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Home , Roaring Twenties

THE ROARING TWENTIES

(only copy what is in white) DEMOBILIZATION AND ADJUSTMENT TO PEACE, 1920 • Demobilization: Soldiers retire from military service and economic production returns to civilian purposes. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS: WARREN HARDING • Republican Warren Harding campaigned on a call for a “return to normalcy” – with a focus on maintaining prosperity at home and less foreign policy. • A Higher Tariff In 1922, Congress passed the Fordney- McCumber Act. • The Act created a new tariff placing a customs duty of 38.5% on imported goods. • Other countries retaliated by raising tariffs on American goods. PRESIDENT HARDING Scandal • Tea Pot Dome Scandal • Harding appointed his friends to important cabinet positions. His friends then used their positions to make money. • The Secretary of the Interior arranged to have oil-rich lands at Teapot Dome, Wyoming transferred to his department. He then leased them to businessmen in exchange for personal bribes.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj83LepYg-4 PRESIDENT

• Calvin Coolidge continued Harding’s pro-business policies, his motto was: “The business of America is business.” • Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal.” • Coolidge reduced government spending. • He vetoed a bill to help farmers because he did not think the government should regulate farm prices. • Coolidge was given credit for the business expansion of the . • He took no steps to curb the frenzy of stock market and the continuation of high tariffs and regressive taxation that led to overproduction and under-consumption. • Coolidge did not run for re-election in 1928. • Hoover campaigned on an end to poverty. • Hoover believed in “rugged individualism.” , when given education and equal opportunities, had a will to succeed. • Hoover promoted business interests FOREIGN POLICY Harding’s Foreign Policy • Washington Naval Conference Harding proposed the US, Britain, and Japan each stop building new battleships and even reduce the number they already had. • It was the world’s first proposal for partial disarmament (reducing the number of weapons, or arms). • The Four-Power Treaty The US, Britain, France, and Japan agreed to respect each other’s territories and rights in the Pacific. PRESIDENT HARDING

• The • American investors would loan $200 million to Germany. Germany would use the loan to pay France and Britain who would then use the money to pay back the . COOLIDGE PRESIDENCY

Coolidge’s Foreign Policy • The Geneva Disarmament Conference Participants refused to accept further limitations. • The Kellogg-Briand Pact 15 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact promising not to go to war unless it was in defense. THE “RED SCARE” • Russian Communists, known as Bolsheviks, seized power in Russia in November 1917. • They opposed private property, religious beliefs, and free-enterprise. They were seen as anti-American. THE “RED SCARE” • Fear of Communism became known as the “Red Scare.” • “Palmer Raids” arrested and deported foreign-born radicals.. • Many were linked to communists. • Weakened labor unions and worker organizations. THE “RED SCARE”

• Sacco and Vanzetti Two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested in 1920 for murders committed during a robbery. • Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists (radicals who opposed organized government). • After an unfair trial, they were convicted on flimsy evidence and executed. IMMIGRATION • Emergency Quota Act of 1921. • The Act limited the number of people who could enter the USA in any one year to 350,000. • Aimed at stopping Catholics and Jews Further Restrictions on Immigration • Immigration restrictions were tightened under Coolidge. • He believed “Nordics” or people from Northern and Europe were superior to all other ethnic and racial groups. • The lowered the total number of legal immigrants per year to 150,000. • Quotas determined how many people from each nation were permitted to immigrate into the US. Leading to the act to sometimes be called the National Origins Act. • The KKK resurgence and changing ideology was due to: • Anti-immigrant – increase in immigrants competing for jobs • Anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish – most new immigrants were either Catholic or Jewish • Anti-women’s suffrage • Anti-black • The 1915 The Birth of a Nation glorified the early Klan and was used as propaganda. • Claimed white Anglo-Saxon Protestants were superior and supported “one hundred percent Americanism.”

