The Roaring
20’s
The Results of
WWI
• Red Scare – fear of
radicals, Communists, and
Socialism
• Immigration restricted
• Post-war labor strikes
– due to demobilization –
peace time after war
• KKK grew
– hated blacks, Jews,
Catholics, & Darwinists
The Red Scare
• feared communism
& socialism would
spread from Russia
to U.S.
• Palmer Raids –
arrest & deport
radical leftists,
especially
anarchists
Immigration
•
•
•
•
•
*nativism – opposition to immigration;
distinguishes between Americans who were born here
and immigrants
1921 Emergency Quota Act – fed. law that limited
annual # of immigrants
1924 National Origins Act (a.k.a. Immigration Act) –
more strict fed. law that limited # of immigrants who
could be admitted from any country
GOAL  restrict Southern and Eastern Europeans &
Asians & reduce immigration!
Chinese Exclusion Act – 1st nationality to be excluded
by immigration restrictions
Sacco & Vanzetti
• Italian born Americans but foreign anarchists
• tried, convicted, & executed for “armed robbery & murder”;
evidence didn’t match up, but didn’t matter
• Xenophobia – fear of what is foreign (especially people)
KKK
• the rise of xenophobia & nativism led to
increased membership
• opposed immigration
• by mid-1920’s, there were 5 million members
• influenced politics & elections; even the
Presidency
Post War Labor
Strikes
• 4.5 million returning soldiers needed jobs
• War materials no longer needed, neither
their employees  UNEMPLOYMENT!
• Labor strikes:
– shorter hours & more pay
A Changing
Society
• women
• urban life
(industrial life)
• prohibition
• leisure time
– music & art
– sports
– movies
Women
– 19th amendment –
gave women the
right to vote
• women got the right
to vote because of
the war (they worked
the jobs for the boys
while they were
away)
– education (college
attendance)
– flappers
Prohibition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CE4u6jI_rc
• 18th amendment – made it illegal to produce or
sell alcohol
• enforcement very hard
• illegal alcohol made from perfume & paint
• speakeasies – secret, illegal clubs serving
alcohol
• bootleggers – people who smuggled it into the
U.S.
• making alcohol:
– Legal business  CRIMINAL work
– MAFIA: Al Capone
• 21st amendment – ended prohibition
Scopes Trial
• John T. Scopes – teacher who taught Darwinism &
evolution
– “survival of the fittest” determines the success of people in
society
• William Jennings Bryan – “Bible expert” for prosecution &
presidential candidate; did not succeed
• Charles Darrow – famous criminal attorney
– ACLU defends Scopes
• Evolution vs. Creation – divided public opinion
• fundamentalism vs. modernism
– fundamentalism – strict following of the Bible
– modernism – idea of the power of the human being
Clarence Darrow & William Jennings Bryan
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=scopes+trial+rundown&sm=3
Music – Jazz Age
• developed in the south (New Orleans)
• Blues expressed the difficulties that blacks
faced during slavery
• as blacks moved north, they took this with
them
• W.C. Handy – the father of
the blues
• Bessie Smith – Empress of
the Blues
• Louis Armstrong –
innovative jazz musician
(solos); most famous
Great Migration
• 90% of black Americans lived in the South before WWI
• Moved to the North (Chicago & New York) for jobs & to
escape KKK!!!
• 53% of black Americans lived in South in 1970
The Harlem
Renaissance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RQ-Ha9JmpI
• Harlem, NY – the largest black community
• the renaissance – a period of black artistic
accomplishment
– Langston Hughes – author
– Zora Hurston – author
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5T4c_mj1U
– James Weldon Johnson – poet
• Blacks were free but segregated
Sports
•
•
•
•
BASEBALL
Football
Tennis
Golf
Movies
• http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=79i84xYelZI
Industry
• Henry Ford & Model T
– lowered the price of
the automobile
– by using the
assembly line
• assembly line – a
system of machines
that moved products
“down the line”
– cut time of
assembly
A Consumer
Culture
•
Business Booms!
• new products to enjoy/consume (ex. car,
washing machine, vacuums, refrigerators)
• bought through installment plans
– “Ride Now, Pay Later”
• advertising increase (radio, magazines,
newspapers)
Farmers
• war led to increase in
demand & prices
– had to feed the
troops
• peace time led to
overproduction & low
prices (competition) 
not prosperous
World News
• European Union being
developed
• Hong Kong – dependent
territory of UK from 1842 1997
• Africa – Britain, France,
Germany all colonized
Africa (took over native’s
lands)
• Lucky Lindy – transatlantic
flight
• Amelia Earhart – 1st female
QUIZ TIME
SUMMARY
• 1. Which group of people were excluded from
entering the country in the 1920s?
– a. Italians
– b. Irish
– c. Chinese
– d. Polish
• 2. Which term implies that because you were born
here, you are more American?
– a.
– b.
– c.
– d.
nativism
xenophobia
patriotism
socialism
• 3. Which amendment gave women the right to
vote?
– a.
– b.
– c.
– d.
15
18
19
21
• 4. Which amendment prohibited alcohol sales?
– a. 15
– b. 18
– c. 19
– d. 21
• 5. Which person is credited with making cars
affordable?
– a. Langston Hughes
– b. Henry Ford
– c. Louis Armstrong
– d. FDR