1920-1929: Tensions Flashcards
Which % of people lived below the poverty line?
60%
Which % of Blacks lived in the South?
70%
What did industry wages increase by relative to profit?
Profit increased 60%, wages only increased 8%
Which censorship measure was imposed on Hollywood?
the Hays Code - cinema blamed for looser sexual morality
Which % of people owned a radio by 1930?
40%
What did the 1917 Lever Act do?
Banned the use of grain in alcohol production
How many gangland murders were there in Chicago?
227, link to St Valentine’s Day massacre
How many speakeasies did Washington DC have?
700
Which % of alcohol was actually intercepted?
An estimated 5%
What was the estimated value of bootlegging?
$800 million by 1924
How much did George Remus make from bootlegging?
$5 million in 5 years
What was the value of bootlegging between Canada and Detroit?
$215 million annually
When and how many prohibition Enforcement Agents fined for corruption?
1929 - 10%
How many Prohibition Agents were there?
1,500 - only 200 in NY (32,000 speakeasies)
How much did deaths from alcohol increase?
600%
How many of the 1920s breweries reopened after Prohibition was repealed?
Only 1/2
How much did alcohol consumption fall by?
One third
Name a famous and successful prohibition enforcer
Moe Smith, Izzy Einstein
How much did the government spend on prohibition
$2 million ($5 million requested)
Which act introduced prohibition?
1920 Volsted Act (18th Amendment)
Which groups supported prohibtition
KKK- 5 million members in 1925
Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Anti-Saloon League
When was 50million litres of alcohol found and destroyed?
1929
What happened to Coca-Cola stock?
Doubled
How many speakeasies were there in New York/
32,000 - only 200 enforcement agents
Who famously accepted Prohibition bribes?
Harry Daugherty
Which Governor refused to spend money on Prohibition
Governor of Washington (700 speakeasies)
Which % of lawyers’ time was spent on Prohibition cases?
44% - led to minimal punishments eg fines
When was Prohibition repealed?
By FDR, 21st Amendment 1933 (Beer-Wine Revenue Act)
How much could stills be bought for to produce alcohol?
Only $7
When was the Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’?
1925
Where was the Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’?
Tennessee, 1925
When was ‘The Passing of the Great Race’ published?
1916 - book on eugenics
When were literacy tests introduced for immigrants?
1917
What did Wilson say during WW1?
There was a need for ‘100% Americanism’
When did an Italian anarchist blow himself up?
1919
How many bombs were found in NY for ‘enemies of the revolution’?
16 in post offices, 18 elsewhere
Where was a new department set up to control the ‘red scare’?
Within the Department of Justice
When were the Palmer Raids?
1920
How many arrests and deportations were made relating to the Red Scare?
5000 arrests, 500 deportations
When and what was the Sacco and Vanzetti case?
2 violent robberies 1919 and 1920, executed in 1927
2 immigrants, Sacco and Vanzetti, were reported and convicted despite the lack of evidence - biased judge
Why did the South worry about immigration?
Lots of immigrants went to the North - they worries about representation in politics
What was another cause of resentment for immigration
From wage earners - worried that wages would reduce/they would not be hired
Which policies were introduced limiting immigration?
1921 Emergency Quota Act (370,000p.a.)
1924 Quota Act (164,000p.a.)
How many members and lynchings did the KKK have up to 1877?
1/2mil members, around 3,000 lynchings
What sparked the reemergency of the Klan?
War, immigration, ‘Birth of a Nation’ film in 1915
Who re-established the KKK?
Doc Simmons
How many members did the KKK have 1921 compared to 1925?
1921- 10,000 members
1925 - 5 million members
What were some tactics used by the KKK?
Lynchings, terror, financial blocking, influencing elections
When was Doc Simmons joined by Elizabeth Tyler and Edgar Clark?
1920
When did Tyler and Clark leave the Klan and why?
1924 - Tyler died, Clark arrested for fraud
Who was the head of the Indiana KKK?
David Stephenson virtually controlled Indiana by 1924 - jailed for rape in 1925
What was the membership of the KKK by 1930?
Dropped to 200,000
Where was the majority membership of the KKK?
25% in Old South, 40% in Indiana, Ohio and Ilynois
What did historian Blee say about the KKK?
‘Membership was not restricted to poor, downtrodden Americans’
Name an example of the KKK influencing politics
Blocked the Democratic nomination of Al Smith in 1924
Organised a march on Washington in 1926
2 senators in Georgia were in the KKK
Influenced elections, ie in Ohio and Maine
How many lynchings were there in the 1920s?
227
What reduced the KKK membership?
More immigration policies
Financial scandals
DC Stephenson rape case 1925
Tyler’s death, Clark arrested for fraud
How were Native Americans discriminated against?
Confined to infertile reservations; children forced to go to boarding schools; forced conversion to Christianity
However, given US citizenship in 1920
Which % of Native Americans died and how?
90% - from illness, famine and genocide
Which % of the population were African-American?
10% - but 85% of the population in the poor South US
How did African Americans suffer discrimination?
Jim Crow laws Lower education meant they could not vote Discrimination in housing and employment 25 states had race riots in 1919 KKK, ghettoes
Which movements were set up to help the Black Civil Rights?
NAACP - 1909 by W DuBois
UNIA - Marcus Garbey, 1914
How many members did the NAACP have by 1919
90,000
Won their 1st case against the ‘grandfather clause’ (voting) in 1915
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882?
Restricted Chinese immigration, made permanent in 1902. 1st law banning a specific ethnicity. Not repealed until the 1940s.
When were women given the right to vote?
19th Amendment in 1920
However no obvious changes: no gender revolution, voted similarly to men (and less likely to vote), few entered politics
How many women were in the House of Representatives by 1928?
Only two
When was the Equal Rights Amendment first proposed?
In 1923, but failed until 1972
How many women were employed in 1930?
10.5 million - 1 million in professions, 3.5 million in domestic services
Growth in clerical sector increased employment for women
(however often paid less)
Where was the increasing affluence of women evident?
The cosmetic industry, which was worth $200 million annually
What did the ‘Middletown’ (Alabama) study show?
86% owned their own homes and 99% had electricity, illustrating the increasing affluence.
However huge divide between MC and WC - for instance, 100% of MC had telephones but only 50% WC did
Which % of rural areas had running water?
Only 32%
