A Society in Transition: The 1920s

1
A Society in Transition The 1920s

• Ain't We Got Fun
• Performers Van and Schenk

2
The Roaring Twenties

• My candle burns at both ends
• It will not last the night
• But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends
• It gives a lovely light. Edna St. Vincent
  Millay

3

• The Jazz Age
• http//www.bassocantante.com/flapper/music.html

4
The New Era

• In olden days, a
• glimpse of stocking
• was looked at as
• something shocking.
• Now, heaven knows,
• anything goes.
• Cole Porter

5
Normalcy
6
A Return to Isolation
7
Culture and Tension in the 1920s

• A period of great contradiction of rising
  optimism
• and deadening cynicism, of increasing and
• decreasing faith, of great hope and great
  despair.
• native born American vs. immigrant
• rural born vs. urban raised
• whites vs. blacks
• fundamentalists vs. modernists
• Protestants vs. Catholics and Jews

8
A Conflict in Values Urban vs. Rural

• In the 1920s,
• Americans lived in
• larger communities,
• which produced a
• shift in values, or a
• persons key beliefs
• and ideas.

9

• The 1920 census showed that for the first time,
  more
• Americans lived in cities than in rural areas,
  and three-
• fourths of all workers worked somewhere other
  than a farm.

10
Conflicts over Values

• Cities represented
• changes that
• threatened rural
• values.
• During the
• 1920s, America
• would test these
• values in conflicts
• over immigration,
• fundamentalism
• and prohibition.

11
A Conflict in Values Rural vs. Urban

• In the 1920s, many people in
• urban areas had values that
• differed from those in rural areas.
• Urban Values
• City-Life
• Fast-paced, competitive
• Immigrants, Migrants
• Consumer society
• Jazz, movies
• Drinking, gambling, casual dating
• Liberal politics
• Embrace Change
• Science-oriented

12

• Rural America represented
• the traditional spirit of hard
• work, self-reliance, religion,
• and independence.
• Rural Values
• Small towns, farms
• Slower pace of life
• Close social relationships
• Traditional values
• Conservative morals
• Thriftiness, moderation, respectability
• Church-oriented
• Temperance

13
Anti-Immigrant Sentiments

• Nativist anit immigrant
• Some Americans feared the arrival of so many
  Catholics, Jews, unskilled laborers, and people
  not of Anglo-Saxon heritage with different
  languages and Customs who clustered together in
  ethnic communities. Nativist feelings were
  intensified by the actions of immigrant
  anarchists and socialists.

14
The National Origins Act of 1924

• This act used the 1890 census figures to create a
  quota system which largely excluded the new wave
  of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.
  The new law cut the quota for northern and
  western European countries by 29 percent, but
  slashed that for southern and eastern Europe by
  87 percent.
• The act banned immigration from east Asia
  entirely.
• In 1929, a new law limited immigration to 150,000
  persons a year.

15
Close the Gate.Literary Digest,
7/5/19.Originally from the Chicago Tribune
(Orr).
16

• The Ku Klux Klan
• grew dramatically
• in the 1920s.
• Members of the Klan used violence, targeting
  blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.
• The Klan also focused on influencing politics.
• The Klans peak membership was about 4.5 million
  with many in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio.

17
Why did people join the Klan?
18
The Ku Klux Klan The Invisible Empire
100 Americanism
Anti-black
Anti-immigrant
Anti-Catholic
Anti-Semitic
Anti-womens suffrage
Anti-bootleggers
Anti-union
19

• The Klan pledged to devote itself to purging
  American life of impure, alien influences and to
  protect traditional values. It worked to punish
  divorce and attempted to institute compulsory
  Bible reading in schools.
• The Klan operated as a fraternal society using
  rituals, costumes and secret language to
  attract followers..

• Canon City Klan, 1924

20

• Membership
• declined in the
• late 1920s
• because of a
• series of scandals
• affecting Klan
• leaders.

21

• Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921 Race Riot

22

• The Tulsa riot was triggered by the accusation of
  a white woman
• that a black man had attempted to sexually
  assault her. Tulsa
• police arrested the man. A white crowd gathered
  outside the jail.
• Several months before a similar crowd had lynched
  a white
• suspect. To stave off a lynching, a group of
  armed blacks drove to
• the jail and volunteered to help guard it. The
  authorities refused
• their offer. The blacks returned to their section
  of the city. Shortly
• afterward, a rumor of an impending attack on the
  jail impelled
• them to return. Again the police refused their
  help. But some
• whites in the crowd demanded that they disarm.
  They refused.
• One white moved to take a black man's rifle by
  force. There was a
• shot a white man fell dead. Blacks beat a hasty
  retreat to their
• cars. Whites milled about. Then they ran home to
  get weapons
• and, in largely uncoordinated bands, headed off
  to "Run the
• Negro Out of Tulsa.

23

• All through the night and into
• The morning thousands of
• white Tulsans invaded the
• black section of the city
• as smaller bands of blacks,
• some of them WWI veterans,
• fought to defend houses,
• businesses, and churches. By
• the time the governor
• ordered in the National
• Guard, the shooting was over.
• The entire black community
• Was a smoldering ruin.
• Hundreds were dead, most of
• them black. Thousands had
• fled the city, all of them
• blacks. No white was
• arrested. The city and state
• authorities failed to mount

24
The Scopes Trial, 1925 Represents Two Major
Issues of the 1920s The Conflict Between
Fundamentalism and Modern Protestantism and The
Clash Between Science and Religion
25
Fundamentalism vs. Modern Protestantism

• Fundamentalists believed in a literal
  interpretation of the Bible because they thought
  it was the inspired word of God. They were
  skeptical of scientific knowledge and argued all
  important knowledge could be found in the Bible.
  
• Modern Protestantism had gradually adapted to a
  society marked by the influence of science and
  the acceptance of diverse religious faiths.

26

• Fundamentalist ministers used the radio to spread
  their message.
• Sunday condemned radicals and criticized the
  changing attitudes of women, reflecting much of
  white, rural Americas ideals.
• McPherson was especially well known for healing
  the sick through prayer.
• http//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story
  Id9248328

• Billy Sunday Aimee Semple McPherson

27
Science vs. Religion

• Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the widely held
  notion that all life is related and has descended
  from a common ancestor. The theory presumes the
  development of life from non-life and stresses
  that complex creatures evolve from more
  simplistic ancestors naturally over time. As
  random genetic mutations occur within an
  organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations
  are preserved because they aid survival -- a
  process known as "natural selection." These
  beneficial mutations are passed on to the next
  generation. Over time, beneficial mutations
  accumulate and the result is an entirely
  different organism (not just a variation of the
  original, but an entirely different creature).
• Fundamentalists think this theory is against the
  biblical account of how God created humans and
  that teaching evolution undermines religious
  faith.
• Fundamentalists worked to pass laws preventing
  evolution being taught in schools, and several
  states did, including Tennessee in 1925.

28
The Scopes Trial

• John Scopes was persuaded to violate the law, get
  arrested, and go to trial.
• Scopes was represented by Clarence Darrow, and
  William Jennings Bryan, three-time candidate for
  president, represented the prosecution.
• John Scopes was obviously guilty, but the trial
  was about larger issues.
• Scopes was convicted and fined 100, but Darrow
  never got a chance to appeal because the
  conviction was overturned due to a technical
  violation by the judge.
• The Tennessee law remained in place until the
  1960s.