The Roaring 20

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The Roaring 20s

• An era of prosperity,

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• Americas present need is not heroics but
  healing not nostrums but normalcy not
  revolution but restoration . . . Not surgery but
  serenity.
• Warren G. Harding, 1920

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Prosperity 1920-1929
The Red Scare (1919-1920) Fear the Communist
Russian Revolution- Americans were frightened by
the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) because Communism
was -Openly against American beliefs -Against
capitalism -Against First Amendment rights Red
Scare (1919-1920)- Fear of a communist revolution
in the USA. -Seattle Strike (1919)- legal
strike put down by federal troops to stop
anarchy of Russia -Mail bombs sent to
prominent American leaders- encouraged American
fear
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Politics and Prosperity 1920-1929
Palmer Raids You will love America Free Speech
limited
Palmer Raids- June 1919, Attorney General
Palmers house was bombed. Palmer responded
by -Jailing and deporting 6,000 communist or
illegal aliens -Palmer initially has the
support of the public. Americans turn on Palmer
after violent May Day (1920) riots fail to
materialize. Effects of Red Scare and Palmer
Raids- Many states pass laws against advocating
violent social change. Business leaders use Red
Scare to call labor unions Sovietism in
disguise.
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Politics and Prosperity 1920-1929
Dont be an anarchist during the Red Scare
Sacco and Vanzetti- Most controversial event of
the Red Scare. Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted
and executed for the 1920 murder of a
Massachusetts paymaster and security
guard. Judge and jury were prejudiced because
Sacco and Vanzetti were -Italians -Atheists -A
narchists -Draft Dodgers Effects- Communists
and radicals had two martyrs
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FACTS of the Case

• Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of double
  murder and robbery.
• Sentenced to death
• Both Italian immigrants who had jobs in postwar
• Both were draft dodgers during WWI fled to
  Mexico to avoid the draft.
• Both were anarchist ( people who believe there
  should be no government)
• Both involved in labor strikes
• The judge in the case, had recently disagreed
  with a jury for acquitting an anarchist.

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EVIDENCE

• Both men were carrying guns when arrested.
• Gun carried by Sacco used same bullets used in
  Murder but could not prove it was his gun that
  shot men.
• Hat at the scene had Saccos name on it but it
  did not fit him.
• At the time of arrest, Vanzetti had a flyer in
  his pocket advertising an anarchists meeting that
  evening.

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Bartolomeo Vanzetti will now testify

• I have already say that I not only am not guilty
  these two crimes, but I never committed a crime
  in my life, -I have never stolen and I have never
  killed and I have never spit blood, and I have
  fought against crime, and I have fought and I
  have sacrificed myself even to eliminate the
  crimes that the law and the church legitimate and
  sanctify. This is what I say I would not wish to
  a dog or to a snake, to the most low and
  misfortunate creature of the earthI would not
  wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for
  things that I am not guilty of. I am suffering
  because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical
  I have suffered because I was an Italian, and
  indeed I am an Italian I have suffered more for
  my family and for my beloved than for myself but
  I am so convinced to be right that you can only
  kill me once but if you could execute me two
  times, and if I could be reborn two other times,
  I would live again to do what I have done
  already. I have finished. Thank you.

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Historical Verdict

• On July 27, 1927, six years after Saco and
  Vanzetti were convicted of murder, the Lowell
  Committee concluded that the trial of the two men
  had been fair and that clemency for Sacco and
  Vanzetti was unjustified.
• That was all Governor Fuller needed.
• Just after midnight on August 23, 1927,
• the two men were executed in electric
• chair.

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The Ku Klux Klan
Great increase In power
Anti-black
Anti-immigrant
Anti-Semitic
Anti-Catholic
Anti-womens suffrage
Anti-bootleggers
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• Spread very quickly
• Bible Belt (Big Fans)
• Mid 1920s reached over 5 million members
• In the end it was embezzlement of funds that led
  to their decline not that fact they were . . . .a
  terrorist group

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Congress Limits Immigrants

• Emergency quota Act 1921 Europeans were
  restricted to 3 of their nationality (took the
  census data from 1910)
• 1924 immigration act- Replaces the 1921 Quota
  Act.
• -Quota to 2 and shifted to 1890 census
• -Japanese were banned
• -Canadian and Latin American immigrants were
  exempted. They could be used as temporary labor
  source

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• Horace Kallen Wanted to help immigrants
  preserve their culture uniqueness, Pluralism
• Randolph Bourne Critic who argued Cosmopolitan
  interchange "transnationality

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Eugenics

• Belief in the Superiority in the Anglo Saxon Race
  could be improved by breeding (Superior parents
  could have better children)
• Charles Davenport
• Prevent mentally ill from having children (mental
  illness would be reduced)
• Reduced Immigration
• This led to forced sterilization, segregation
  laws, marriage restrictions

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Prohibition Experiment

• 18th Amendment / Volstead Act
• Popular in the South / West
• Why did they do this To STOP
• Public Drunkenness
• Prostitution
• Corruption
• Crime
• EFFECTS
• Speakeasies
• Home Brew/Bathtub Gin

