American History II: Note Set #19: 1920s Morality

  • The ______ Era (1920 – 1933)
  • With ratification of the ______ in 1920, it became illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell alcoholic beverages
  • Prohibition led to a dramatic increase in crime as alcohol became a lucrative illicit trade
  • Ratification of the ______, which repealed the 18th Amendment, ended the Prohibition Era
  • ______
  • Establishments which continued to sell alcohol illegally, despite the ban
  • Often required a password or some other identifying mark to gain admission
  • Most were operated by organized crime syndicates
  • Bootlegging
  • The illegal manufacture and transport of ______
  • Some bootleggers made “bathtub gin,” a homemade brew that could be deadly if not made correctly
  • Others were “______” who made corn liquor in stills hidden in the countryside
  • Al “Scarface” Capone (1899 – 1947)
  • America’s most notorious gangster, he ran his crime syndicate out of Chicago until being convicted of tax evasion in 1931; he eventually died in prison
  • Ran alcohol, prostitution, and gambling operations
  • Ordered the infamous ______in 1929 which eliminated several of his rivals
  • Changing Minority Roles
  • Many states began to practice ______, a "science" that taught that the “unfit” or inferior should not be allowed to have children, since they would pass on their undesirable genetic traits
  • This belief was used to support racism, ______, and to discriminate against the mentally ill and mentally handicapped and led to thousands of forced sterilizations
  • Return of the Klan
  • The ______ was revived in 1915, this time with the purpose of protecting American “purity” from not only blacks, but also immigrants
  • This new Klan started an organized membership drive, leading to as many as 15 million members joining in the 1920s
  • The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
  • Began to flex its political power during the 1920s by pushing for ______laws
  • In 1930, organized a successful campaign to keep racist judge John J. Parker from being appointed to the Supreme Court
  • Marcus Garvey (1887 – 1940)
  • Endorsed “______” or taking deep pride in black culture
  • Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), whose purpose was to promote black pride and unity, as well as education for blacks
  • Also supported his “______” movement, a call for blacks to leave America (and its white government) and return to Africa, the only place they could find true justice and freedom
  • Failed to win widespread support, especially after being sent to prison and deported to Jamaica
  • The Great Migration
  • Between 1910 and 1930, about 2 million blacks left the South in an effort to escape ______and to find good industrial jobs in Northern and Midwestern cities
  • This migration continued into the 1970s, but has since reversed – today, many blacks are leaving the North and moving south
  • Emergency Quota Act (1921)
  • Restricted immigration to ______per year of the total number of people within that ethnic group living in the US in 1910 (for example, if 100 Koreans were living in the US, then only 3 more Koreans per year would be allowed into the country)
  • Designed to limit immigration from Southern & Eastern Europe (since these groups had only begun immigrating recently, they had small numbers); these were the areas where communism and anarchism were the strongest
  • National Origins Act (1924)
  • Placed permanent restrictions on ______
  • Lowered quota to 2% per year and changed base year from 1910 to 1890
  • In 1929, immigration was capped at 150,000 total people per year
  • Hispanic Immigration
  • Emergency Quota Act and National Origins Act led to a major drop in available ______in the US
  • Hispanics took advantage of the fact that they were excluded from the quotas set by both acts, and over 600,000 moved to the US to fill the labor gap
  • Changing Roles For Women
  • ______(1920): Finally granted women suffrage (the right to vote) in federal elections
  • Women in the Workforce
  • Thousands of women began to enter the workforce during the 1920s, primarily in low-wage, low-skill jobs such as secretarial work, and as sales clerks and telephone operators
  • Most of these workers were single women seeking financial independence from their parents
  • ______
  • Many young women rebelled against the mores of their parents by wearing shorter skirts, shorter hairstyles, smoking, drinking, dancing, and dating without “adult” chaperones
  • Birth Control
  • ______(1879 – 1966): Nurse who believed that large families led to poverty
  • Began to promote use of birth control, especially amongst the poor and minorities
  • Opened her own chain of birth control clinics, mostly in poor ghettos
  • The American Birth Control League (founded by Sanger in 1921)
  • Promoted education about, and access to, harmless means of birth control
  • Also promoted sterilization of the mentally insane and mentally retarded (eugenics)
  • Merged with other birth control advocacy groups in 1942 form Planned Parenthood
  • The New Morality
  • Marriage began to be redefined among the younger generation – they began to believe that a successful marriage required ______, friendship, and sexual compatibility rather than just a sense of duty to one’s family
  • Young people also began to focus on having fun, something that became more available to them with the increased mobility offered by automobiles
  • Religious Fundamentalism
  • The relaxed morality and growing materialism of the US during the 1920s led many people, especially the older and more rural population, to embrace a new wave of religious fundamentalism
  • Fundamentalists placed much of the blame on ______, ______, science, and new technologies for America’s slide into immorality
  • ______(1862 – 1935): Former Major League baseball player who left sports to become a wildly popular revivalist minister, preaching to over 1 million people during his career
  • One of the driving forces behind Prohibition, he also opposed unrestricted immigration and the teaching of evolution in schools
  • Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 – 1944): Revivalist minister who sometimes engaged in faith healing and speaking in tongues, she operated her own 5000 seat church in LA and broadcast her sermons over the radio
  • Lifelong opponent of the teaching of ______
  • Complicated personal life included several marriages, a faked kidnapping publicity stunt, and death by accidental overdose of sedatives
  • The Scopes Monkey Trial (July, 1925)
  • Tennessee’s ______ (1925): The state of Tennessee banned all schools, including universities, from teaching human evolution and required the teaching of creationism
  • Punishment for breaking the law was a fine of $100 - $500 per offense
  • The ______(ACLU) had been founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.“
  • In 1925, the ACLU sought out a teacher who would be willing to intentionally violate the Butler Act in order to test the constitutionality of the Act
  • ______(1900 – 1970): Tennessee high school teacher who agreed to be the ACLU’s test case
  • Used the state-approved biology textbook (which contained a chapter on evolution) to teach the subject, thereby breaking the law and triggering the Scopes Monkey Trial
  • Encouraged his own students to testify against him!
  • Scopes' case drew high-profile coverage from all over the world as science faced off against religious fundamentalism
  • Scopes' defense argued that evolution was not necessarily in conflict with creationism and that the Butler Act was unconstitutional on the grounds that it was designed to benefit the beliefs of a specific religious group
  • ______(1860 – 1925) served as a special prosecutor for the state of Tennessee during the Scopes trial and even testified as an “expert witness” (his testimony was largely damaging to his own case and was struck from the record)
  • Bryan died just 5 days after the trial ended
  • ______(1857 – 1938): celebrity criminal lawyer, fresh off a nationally covered murder case in Chicago where he had saved the lives of his teenage clients
  • Brought in as a “hired gun” by the ACLU both for his skill as a lawyer and for the publicity his reputation would bring
  • The Court's Decision
  • Scopes was found ______by a jury and fined $100 by the judge
  • On appeal, his conviction was overturned on a technicality, but the constitutionality of the Butler Act was upheld (it was repealed in 1967 and laws like it were declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1968)