HARNESSING CHANGE
PROBLEMS POSTPONED
FEMINISM IN TRANSITION
MEXICAN IMMIGRATION
THE NEW NEGRO
INTELLECTUALS AND ALIENATION
THE ELECTION OF 1928
Chris Denny, Kathleen Gormley, Lydia Ball, Lauren Schoppet, Michael
Plasmeier, Larissa Chapkovich, and Josh Hosan
PROBLEMS POSTPONED
Uneven prosperity over America after war
 Older progressive movements faltered in
Republican era
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 Mexican
immigration, feminists, African
Americans, and intellectuals were
troubled by unfulfilled promises
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FEMINISM IN TRANSITION
1920: National
American Woman's
Suffrage Association
turned into “League of
Woman Voters”

1916: National Woman’s
Party (Alice Walker) is
more militant
FEMINISM IN TRANSITION
EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
All people should be treated the same
regardless of gender
 Introduced in 1923
 League of Woman’s Voters opposed because it
would lose protections for women: hours,
safety, etc
 NWP thought these protections did not let
women get lucrative jobs
 In a Sense: Reality vs Idealism
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Mexican Immigration
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Revolution in 1911 caused political instability and economic
hardships in Mexico
US Immigration laws passed in 1921 and 1924 applied only to
Europeans
459,000 legal immigrants from Mexico to the United States
from 1921 to 1930
Many more Mexican immigrants entered the country illegally to
avoid immigration fees
Development of irrigation and large scale agriculture helped to
expand the agricultural industry, which in turn created a need
for unskilled laborers, such as cotton pickers and workers for
the sugar beet fields
Mexican Immigration
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World War I opened up jobs as Americans were oversees
Seasonal: Immigrants would toil in the agricultural industry
during the growing seasons and factories when their help was
not needed in the fields
Mexicans were confined to the barrios, where there was usually
no running water or electricity
Laws were passed that made it difficult for Mexicans to find
higher-paying skilled jobs
Mutualista, or mutual aid societies, fought discrimination and
helped Mexicans in need
The Federation of Mexican Workers Unions was started in 1928
and the League of United Latin American Citizens was formed
in 1929, both groups worked for equality for Mexican
Americans
THE “NEW” NEGRO
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African American communities in developed in
northern cities because of the Great Migration in the
1920s
Harlem, New York was the largest, most influential
community and became the demographic and cultural
capital of Black America
The demand for housing was so high that rents
skyrocketed and conditions became unsanitary and
overcrowded; high disease and death rates “SLUM”
Besides the low-paying section of Harlem, there was
also a middle class who had their own churches,
theaters, and businesses.
THE “NEW” NEGRO
INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT
Magnet for black intellectuals, artists, musicians,
and writers; center for the “New” Negro (new
spirit)
 Alain Locke said that faith united the disparate
figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
 Poets: Langston Hughes, Claude McKay; Author:
Zora Neale Hurston; Actor: Paul Robeson
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THE “NEW” NEGRO
THE POLITICAL SIDE
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Organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People strengthened.
A. Philip Randolph was a black labor leader, socialist, and civil rights
activist.
Marcus Garvey also played a big part in Harlem’s politics. He was an
ambitious Jamaican immigrant who created the Universal Negro
Improvement Association.
Garvey also stressed black economic self-determination and unity
between the blacks from the U.S., Caribbean, and Africa.
In 1923, he was convicted of mail fraud and sent to jail and later
deported to England.
Harlem’s largest newspaper was the Amsterdam News, which
stressed Garvey’s ideas that black was beautiful.
THE “NEW” NEGRO
HARLEM FOR WHITES
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Despite being an all black town, Harlem was an
attraction for “slumming” whites; nightclubs were
controlled by white organized crime figures
Blacks provided the entertainment (mostly jazz musicDuke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson) in the clubs
and the whites were the audience.
There was a huge contrast to the way blacks and
whites viewed Harlem:
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The black worked menial jobs with low pay and were forced
to pay high rent
The whites thought of it as the ultimate good time
INTELLECTUALS AND ALIENATION
“Lost Generation” refers to the postwar writers,
artists, and intellectuals
 Some writers left U.S. to live and work abroad
 Alienation was therefore a prominent subject in
American literature in the 1920’s
 Many writers depicted the war in their works
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INTELLECTUALS AND
POPULAR
AUTHORS
ALIENATION
Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were
the most influential authors of the era and they
questioned idealism, abstractions, and larger
meanings
 Sinclair Lewis was the most popular and
acclaimed writer of the era, mocking his
characters craving for social acceptance
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INTELLECTUALS AND
POPULAR
IDEAS
ALIENATION
The Fugitives, a group of poets and scholars
from Vanderbilt University, attacked
industrialization and materialism
 Some intellectuals, such as John Dewey, kept
power the prewar optimism and belief in
progress
 However, people such as Walter Lippmann
questioned growth and advocated for a return
to morals
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HERBERT HOOVER VERSUS ALFRED SMITH
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Herbert Hoover was
more traditional
Protestant
 Stood for volunteering
in order to advance
public welfare
 Self-made millionaire
 Well-known
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Alfred Smith was
more modern
Roman Catholic
 Stressed state
intervention in order to
solve social problems
 Hailed from New York’s
Lower East Side…urban
man
 Wanted the repeal of
Prohibition
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SIGNIFICANCE
This election allowed the American people to
voice their opinion about the Republican
leadership as well as the nation
 The results of the election revealed the
tensions of ethnic and cultural differences,
defining American politics
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 Protestant
vs. Catholic
 Prohibition vs. Legal drinking
 Small-town vs. Urban life
 Fundamentalism vs. Modernism
 Traditional culture vs. New mass media
RESULTS OF THE ELECTION
Herbert Hoover won by a landslide with 58.2%
of the popular vote but 82% of the electoral
vote
 Alfred Smith found himself drowned in a torrent
of anti-Catholic bigotry
 The American people were happy with
Republican leadership, leading to Hoover’s
victory
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CONCLUSION
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Big cities defined American culture and economics
Republican political dominance
Consumer goods mass produced in cities
Cosmopolitan entertainment spreads to remote
communities: newspaper, radio, movies
Prohibition, KKK, and religious groups lose
membership