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The Rise of Gangsters Gee Thanks (18th)

• Violence erupted
• Competitors Killed
• Few arrests were made (cops could be bought)
• Chicago was the WORST
• Al Capone aka Scarface Public Enemy 1, 6 yrs
  spent of gang warfare responsible for the St.
  Valentines Day Massacre,
• Convicted on tax evasion, 11 yr sentence

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• Inside the warehouse, Moran's men were confronted
  by the hit men disguised as policemen. Assuming
  it was a routine bust, they followed instructions
  as they were ordered to line up against the wall.
  The hit men then opened fire with Thompson
  submachine guns, killing six of the seven men
  immediately. Despite 22 bullet wounds, Frank
  Gusenberg survived the attack but died after
  arriving at Alexian Brothers Hospital.
• After the attack, the uniformed perpetrators
  marched their plain-clothed accomplices out the
  front door with their hands raised, just in case
  anyone was watching. Capone's hit men piled into
  the police wagon and drove away.

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Kidnapping of Charles Lindberghs son

• 1932 Gangsters kidnapped 20month old son
• Wanted Ransom money
• Killed the toddler

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Education

• John Dewey Learning by doing Education
  for life
• Wiped Out Hookworm Disease
• Requiring kids to stay in school till 17
• Better Healthcare
• Fundamentalism Literal Meaning of the Bible

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Scopes Monkey Trial
Evolution vs. Creationism
Science vs. Religion
Dayton, Tennessee
Famous Lawyers
William J. Bryan
Clarence Darrow
John Scopes High School Biology teacher
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Celebrities
Babe Ruth Ty Cobb
Charles Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis
Jack Dempsey
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Consumer Economy Credit Credit
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Cars, Gasoline, Rubber

• Henry Ford Model T, Perfected mass production
  the assembly line every 10 seconds
• 1929 26 mill vehicles were registered
• Detroit Motor Capital of the U.S.

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• Effects of the Gasoline Age
• Increase in production in Rubber, Glass, Fabrics
• Petroleum business explosive growth (TX, OK,
  CA)
• Fresh Fruits boosted
• New Highways being built (goodbye mud poop)
• More traveling / Independece
• Commuters
• Also cars were dangerous (1 mill deaths by 1951
• Pregnancies Increased hmmmm?

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Getting Wings!

• Dec 17, 1903 Orville Wilbur flew at Kitty Hawk
  airport, NC
• 12 seconds 120 feet
• Used during WW 1
• After war carried Mail operated passenger lines
• Charles Lindbergh Spirit of St Louis (NY to
  Paris)
• By 1930s 1940s it becomes a safe way to
  travel

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The Radio

• Drew Families neighbors back into homes
• Tune into News Programs
• Sports Famous Artists music
• American business used them to advertise
  commercials

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Hollywood
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Hollywood

• Thomas Edison invents the motion picture camera
• 1903 The Great Train Robbery
• 1905- D.W. Griffiths Birth of A Nation
• CA Hotspot beautiful scenery
• The Jazz Singer 1st Talkie
• Salaries for Movie stars were higher than the
  presidents

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Changes in Lifestyles Values

• Birth Control
• Modernists Emerged in Religion
• Flappers Emerged New Independent Woman
• Dr. Sigmund Freud Sexual repression was bad
  in order to be healthly people needed to have
  sexual gratification
• Increase in sexuality/Kissing

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Dancing the Charleston
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Jazz Age

• Came from New Orleans
• Saxophone became popular
• Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong

• New Racial Pride Harlem
• Langston Hughes Black Poet The Weary Blues
• Political Leader Marcus Garvey created the
  (United Negro Improvement Association

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I, Too http//www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchiv
e/singlePoem.do?poemId1552

• I too, sing America.
• I am the darker brother.
• They send me to eat in the kitchen
• When company comes,
• But I laugh,
• And eat well, And grow strong.
• Tomorrow,
• Ill be at the table
• When company comes.
• Nobodyll dare
• Say to me,
• Eat in the kitchen,
• Then.
• Besides,
• Theyll see how beautiful I am
• And be ashamed
• I too, am America.

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Literature Arts

• Modernism questioning of social conventions
  traditional authorities
• H.L. Mencken(Bad Boy of Baltimore) targeted
  issues in his columns for the Baltimore Sun
• Marriage, patriotism, democracy, prohibition
• Didnt like the South / Puritan values

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Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises A Farwell
to Arms Nobel Peace Prize 1954
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
The Wasteland Postwar society
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William Faulkner As I Lay Dying, wrote about the
south

• All of these new literary standards challenged
  old standards of living encouraged new codes of
  morals understanding
• Harlem Renaissance Out poor of creative Black
  Expression through art, music, literature,
  begin to see blacks as equals to whites

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Wall Street / Bull Market

• Wall street became a vertical gambling den
• Buying on Margin small down payment
• Everyone wanted to make a quick profit
• Americans buying on Credit
• The Government began reducing Taxes