Tulsa Race Riot

1. Tulsa Race Riot A black man named Dick Rowland, stepped into an elevator in the Drexel Building operated by a woman named Sarah Page. Suddenly, a scream was heard and Rowland got nervous and ran out. Rowland was accused of a sexual attack against Page The next day, Rowland was arrested and held in the courthouse lockup. Headlines in the local newspapers inflamed public opinion and there was talk in the white community of lynch justice. The black community, equally incensed, prepared to defend him. Outside the courthouse, 75 armed black men mustered, offering their services to protect Rowland The Sheriff refused the offer.

2. Tulsa Race Riots A white man then tried to disarm one of the black men. While they were wrestling over the gun, it discharged. That was the spark the turned the incident into a massive racial conflict. Fighting broke out and continued through the night. Homes were looted and burned. Though they were outnumbered 10 to 1, Black's, many of whom were veterans of WWI, started to form battles lines and dig trenches. The Tulsa police force was too small to stop the rioters, so the mayor, T. D. Evans, asked the governor to send in the National Guard. While the National Guard was on its way to Tulsa, whites set fire to houses and stores. Fire companies could not fight the fire because rioters drove them away.

3. Tulsa Race Riots According to the Tulsa Tribune, the National Guard mounted two machine guns and fired into the area. The black groups surrendered and were disarmed. It took the better part of the next ten years to recover from the physical destruction and to rebuild and repatriate the residents to their homes.

4. Race Riots The migration of African Americans to northern cities during the war increased racial tensions. Whites resented the increased competition for jobs and housing. During the war, race riots had erupted, the largest in East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1917. In 1919, racial tensions led to violence in many cities. The worst riot was in Chicago, where 40 people were killed and 500 were injured. Conditions were no better in the South, as racial prejudice and fears of returning African American soldiers led to an increase in racial violence and lynching's by whites.

5. Jazz Age – 1920s High School and college youth expressed their rebellion against their elders’ culture by dancing to jazz music. Brought north by African American musicians, jazz became a symbol of the “new” and “modern” culture of the cities. The proliferation of phonographs and radios made this new style of music available to a huge (and chiefly youthful) public.

6. Entertainment In the 1920s, the radio suddenly appeared. By 1930 there were over 800 stations broadcasting to 10 million radios—about 1 third of all U.S. homes. The movie industry centered in Hollywood, California, became big business in the 1920s. Going to the movies became a national habit in cities, suburbs, and small towns. With the introduction of talking (sound) pictures in 1927, the movie industry reached new heights.

7. Entertainment In the new age of radio and movies, Americans radically shifted their viewpoint and adopted as role models the larger-than-life personalities celebrated on the sports page and the movie screen. Every sport had its superstars like Babe Ruth.

8. Harlem Renaissance By 1930, almost 20 percent of African Americans lived in the North. The largest African American community developed in the Harlem section of New York City. Harlem became famous in the 1920s for its concentration of talented actors, artists, musicians, and writers. So promising was their artistic achievement that it was referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Leading Harlem poets included Langston Hughes. The African American jazz music included such artists as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

9. Labor Problems Wages rose during the 1920s, but the union movement went backward. Membership in unions declined 20 percent, partly because most companies insisted on an open shop (keeping jobs open to nonunion workers). Some companies also began to practice welfare capitalism—voluntarily offering their employees improved benefits and higher wages in order to remove the need for organizing unions. In the South, efforts to unionize the textile industry were violently resisted by police, state militia, and local mobs. In an era that so strongly favored business, unions efforts at strikes usually failed. The United Mine Workers, led by John L. Lewis, suffered setbacks in a series of violent and ultimately unsuccessful strikes in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Conservative courts routinely issued injunctions against strikes and nullified labor laws aimed at protecting workers’ welfare.

10. Resurgence of the KKK The most extreme expression of nativism in the 1920s was the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Unlike the original Klan of the 1860s and 1870s, the new Klan founded in 1915 was as strong in the Midwest as in the South. Northern branches of the KKK directed their hostility not only against blacks but also against Catholics, Jews, foreigners, and suspected Communists. The new Klan used modern advertising techniques to grow to 5 million members by 1925. It drew most of its support from the lower middle class in small cities and towns. In 1925, the leader of Indiana’s Klan, Grand Dragon David Stephenson, was convicted of murder. After that, the Klan’s influence and membership declined rapidly. Nevertheless, it continued to exist and remained a force for white supremacy into the 1960s.

11. Buying on Credit Electricity in their homes enabled millions of Americans to purchase the new consumer appliances of the decade. Installment buying (making monthly payments) allowed the buyers to “possess today pay tomorrow” putting consumers into debt. They bought such things as radios, washing machines, refrigerators, stoves and vacuum cleaners.

12. Automobile Henry Ford’s assembly line made automobiles affordable to the thrifty worker and changed the pattern of American life. By 1930 there was an average of nearly one car per American family. Other industries—steel, glass, rubber, gasoline, and highway construction—now depended on automobile sales. In social terms, the automobile affected all that Americans did: shopping, traveling for pleasure, commuting to work, even courting (or “dating”) the opposite sex. Of course, there were new problems as well: traffic jams in the cities, injuries and death on roads and highways.

