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Chapter 24 - The Jazz Age
Section 1
28 november 2011
Fear of Radicalism
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The had taken a toll on the American people.
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There was a desire to return to normalcy.
However, there was a growing suspicion of foreigners, foreign ideas and those who
held different ideas:
✤
Bolsheviks and the spread of Communism. They wanted to overthrow capitalism.
✤
Anarchists helped fuel the flames through their actions.
✤
A series of anarchist bombings in the 1919s frightened Americans. A number of
public officials (mayors, judges, and the attorney general of the United States)
received packages containing bombs.
✤
Many anarchist were foreigners which contributed to the fear of foreigners
across the nation
The Red Scare
✤
The fear that swept the nation led to the Red Scare.
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The Red Scare was a period when the government went after
“Reds” (Communists) and other with radical views.
In late 1919 and early 1920, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and
his deputy, J. Edgar Hoover, arrested people suspected of being
communist and anarchist.
✤
Additional, they staged raids on the headquarters of “suspicious”
groups
The Red Scare
✤
During these raids:
✤
several thousand people were arrested
✤
homes and offices were ransacked
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records were seized
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however they failed to find large stockpiles of weapons
✤
A few hundred foreigners were departed, however, many others were released due to
lack of evidence.
✤
The Red Scare eventually passed but fear remained.
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
✤
Fear of immigrants, fueled by the Red Scare and civil unrest, surfaced in a 1920 criminal case
in Massachusetts.
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Two men robbed a shoe factory, killing a guard and paymaster.
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The police arrested Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for the crime.
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The two immigrants were convicted in July 1921 and sentenced to death.
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Both men lack a previous criminal record, however, both men were anarchist.
✤
The case create a fire storm of public opinion.
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The death sentence was carried out in 1927.
✤
The case represents the deep feeling against foreigners and radicals in the U.S. during the
1920s.
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco
Sacco and Vanzetti Trial
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Labor Unrest
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During the war, labor and management put there differences aside
because:
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Patriotism
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High Wages
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Wartime laws kept labor conflict down
Labor Unrest
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After the war labor conflicts increased
✤
American workers demanded increases in pay to keep up with
raising prices
✤
In 1919, over 2,500 strikes were launched across the country
✤
The wave of strikes fueled fears of Bolsheviks and radicals
Labor Unrest
✤
✤
The largest strike during this period occurred in the steel industry
✤
350,000 went on strike in September 1919
✤
They demanded higher wages and eight hour work week
The steel companies used propaganda techniques against the strikers
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Accused them of being “Red agitators”
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Charges of communism cost the strikers public support
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The strike turned violent of both sides. Total of 18 strikers died in Gary Indiana
✤
Lack of public support forced the strike to end
Labor Unrest
✤
Not all unions were in decline
✤
A. Phillips Randolph started a mostly black
union
✤
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Cars
Porters
✤
The union struggled in the early years,
but flourished in the 1930s when the
government supported unions
✤
A. Phillips Randolph would later become
an important figure in the Civil Rights
Movement
Labor Unrest
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Racial Unrest
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During World War I, more then 500,000 Black Americans left the South and headed to
Northern cities. This was known as the Great Migration.
✤
Many whites resented African Americans because of the increased competition for jobs.
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Racial tensions led to violence in 1919. Over 70 African Americans were lynched in the
South.
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In Chicago, violent riots broke out after whites started throwing rocks at black youths
swimming in Lake Michigan. One drowned.
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The riots lasted two weeks and resulted in the deaths of 15 whites and 23 blacks.
Racial Unrest
✤
During the racial unrest many African
Americans turned to Marcus Garvey for
leadership.
✤
Marcus Garvey opposed integration
and supported a “back-to-Africa”
movement.
✤
Garvey founded the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA).
✤
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA helped
boost pride and confidence in the
African American community during
this era.