apush Unit 5: 1920s
Advertising in the 20s
"Buy now, pay later" 1) Middle-class taking loans and installment plans to get what they want 2) Consumer credit = accumulated debt = a factor in the economic bust in 1929.
Ku Klux Klan (cont.)
*Claimed their purpose to combat the modernization of America* -Not just in South--spreads to midwest -moral decline -Fueled by growing hostility towards immigration, divorce, organized gangs, sexual revolution *Maintain "pure" America* -Favored prohibition *Against organized labor, communism, socialism* *Political influence* -Bribing government officials and police
Other Divisions Within the US
*Modernism v. stability of tradition* Both secular and religious *Urban vs. rural* Those in rural areas thought the cities represented vice/sin. Thought the "wets" (those who drank at speakeasies) lived a provocative lifestyle. Rise of gangs. *Science vs. religion* Scopes Monkey Trial *Modern vs traditional art forms* Rise of modern art like impressionism. Very controversial. Picasso was very controversial Museum of Modern Art opened in 1929.
Four Powers Act 1922
- Japan, Great Britain, France, U.S. - Signed because East Asia was a critical foreign policy and there were growing tensions there. - Major achievement for President Harding, but it failed to address the underlying East-West international rivalries because it enforced European and American superiority over Japan.
"push" factors for African Americans
- violence (lynchings, beatings, etc.) - racism + discrimination (Jim crow laws, KKK) - lack of good work (sharecroppers)
Weakness in the Economy in the 1920s
1) Agriculture never recovered from the war because of the surplus of farmers after war so agriculture prices fell. 2) Coal and textiles suffered because of similar reasons to agriculture. 3) Rural people were in poverty in 1920s.
Labor Union struggles in 1920s
1) Business leaders fought against organized labor after the strike wave of 1919. 2) "The American Plan of employment". A plan employers used in which they refused to accept unions.Massachusetts Republican governor Calvin Coolidge endorsed this plan saying that unions threatened public saftey. Republicans rewarded him by nominating him for vice-presidency in 1920. 3) Supeme Court cases were an additional factor in labor union's decline.Coronado Coal Company v. United Mine Workers of America (1925): Court ruled a striking union could be punished for illegal restraint of trade. The American Plan + antiunion Supreme Court decisions = great decline in labor union membership from 1920 to 1929.
Great Migration during WWI + 20s
1) By 1920 500,000 blacks migrated to northern states and hundreds of thousands more were to move in coming years. 2) They moved for the economical opportunities provided by wartime jobs, for more political freedom, and an overall better lifestyle. 3)North had less racism than the south, but it was not entirely free of racism. Racial tensions were built up which caused race riots. 4) Race riots + Tensions led to the Red Summer which were bloody battles between whites and blacks in cities. Ex: July 1919, Chicago endured 5 days of rioting after a black teenager was killed on a Lake Michigan beach. Ex: Rosewood Massacre
Consumerism
1) Consumer products became more affordable to lower classes which spurred the economic boom. 2) Large corporations replaced small business. Some used Dollar Diplomacy to spread their company worldwide. 3)
Dollar Diplomacy
1) Foreign policy during the 20s 2) Continued in Latin America after WWI 3) Worked to advance U.S. business interests. It Encouraged private banks to make foreign loans. Policymakers wanted loans because it would increase the demand for U.S. products in devolping markets. Bankers wanted goverment guarantees of repayment in countries that were unstable. Loan guarantees + Military interventions = "Dollar Diplomacy" (Term coined by Samuel Guy Inman) Examples: - 1922 American banks offered an immense loan to Bolvia and State Department officials pressured Bolvia to accept it. The U.S. also intervened military to force repayment of debt. - U.S. marines occupied Nicaragua, - Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
The Palmer Raids
1) In November 1919, his agents captured and deported immigrats part of radical organizations who were innocent but held revolutionary beliefs. 2) January 1920, federal agents invaded homes and arrested 6,000 citizens and aliens, denying their access to legal counsel.
Why did Dollar Diplomacy fail?
1) It was corrupt. Loans got repaid helping banker's profits, but the money often ended up in the pockets of local elites. 2) Military invention also failed when U.S. soilders helped the Haitian elite by shutting down protests thus turning Haiti into a harsh dictatorship.
Causes + Events of the Red Scare
1) Labor strike wave after WWI. WWI increased the power of labor unions (Ex. The American Federation of Labor) and provided fair working conditions and pay to workers. Workers began to strike after the war because they wanted to keep these gains. This led to an increase in radicalism among workers. 2) After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union's new Bolshevik leaders founded the "Third International" with the intent to create revolutions abroad. This idea of revolutions brought fear into America that they had radicals like this during the Strike Wave. 3) Bomb scares. Bombs were discovered in mail addressed to government officials in April 1919. In June 1919 a bomb detonated outside the house of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. He used the incident to scare Americans and set up an antiradicalism divisim in the Justice Department. In 1935, this became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Palmer raids. 4) Sacco and Vanzetti Case Strike Wave + Anti-Bolshevism + Anti-Immigration + Anti-Radicalism+ Bomb scares and Mitchell Palmer = Red ScareV
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
1) May 1920 (the height of the Red Scare) Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested for the murder of two men during a shoe company robbery in Massachusetts. 2) They were Italian immigrants and anarchists. 3) Although supporters appealed their verdicts, Judge Webster Thayer denied a new trial and sentenced them to death in 1927. 4) This case is an example of the discrimination people of radical groups and foreign birth faced (especially during the Red Scare) by prosecutors since nobody knows if they were guilty or innocent.
