent films were replaced by talkies (films with sound).
  • "The Jazz Singer" (1927) was the first movie with dialogue, though it was problematic due to its use of blackface.
• Foods:
  • Branded foods became popular (Nabisco, Heinz, Kellogg's, Hershey's).
  • Packaged cereals, sliced bread, Velveeta cheese, Kool Aid, and Peter Pan peanut butter were introduced.
• Alcohol: Illegal due to Prohibition (1920-1933).

Technology of the Roaring Twenties

• Charles Lindbergh: First person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean nonstop in 1927.
• Telephones: Were in almost 10,000,000 homes.
• Electricity: Over 60% of American homes had electricity, enabling new appliances (washing machines, electric refrigerators, vacuums).
• Indoor plumbing: Became common for the average person, improving quality of life and sanitation.

Cultural Shift

• Jazz music: Originated in African American communities and became mainstream.
• Fashion: Flappers embodied the modern woman.
• Animation: Walt Disney released "Steamboat Willie" with Mickey Mouse in 1928.
• Sports: Increased attendance and participation in sporting events.
• Baseball: Games were broadcast on the radio, the teams became representations of their cities.
• Babe Ruth: Became a sports icon.

Mini Enlightenment

• Era of free thinking.
• Debate over evolution: Evolutionists (science) vs. fundamentalists (Bible).
• Scopes Trial:
  • 1925: John Scopes, a high school teacher, was arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee.
  • Clarence Darrow: Represented Scopes.
  • William Jennings Bryan: Represented the prosecution.
  • The trial was broadcast live on the radio.
  • Darrow argued for science and questioned strict Biblical interpretations.
  • Scopes was found guilty and fined 100.
  • Shift in American culture towards modernism, relying on science and facts.
  • The case drew national attention to the debate of traditional values versus modern values.
  • The laws forbidding the teaching of evolution in schools remained legal until 1968 when the United States Supreme Court finally strikes it down as a violation of free speech and violation of the freedom of religion.

Jim Crow and Racism

• Segregation: Implemented since the end of Reconstruction.

• Plessy versus Ferguson (1896): Legalized segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

  • The Supreme Court ruled that the amendment does establish legal equality between whites and blacks, it does not, could not, ever require the elimination of all distinctions based upon color.
  • In other words, the government is saying, yeah, the law says there's not supposed to be racism, but, you know, you really can't stop it and force people to accept another, so why try?
  • This fostered white supremacy and segregation.

• Jim Crow Laws: Racist laws enforcing segregation.

• Ku Klux Klan:

  • Re-emerged in 1915 after the film "Birth of a Nation."
  • Promoted Americanism and nativism, targeting African Americans, Catholics, Jews, communists, liberals, and modernists.
  • Used the Bible to justify their hatred.
  • Had nearly 8,000,000 members by the mid 1920's.
  • Carried out intimidation, suppression, and violence.

• Lynching:

  • Extrajudicial killings, usually of minorities.
  • Public spectacles, often photographed and sold as souvenirs.
  • Over 5,000 lynchings of African Americans between 1880 and US entry into World War II.
  • Targeted individuals suspected of crimes or those who offended white people.
  • Ku Klux Klan Day at the Texas State Fair: An overt display of white supremacist values.

Presidential Election of 1928

• Republicans: Nominated Herbert Hoover of California (Secretary of Commerce).
• Democrats: Nominated Al Smith, the governor of New York.
• Economy: Strong, likely Republican win.
• Racism: Al Smith was Catholic, which hurt his chances.
• Hoover won in a landslide.
• Smith still did well in the south, but republicans started to creep in as Smith lost Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida because he was catholic.

The Great Depression

• Economy: Hoover Inherited one of the best economies in U.S. history.
• Depression: Deep, long lasting, worldwide.
• Causes:
  1. Stock market crash: October 1929, triggered by Black Tuesday, impacted companies and individuals, no regulations for the market.
  2. Smoot Hawley Tariff Act: Protectionist tariff, trade between countries went almost non existent, causing economic issues for all sides.
  3. Structural weaknesses: Agricultural economy in bad shape.
  4. Unequal distribution of wealth: Most of the money went towards the top, leaving little for everyone else.
  5. Worldwide depression: Many European countries never recovered from World War I.
  6. Self perpetuating influences: People feared the economy would get bad, so they acted certain ways, causing it to become worse.
• Consequences:
  • Gross national product dropped by almost half.
  • Over 100,000 businesses failed.
  • 9,000 banks closed.
  • Nearly one out of every three Americans were out of work.