“The Roaring 20s”

3/19/18

The 1920s were characterized by the prohibition movement, racism, and protests.

- Prohibition: On January 16th, 1920, the 18th Amendment passed and the U.S. went dry

o Prohibition seemed patriotic after WWI, most breweries owned by Germans, and

conservation of grain for war effort (ban on wartime alcohol 1917)

o Movement led by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union

o Consequences: Drinking continued, increase in organized crime, encouraged disrespect

for law, encouraged hard liquor consumption. However, alcohol consumption and deaths

did decline.

o Repealed by FDR in December of 1933  money going to organized crime, should be

going to the federal government

- Racism: Some of the worst racial violence happened in this era. Black workers moving to the

north led to a shift in demographics.

o Black workers became strike breakers – led to anger of whites towards blacks

o Tulsa, Oklahoma  Once the most prosperous African American area. Violence and

raids in African American communities, almost all of black neighborhoods burned to the

ground.

o Rosewood, Florida, 1923  White mobs burned down the town of Rosewood, only one

house left standing (the communities only white resident). Murdered residents, lynching

o Because of WWI (wartime production/jobs), African Americans moved from rural areas

to cities. Housing became an issue.

 Segregation ordinances (declared unconstitutional, 1917)

 Restrictive Covenants: formal deed binding white property owners not to sell to

blacks (struck down in 1948)

 o National Urban League, 1911

o NAACP found restrictive covenants, school segregation, lobbied for a federal anti-

lynching bill (never achieved)

 Marcus Garvey rejected integration, preached racial pride and black self-help,

glorify African heritage

o Harlem Renaissance was a literary and artistic movement.

 Serious element of racial pride

 Art depicting black life

 Harlem: “capital of black American”

o Rise of the New Ku Klux Klan

 Attacked Catholics, Jews, African Americans, foreigners, bootleggers, divorcees

 Helped to elect 16 U.S. Senators, representatives, local officials

 1924, KKK reaches a peak in numbers and influence

 3 million members

 Davis Curtis Stephenson, leader of the Klan in Indiana, 1922

 Became a millionaire from selling robes and hoods

 Defender of Prohibition and womanhood

o However, he was convicted in 1925 for rape and kidnapping. He

was a heavy drinker and womanizer

General consensus to reduce immigration in the 20s

- Reduced quotas

- Barred all Asians

Fundamentalism

- Fundamentalist movement started with 12 pamphlets

o The Fundamentals: A Testimony, 1909-1912

 3 million copies distributed

  Focused on literal interpretation of the Bible

 Actuality of the Virgin Birth, forgiveness of sin through death of Jesus

Christ, Second Coming

Pentecostalism

- Started with Speaking in Tongues

o Evidence of the Holy Spirit

- Spread quickly among middle and lower class

- Sought emotional experience

The spread of Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism was a reaction to modernism, secularism, science

- Attacked competing religions

Scopes Trial emphasizes the conflict between faith and science

- School science teacher John Scopes stood trial for teaching evolution (against state law in

Tennessee)

- Dayton, TN was flooded with people from all over the world (everyone was paying attention to

this trial)

- No scientists allowed to testify

- End result was that John Scopes pleaded guilty and fined $100

- Supreme Court struck down anti-evolution law in 1967

- Legislatures should not restrain freedom of scientific inquiry

Consumer Culture beginning to grow in the 20s

- Shopping centers, new technologies, etc.

- Appliances, cars, clothing

- Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan

o Ford revolutionized factory assembly with assembly lines

 Made cars affordable

o Alfred Sloan was the president of General Motors, made luxury cars for the wealthy
  Cars as status symbols of wells

 First consumer credit agency, 1919

- Cars were revolutionary

o Family trips, outings (weekend excursions, drive-ins)

o Changed the landscape: roads, infrastructure improvements

o Over 30,000 traffic deaths every year

 No real emphasis on car safety until 1970