THE ROARING 20S
Red Scare
Palmer Raids
Sacco & Vanzetti
Nativism
The Great Migration
Immigration
Eugenics
Americans entered a new age of prosperity in the “Roaring
Twenties”
Automobiles, telephones, and electricity made life more
comfortable than ever before
Americans focused on making $ and enjoying themselves
Birth of new values
OVERVIEW

Grab a piece of paper!

Goal: Form the LARGEST group without anyone having a “Red
Dot”

You cannot show ANYONE your paper.

If your paper has a red dot, do not show or tell anyone about
your red dot. If you can infiltrate a group, you will get the bonus
points.

Largest group gets bonus points!!!
RED SCARE

How did you feel about the “Dot Game”?

Why did we do this silly game?
RED SCARE
 End
of WWI = many Americans fearing Communists, anarchists and
immigrants
 Russia
was not prepared for WWI and in 1917 the Tsar was
overthrown and a year later Communist Revolutionaries (led by
Vladimir Lenin) seized power
 Communism
Europe
threatened to spread to other countries throughout
A
wave of strikes hit the United States in 1919… many feared this
would start a Communist Revolution here.
 This
Red Scare created an atmosphere of panic throughout the
country
RED SCARE
PALMER RAIDS
January
1919: Italian anarchist set off a bomb at
the house of Attorney General Mitchell Palmer
1
in a series of attacks that day (judges, politicians,
and law enforcement officials in 8 American cities)
Nation
demanded that action be taken
Palmer
was convinced that there was a radical
plot to overthrow the U.S. government was
officially underway
PALMER RAIDS
January
1920: Palmer ordered the round up of
4,000 suspects in several cities without warrants
His
assistant, J. Edgar Hoover, directed the raids
Palmer
arrested men he accused of plotting to
overthrow the government
Most
were later released, but 600 were eventually
deported
PALMER RAIDS
http://www.trav
elchannel.com/
video/saccoand-vanzettiinnocent
http://video.abo
ut.com/history19
00s/Sacco-andVanzetti.htm
SACCO & VANZETTI
 Italian
Immigrants convicted of committing murder during a robbery
 Allegedly
 Pressure
 Many
for their release came from around the world
Americans feared they would look weak if the two were let go
 Evidence
 Both
committed to obtain funds for an anarchist revolution
at the time was insufficient and circumstantial
were found guilty and executed in 1927
 Supporters
of the Immigrants feled their conviction was due to
their anarchist views- though the jury denied the accusation
 Ballistics
tests ran in 1961 – same gun that Sacco had on him
SACCO & VANZETTI
Red
Scare, anarchist bombings, and the Sacco &
Vanzetti trial contributed to the rise of Nativism
Nativists
believed white Protestant Americans were
superior to other people
Led
to new restrictions on immigration
NATIVISM = A DISLIKE OF FOREIGNERS
Migration
of African Americans from the South to Northern
cities also led to increased racial tensions after the war
The
Ku Klux Klan (dead for decades) found new life in 1915
Klan
members were hostile to immigrants, Catholics, Jews,
and African Americans
Major
race riots broke out just after the war
Worst
riot occurred in Chicago (38 died)
Lynching
and segregation continued in the South
RACISM
 http://youtu.be/--8N42vDDTM
 From
1910 – 1930 witnessed the movement of about 2 million
African Americans out of the South to the “Promised Land” of
the Northeast and Midwest
 Searching
for jobs in the nation’s growing industrial cities
(wanted to escape sharecropping, tenant farming, and the
deep racism of the South)
 Northern
jobs offered significantly higher wages than
the South
 Letters
from those that had already gone North
inspired an increased African-American migration
THE GREAT MIGRATION
 Chicago
Population = Doubled, Cleveland Population = x 3,
Detroit = x 6
 African
Americans still faced racism, housing shortages, and
crime in the North but they also found organizations such as
the National Urban League and the NAACP (dedicated to
helping them adjust to their new lives)
 African
Americans created cities within cities
 Largest
= Harlem (in upper Manhattan of New York City)
 200,000
African Americans lived together in Harlem
(one of the most vibrant communities of the 1920s)
THE GREAT MIGRATION
1910:
Eastern & Southern Europeans made up 70%
of all immigrants entering the United States
WWI
caused immigration to be reduced to a trickle
Nativists
feelings against immigrants led Congress
to restrict immigration from Europe for the 1st time
Many
Americans saw the influx of immigrants
without skills, education, or knowledge of English
as a threat to the nation’s economic stability
IMMIGRATION
The
Immigration Acts of 1921, 1924, & 1929 were
designated to keep out immigrants from Southern &
Eastern Europe
Established
quotas for each separate nationality, based on
America’s existing ethnic composition
New
system: Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany were
allowed the greatest number of immigrants, while the
number of “New Immigrants” (from Eastern & Southern
Europe) was severely limited
Asian
Immigration was barred altogether
IMMIGRATION
http://youtu.be/4DH8U461UDU
A
pseudo-scientific belief that the human race could be
improved by breeding
Superior
parents would have even better children
Many
believed that light-skinned, blonde haired, blue
eyed people were superior to others
Such
feelings contributed to immigration restrictions
Led
to forced sterilizations, segregation laws &
marriage restrictions
EUGENICS
Leading
proponent of Eugenics
Thought
preventing the mentally ill from having children
would sharply reduce mental illness in the United States
Davenport
and other eugenicists also wanted to reduce
immigration to the U.S. by what they saw as “inferior
races” from Eastern & Southern Europe
CHARLES DAVENPORT
$
came from groups such as the Carnegie Institution &
Rockefeller Foundation
Belief
in Eugenics later spread from the U.S. to Germany
Eugenics
was also closely tied to Social Darwinism
Social
Darwinists believed that different human races
competed for survival just as different plants and
animals did in the natural world
Survival
of the fittest
SOCIAL DARWINISM