1920s social tensions Flashcards
Melting Pot
WASPs, Polish, Russian, Italian, German, some Asians
Sacco and Vanzetti
Italian immigrants. anarchists. tried for armed robbery of a shoe factory and murder 1921. Due to prejudice against socialists, communists, and anarchists. case had many witnesses but most were not able to identify Sacco or Vanzetti. They were not guilty beyond reasonable doubt
What was prohibition
18th amendment to the constitution. illegal to export, import, manufacture, sell, or transport intoxicating liquors. Jan 1920 to Dec 1933.
Why was prohibition introduced
Pushed by Woman’s Christian Temperance Union mainly from rural midwest America. main arguments: correlation between crime and alcohol consumption, alcohol was the leading cause of industrial inefficiency
World War 1 on prohibition
brewers were often German. Vital grain could be used to feed allies instead of making alcohol. Increase in workforce productivity. Morally wrong to drink when people were dying in war.
Why prohibition failed
insufficient government action, funding, and commitment. Many prohibition agents, high ranking politicians, and judges were corrupt. people found loopholes in the law eg making moonshine or just going to illegal speakeasies. Lead to more organised crime in gangs selling alcohol due to high profit margins
Experience of Black Americans
poorest and most disadvantaged. dealing with racism and segregation. many moved to the north which overcrowded cities. those who moved north faced a bit less racism but were still stuck with low paying jobs.
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem was a neighbourhood in New York with many African American artists. musicians, writers, actors
The KKK
first in 1864-65 after end of slavery. revived in 1915 with the “birth of a nation” film. Modern klan founder William J Simmons. oppose African Americans, foreigners, communists, Catholics, Jews, Darwinists, Modernists, Liberals. defending WASP ‘American values’. Senators, judges, politicians, even former secretary of state was part of KKK. KKK Lynched and beat people
Monkey Trials
Tennessee teacher John Scopes challenges law banning teaching of evolution in Tennessee. First courtroom trial on radio. Defended by most famous criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow. guilty but a win for the modernists as it ridiculed religious fundamentalists who resist modern science. A result of tensions between traditional and modern values in 1920s America
Red Scare
bolshevik Revolution in Russia made threat of communist revolution more real
International Workers of the World IWW led strikes which some feared could start the communist revolution.
anarchist led bombings targeting government members
palmer raids. violent, abusive raids targetting leftists. deports those he thought of as ‘reds’
threatened american capitalist way of life
