Essential Question:

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• Essential Question
• How did the changes of the Roaring 20s clash
  with traditional American values?
• Warm-Up Question
• What part of the 1920s weve talked about so far
  might cause CONFLICT??

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Life in the 1920s

• The 1920s were an era of change
• Increased wealth, consumerism, leisure time,
  new forms of entertainment led to a Jazz Age
• By 1920, more Americans lived in cities than in
  rural areas
• Rural Americans reacted to these changes by
  attacking behaviors they viewed as un-American

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Prohibition
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Prohibition

• In 1920, the 18th Amendment went into effect
  Prohibition began
• Supported by rural Protestants who believed
  drinking led to crime, abuse, job accidents
• 26 states had already outlawed alcohol before
  1920
• The Volstead Act made the sale, manufacture
  transportation of alcohol illegal

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Prohibition A Noble Experiment
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The U.S. Treasury Dept was in charge of enforcing
the Volstead Act
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As a result of prohibition, alcohol
consumption declined
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Prohibition

• But, many urban Americans resisted prohibition
• Most immigrants considered drinking part of
  socializing
• Wealthy urban Americans wanted to enjoy
  themselves
• Bootleggers made illegal alcohol rum runners
  smuggled foreign alcohol into the country
• Secret saloons (speakeasies) were created to sell
  booze

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Rum Runners smuggled booze from Canada, the
Caribbean, Europe
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Bootleggers moonshiners made illegal booze
Why are they called bootleggers?
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Speakeasies were secret saloons or nightclubs
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Prohibition

• Prohibition had some negative effects on America
  in the 1920s
• Smuggling bootlegging increased crime
  lawlessness
• Organized crime grew took control of the
  illegal alcohol trade
• Mob bosses paid off politicians, judges, police
  departments
• The federal govt could not enforce prohibition
  effectively

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Organized crime grew in American cities,
especially in Chicago where Al Capones gang was
dominant
To control the liquor trade, mobsters resorted to
bloody gang killings The most notorious was the
St. Valentines Day Massacre in 1929
Gangster Al Capone made 60 million per year in
bootlegging became a notorious icon
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Prohibition

• By the end of the 1920s, only 19 of Americans
  supported prohibition
• The strongest defenders of prohibition were rural
  Americans
• But, most Americans believed prohibition caused
  more problems than it solved
• In 1933, the 21st Amendment ended prohibition

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The Rise of Prohibition (4.31)
Optional Prohibition Film Clips
Prohibition Corruption (3.05)
Al Capone (4.33)
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Intolerance
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Intolerance in the 1920s

• In the 1920s, America experienced a new wave of
  nativism
• 800,000 Southern Eastern European immigrants
  arrived each year in the early 1920s
• Rural folks associated immigrants with
  anti-American cultures non-Protestant
  religions supporters of anarchy or socialism

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The Red Scare

• In 1917, Lenin led the Bolsheviks in the Russian
  Revolution created the 1st communist govt
• During WWI 1920s, Americans feared a similar
  revolution in the U.S.
• Eugene Debs formed an American Socialist Party
  ran for president
• Unskilled workers were unhappy with low wages
  went on strike

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Red Scare in America
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Sacco Vanzetti

• During the Red Scare, suspected immigrants were
  under attack
• In 1920, two Italian immigrants named Sacco
  Vanzetti were arrested charged with murder
• Sacco Vanzetti were anarchists (believed in no
  govt) but claimed to be innocent of the crime
• With only circumstantial evidence, they were
  found guilty executed

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Sacco Vanzetti
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Immigration Restrictions

• In 1921 1924, the govt passed new laws
  restricting immigration
• These laws created quotas that placed a maximum
  number on how many immigrants could enter the
  United States
• The laws discriminated against Southern Eastern
  European immigrants Asian immigrants

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(No Transcript)
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National Origins Act the Sacco/Vanzetti Trial
Video (2.19)
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The Ku Klux Klan

• The 1920s saw an increase in membership in the Ku
  Klux Klan
• The KKK promoted traditional values 100
  Americanism
• Used violence fear to attack African Americans,
  immigrants, Catholics, Jews, unions, socialists
• By 1924, the KKK had 4.5 million members
  elected politicians to power in several states

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The 1st KKK disbanded when Reconstruction ended
in the 1870s, but the 2nd KKK formed in 1915 to
protect rural, Christian values
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The KKK supported Protestant, white American
values, including prohibition
The KKK was anti-Catholic anti-immigrant (many
new immigrants were Catholic)
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D.W. Griffiths The Birth of a Nation (1915) was
one of the most controversial films in movie
history. Set during after the Civil War, the
film glorifies white supremacy the KKK
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At its height in the 1920s, the KKK had 4.5
million members nationwide
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Religion
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Religious Fundamentalism

• In the 1920s, rural Americans found comfort in
  religious fundamentalism (a literal
  interpretation of the Bible)
• Disliked the immigrants, flappers, socialists
  they saw in cities
• Evangelists used the radio to broadcast Christian
  messages
• Rejected many modern scientific theories Towns
  in the South West outlawed teaching evolution

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Religious Fundamentalism

• In 1925, teacher John Scopes was arrested in
  Dayton, TN for teaching evolution in his biology
  class

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The Scopes Monkey Trial was a national
sensation
ACLU attorney Clarence Darrow defended Scopes
Represented urban America, science modernity
Scopes was found guilty fined 100, but
evolutionists believed they won because Darrow
got Bryan to admit that the world might not have
been made in six 24 hour days
Former presidential candidate William Jennings
Bryan served as prosecutor Represented
fundamentalism rural America
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Scopes Monkey Trial Video (stop at 200)
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Conclusions

• America in the 1920s experienced a decade of
  change
• Wealth, consumerism, credit, cars, radios,
  advertising
• Pro-business govt attitude isolationist
  foreign policy
• New freedoms for women African Americans
• Attempts by tradition-minded rural folks to
  protect against the rapid changes of America

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• In the United States, the decade of the 1920s
  was characterized by
• 1. a willingness to encourage immigration to the
  United States
• 2. increased consumer borrowing and spending
• 3. the active involvement of the United States in
  European affairs
• 4. major reforms in national labor legislation

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• The 1920s are sometimes called the "Roaring
  Twenties" because
• A. foreign trade prospered after World War I
• B. the United States assumed a leadership role in
  world affairs
• C. political reforms made government more
  democratic
• D. widespread social and economic change occurred
• Which events best support the image of the 1920s
  as a decade of nativist sentiment?
• the passage of the National Origins Act and the
  rise of the Ku Klux Klan
• the Scopes trial and the passage of womens
  suffrage
• the Washington Naval Conference and the
  Kellogg-Briand Pact
• the growth of the auto industry and the Teapot
  Dome Affair
• After World War I, which factor was the major
  cause of the migration of many African Americans
  to the North?
• the start of the Harlem Renaissance
• increased job opportunities in Northern cities
• laws passed in Northern States to end racial
  discrimination
• Federal Government job-training programs

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Closure ActivityThe Urban vs. Rural Debate

• In the chart below your notes
• Write a sentence that describes the changes of
  the 1920s from the perspective of an urban
  rural American
• On each side, include 3 images for each side that
  represent these different perspectives

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The 1920s