Year Membership 1868 550,000 1920 4,000,000 1924 6,000,000 1930 30,000 1965 35,000 2008 6,000 2012 5,000 HOW THE ECONOMIC BOOM AFFECTED MANUFACTURING AND MARKETING • In the 1920s, wages and employment opportunities increased. • Automobiles and new electric appliances contributed to the general economic prosperity. • Production of automobiles required steel, glass, and rubber, stimulating those industries. Roads, bridges, and gas stations were required. By 1929, one out of every 9 workers was employed in an automobile related industry. • The use of electricity more than doubled in the 1920s. • Assembly-line production Installment buying – to pay in installments, buyers had to put down a small down payment to take an item home. The buyer then paid the balance in small monthly payments with interest. • Stock market added to the feelings of prosperity. • Speculation – buying an item, not for personal use, but with the hope of reselling it later at a higher price. • With corporate profits high and low taxes on the wealthy, many people invested in the stock market. As demand for stocks increased, their prices rose. By 1929, the price of stocks were 3 times what they were in 1920. • Buying on a margin – instead of paying the full price of a stock, people paid only 10% and promised to pay the rest later. • If the price of a stock increased, people sold their stocks before paying them off in order to make a profit. If the stock went down in price, they risked losing their investment and still having to pay off the 90% they owed. • Farmers Advances in technology and the spread of electricity led to overproduction and a drop in farm prices. • Farm income dropped from $22 billion in 1919 to $8 billion in 1928. ATTEMPTS TO PRESERVE AMERICAN VALUES

Prohibition • Seen as the root cause of poverty, crime, the breakdown of families, and sin. • 18th Amendment – Banned the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” • –Provided penalties for making, selling, and transporting alcohol. • was hard to enforce. • “Bootleggers” – transported alcohol • “” – illegal nightclubs that served liquor. • Effects of Prohibition • Criminal bosses, such as , got wealthy making, selling, and transporting alcohol. • Prohibition failed and was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. • http://www.history.com/topics/prohibition/vide os/america-goes-dry-with-prohibition Fundamentalism • Christian Fundamentalists believed that the Bible was to be taken literally. This included the Creation story which meant they opposed Darwinism and the theory of evolution. • In the South, laws banned the teaching of evolution in schools. • The Scopes Monkey Trial • Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution. • Clarence Darrow defended Scopes • served on the prosecution. • Scopes was convicted but paid no fines and served no jail time. Tennessee never prosecuted another teacher for giving lessons on evolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzp3n51phHg THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE • Booker T. Washington • Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. • Focus on vocational training NOT equality. • Accept segregation and white rule for free vocational training in public schools and basic legal rights. • W.E.B. Du Bois • Fight for full racial equality • Wrote The Souls of Black Folk, in which he opposed Booker T. Washington’s views. • Started the “Niagara Movement” calling for equal economic opportunities and the right to vote. • Started the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP. • Marcus Garvey • Established the Universal Negro Movement Association. • No cooperation with whites in the NAACP. • Argued for self-segregation • Started the “Back to Africa” movement. • The Great Migration • The movement of almost 2 million Southern blacks to Northern cities – especially New York, , Detroit, and Philadelphia. • Following , 9 out of 10 African Americans lived in the South. • In the 20s, Southern blacks moved North to escape segregation and find better economic opportunities. Race Riots • Chicago 1919 • Death of black teenager in Lake Michigan • No one arrested. • Rioting broke out in black neighborhoods. 38 people killed, 500 injured. • Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921, • black teenager arrested when he fell and grabbed a white woman. A white crowd arrived to the jail ready to lynch the boy. Armed African American veterans forced the crowd to leave. • Whites attacked the Greenwood neighborhood and burnt it to the ground. Anywhere from 39 to several hundred people died. 30 blocks were destroyed and 10,000 people left homeless. • Rosewood, FL 1923, • a white woman in the town of Sumner was attacked by who she claimed was a black man. Witnesses said it was a white train worker who often visited her. That same day an African American man escaped a chain gang. • A mob burned the entire community of Rosewood and killed numerous people. Men poured kerosene on buildings, set them on fire, and shot anyone who tried to escape. Discussion Question: What was the and what why was it significant? • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjOhNUFlI4Y THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE • What was it? • The outpouring of African American art, music and literature during the 1920s. WHO WAS INVOLVED? • African Americans • Examples: • : poet • : author, wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God • Marcus Garvey: encouraged African Americans to go “back to Africa” to find justice and equality WHERE DID IT OCCUR? • Harlem, New York WHEN DID IT OCCUR?

• From about 1920-1930. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? • The Harlem Renaissance transformed American culture in general. • Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African- Americans and embraced the African-American community's productions, expressions, and style.