A Turbulent Decade
1919-1929
What Do These Words Have in Common?
Red Scare
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Death Sentence
Abstinence
+
Voting
Ku Klux Klan
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Catholics
What you need to know…
Discuss some of the economic outcomes of demobilization
(leaving the war).
2. List the main causes of the 1919 strikes and how did people
react to the strikes?
3. Explain the public hysteria of the Red Scare.
4. Explain why the Sacco & Vanzetti trial caught public
interest.
1.
#1 Economic outcomes of
demobilization.
 Demobilization = transition from wartime to peacetime
 Caused:
 Unemployment 
 Wages 
 Shortages left prices 
 Farm prices 
#2
Main Causes of Strikes
 Demanded higher wages, shorter hours and better working
conditions.
#2
Americans reacted???
 Public opinion firmly against strikes
 Say they were Russian Bolsheviks
 Strike = weapon of revolution
 “Agents of Lenin”
 Steel strike: jailed, beaten & shot
#3
Red Scare
 Fear of a Bolshevik revolution in U.S. made people crazy!!
 What were they scared of ?????
 Change – fear of communism
 Many people believed that all
radicals wanted to overthrow the
U.S. government.
“Reds” – were everywhere
Immigrants hit worse
#4
Public interest in Sacco & Vanzetti
 Hostility toward foreigners & radicals persisted.
 Sacco & Vanzetti
 Anarchists
 Charged with murders during a robbery
 Had an unfair trial
Showed a division in America
Labor leaders & radical socials = supported them
Many people frightened by Red Scare = opposed them
Communism vs. Capitalism
 Communism:
 A form of socialism that abolishes private ownership
 Favors collectivism
in a classless society
 Capitalism
 A system in which
wealth, and the means
of producing wealth,
are privately owned
The Republicans in Power
Election of 1920
Warren G. Harding vs. James Cox
Harding ran a campaign to return to “normalcy.”
He won by an earthquake!
What you need to know…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How Republican policies encouraged economic growth.
Positive & Negative effects of Harding’s pro-business
policies
Why Equal Rights Amendment failed
Explain how Republican Party overcame the political
scandals of the Harding administration.
Issues that affected the outcome of the 1928 presidential
election.
#1
Economic Growth
 Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
 Pushed tariff rates to an all time high
 Enabled business to keep prices high & increase profits
 Eliminated taxes on wealthy
 Wealthy have more $$ to invest  Economic growth
#2 How Pro-business policies affect
Economy
 Tax cuts = mergers (combine 2 or more companies)
 Business profits  60% / Workers profits  10%
 Farmers suffered
 Some industry faced pay cuts & unemployment
 Organized labor suffered
 American Plan: union-free
 “Yellow-dog contracts” prevented workers from joining a union
Women’s Rights Grew  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony & Lucretia Mott
 Troubled by Women’s status in American society.
 Vote
 Second-class citizens
 Less education (Higher Ed)
 Few professions
 Lower wages
 Married Women
Property
 Wages
 Divorce – kids?

 1920 –Women gained suffrage
#3
Equal Rights Amendment Fail???
 Feminists – women’s rights activists
 Divisions in Women’s Rights Movement
For: Limiting work hours for women
encouraged business to hire women
Against: Legislation protecting women might
be unconstitutional
Many women divided & felt it was not their place to vote.
#4
Republican party overcame Harding’s scandals
 After Harding’s quick death, VP Coolidge took over and fired
many in Harding’s administration.
 Coolidge continued a pro-business
 Reduced taxes on wealthy
#5 1928 Election Outcome
 Coolidge didn’t run!!!
 Republican Herbert Hoover vs. Democrat Alfred E. Smith
 Hoover
 Reputation skill and efficiency
 He was a republican  the country was doing well = he was good
 Smith
 A Progressive
 Opposed prohibition
 Supported by urban Immigrants
 Catholic, people were afraid that a Catholic would be run by the Pope
A Nation Divided
What you need to know…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Explain why many supported the Ku Klux Klan and what
led to a decline in that support
Actions the African Americans took to combat violence &
discrimination
Reason that Americans demanded immigration restrictions
Explain the increase in Mexican immigration in 1920’s
Actions that Native Americans took to protect their land
#1 Americans that supported KKK
 African American population more than doubled in 20 years
 Caused racial tension in the North
 KKK rebirth and moved north
 Red Scare  membership growing
 Targeted, African Americans, Catholics, immigrants, Jewish
people & anyone suspected as a radical
#1 Decline of KKK
 Decrease in Red Scare hysteria
 Terriorism & Violence turned people away
 Klan corruption & scandals
#2 African Americans Defend
their Rights
 NAACP : National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People
 Pressured law enforcement to investigate violence
 Published lynching atrocities
 Unionization
 Fight discrimination in the workplace
 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
 Nationalism
 Pan-Africanism Movement
 Establish black owned businesses
#3
Immigration Restrictions
 Many Americans feared that the country was being overrun
by immigrants
Strange – Why???
 Belief that immigrants had radical views
 Belief that immigrants were taking jobs from native-born
Americans
#4
Mexican Migration
 Mexico had scarce jobs, widespread poverty and political
upheaval from a revolution
 Migration
 Movement to northern cities for well-paying factory jobs
 Southwest movement created a steady flow of workers to fill
low-wage jobs
#5 Native American Life
 Dawes Act
 Divided tribal land into individual plots
 “Americanize” Native Americans
 Bursum Bill
 Tried to legalize non-Indian persons
to claim Pueblo land
 Did not pass
 1924: Congress granted citizenship