Anti-Bolshevism during the 1920s
1) Ole Hanson. Wrote "Americanism Versus Bolshevism". He scared Americans that communists and radicals posed great threats to America, like the threat of revolution. 2) American Legion. A group whose goal was to make Americans see socialists, communists, and the labor union Industrial Workers of the World as and dangerous.
Opposers of Dollar Diplomacy
1) Samuel Guy Inman: He declared the U.S. could not continue destroying the sovereignty of other nations. 2) African American Leaders International Council of Women of the Darker Races + International League for Peace and Freedom: They exposed that U.S. soldiers raped Haitian women in 1926.
Warren G. Harding Presidency (1920-1923)
1) Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. He was known as the wartime head of Food Administration. The Commerce Department created 2,000 trade associations representing companies in every major industry. Government officials worked with these associations helping them prosper. 2) Lobbying Congress grew and became more sytematic in the 1920s. Business took the lead assuming a large role in the legislative process. 3) Corruption in his prescidency Ex: Teapot Dome Wyoming + Elk Hills California government oil reserves were released to private companies. 4) Died of a heart attack in 1923 5) Coolidge became president after his death.
Presidential Election of 1920
Democrat: James M. Cox Platform: Called for U.S. participation in the League of Nations and continuation of Wilson's Progressivism. Republican: Warren G. Harding Platform: Promised not nostrums but normalcy WINNER
Marcus Garvey
Founder, Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) -Lift up black culture, nationalism Founded the Black Star Line -Shipping line designed to transport goods and eventually people back to Africa. Found guilty of fraud and sentenced to prison -Coolidge deported him back to Jamaica (1927)
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem became a safehaven for blacks that moved to the north during the Great Migration. As a result, it became a cultural center for blacks since they could express themselves without white opression. This led to a political, social, and artistic movement: the Harlem Renaissance.
Examples of "Mass Production" during the 1920s
Henry Ford's Model T car - 1st affordable automobile. Made through assembly line production, so it was easy and quick to manufacture. One color made also made manufacturing quicker. 1st time car ownership became a reality for many Americans.
Anti-Immigration Legislation
Literacy Test Act- 1917 -->Required immigrants to pass a literacy test in English or their own native language Chinese Exclusion Act-1882
Consumerism in the 1920s was created by
Mass production + Higher wages/less hours + advertising + easy credit
Ku Klux Klan
Post-Civil War to late 1800s - targeted blacks, Jews, Catholics, alcoholics, immigrants, 1920s Resurgence, reached almost 5 million members -->Wanted a Protestant white America; halt moral decline Similar to nativist sentiment of the 1920s -Inspired by romantic view of "Old South" -Branded itself as a patriotic organization -Birth of a Nation movie 1915 Declines by 1925
18th Amendment (1919)
Prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages
Volstead Act (1920)
Provided for the enforcement of the 18th amendment Defined an "intoxicating drink" as more than .5% alcohol
Welfare Capitalism
REPLACED LABOR UNIONS A system of labor relations that stressed a companys responsibility for employee well-being. Examples: - Henry Ford pioneered this system before WWI, famously paying $5 per day. (However he cut back this in the late 1920s when faced with financial pressure) - General Electric and U.S. Steel provided health insurance and old-age ensions.
21st Amendment (1933)
Repealed 18th Amendment
Presidential Election of 1924
Republican: Calvin Coolidge Kept Republican dominance, called for limited government, tax cuts for business (business supporter). WINNER Democrat: John W. Davis Progressive: Robert La Follette Strong government regulation to prevent war. Progressive reform was fading and conservative impluse was stronger.
Tennessee's Butler Act (1925)
Restricted public school teachers from denying Biblical stories -Outlawed teaching Evolution American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) -Offered legal defense to anyone who broke a fundamentalist law (repealed in 1967)
Nativism & Immigration
Rising nativism led to anti-immigration laws -->Counterattack by Protestant America against immigrant cities Maintain distinct American identity -->Xenophobia -foreigners were ruining America with radical ideas, lack of morals, strange customs/culture
The Red Scare
Series of bombs mailed to people throughout US.Bomb exploded outside Att. Gen Mitchell Palmer's house. He created a division to investigate the bombings (FBI) w/ J. Edgar Hoover in charge. Would bust/round up places were immigrants gathered. No rights given to them, no trial, etc. Many deported. *Palmer Raids*
The Red Scare Impact:
The antiradical Red Scare + a massive strike wave + white violence againt African Americans slowed the pace of social change in America.
Religion vs. Science
Urban modernism vs. rural Christian fundamentalism. Scopes Monkey Trial- July 1925 -Tennessee -Drew huge crowds, media, radio -1925 Scopes arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution (violated Butler Act) -Case provided fundamentalist Christians an opportunity to silence those who questioned theory of creation that was in the Bible.
Flappers
Young women of the 1920s that behaved and dressed in an exubarant fashion. Example: Clara Bow
"pull" factors for African Americans
new job opportunities in factories, less racism in the north, economic opportunity
What qualities and characteristics defined the "New Negro?"
proud to be African-American, embraced their heritage, spoke up about issues that affected them, worked to gain equal rights