13. Indian Citizenship of Act 1924 The granting of citizenship was not a response to some universal petition by American Indian groups. Rather, it was a move by the federal government to absorb Indians into the mainstream of American life. No doubt Indian participation in World War I accelerated the granting of citizenship to all Indians, but it seems more likely to have been the logical extension and culmination of the assimilation policy. President Calvin Coolidge with four Osage Indians after Coolidge signed the bill granting Indians full citizenship.

14. Farm Overproduction – 1920s Farmers did not share in the prosperity of the 1920s. Their best years had been 1916-1918, when crop prices had been kept artificially high by (1) wartime demand in Europe and (2) the U.S. government’s wartime policy of guaranteeing a minimum price for wheat and corn. When the war ended, so did farm prosperity. Farmers who had borrowed heavily to expand during the war were now left with a heavy burden of debt. Increased productivity only increased their debts, as growing surpluses produced falling prices.

15. Overproduction -- Manufacturing During the 1920s, consumers were buying new products on credit. This helped to fuel the overproduction of such goods. Consumers only needed so many automobiles, refrigerators, washing machines, etc. thus creating an oversupply of goods. Once the market was saturated, manufacturers had to start laying off workers. All of this spending, seemed to indicate a very prosperous economy. All of this gave a false sense of prosperity.

16. Stock Market Speculation Many people in all economic classes believed that they could get rich by “playing the market.” People were no longer investing their money in order to share in the profits of a company—they were speculating that the price of a stock would go up and that they could sell it for a quick profit. Buying on margin allowed people to borrow most of the cost of the stock, making down payments as low as 10%. Investors depended that the price of the stock would increase so they could repay the loan. When prices dropped, many lost everything.

17. Laissez-faire Policy Laissez-faire was a practice of letting the economy correct itself without interference from the government. During the 1920s, the government had complete faith in business and did little to control or regulate it. Congress enacted high tariffs which protected U.S. industries but hurt farmers and international trade. Throughout the years, there were economic down turns which business eventually turned around without government help.

18. Stock Market Crash Although stock prices had fluctuated greatly for several weeks preceding the crash, the true panic did not begin until a Thursday in late October. On this Black Thursday—October 24, 1929—there was an unprecedented volume of selling on Wall Street, and stock prices plunged. The next day, hoping to stave off disaster, a group of bankers bought millions of dollars of stocks in an effort to stabilize prices. The strategy worked for only one business day, Friday. The selling frenzy resumed on Monday. On Black Tuesday, October 29, the bottom fell out, as millions of panicky investors ordered their brokers to sell, but there were no buyers.

19. Causes of the Great Depression While the collapse of the stock market in 1929 may have triggered economic turmoil, it alone was not responsible for the Great Depression. The depression throughout the nation and the world was the result of a combination of factors that matured during the 1920s. Causes of the Crash: Uneven distribution of income. Stock market speculation. Excessive use of credit. Overproduction of consumer goods. Weak farm economy. Government policies. Global economic problems.

20. Bank Failures and Unemployment Some 20% of all banks closed, wiping out 10 million savings accounts. By 1933, the number of unemployed had reached 13 million people, or 25% of the workforce, not including farmers. The social effects of the depression were felt by all classes. Those who had never fully shared in the prosperity of the 1920s, such as farmers and African Americans, had increased difficulties. Poverty and homelessness increased, as did the stress on families, as people searched for work. Mortgage foreclosures and evictions became commonplace.

21. Hoover’s Response In June 1930, Hoover signed into law the Hawley-Smoot Tariff that was the highest tariff in history. It increased taxes from 31% to 49% on foreign imports. The purpose was to protect American manufacturing, but European countries retaliated and enacted higher tariffs against U.S. goods. The effect was to reduce trade for all nations, meaning that both the national and international economies sank further into depression.

22. Hoover’s Response In 1929, the Farm Board was created to help farmers stabilize prices by temporarily holding surplus grain and cotton in storage. The program, however, was much too modest to handle the continued overproduction of farm goods.

23. Hoover’s Response Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was a federally funded government-owned corporation created by Congress to prop up faltering railroads, banks, life insurance companies, and other financial institutions. The president reasoned that emergency loans from the RFC would help to stabilize these key businesses. The benefits would then “trickle down” to smaller businesses and ultimately bring recovery.

24. Hoover’s Response At the time of the stock market crash, nobody could foresee how long the downward slide would last. President Hoover was wrong—but hardly alone—in thinking that prosperity would soon return. The president believed the nation could get through the difficult times if the people took his advice about exercising voluntary action and restraint. Hoover urged businesses not to cut wages, unions not to strike, and private charities to increase their efforts for the needy and the jobless. Gradually, President Hoover came to recognize the need for some direct government action. However, he took the traditional view that public relief should come from state and local governments, not the federal government.

25. Bonus Army By 1932, millions of unemployed workers and impoverished farmers were in a state bordering on desperation. A thousand unemployed World War I veterans marched to Washington, D.C., to demand immediate payment of the bonuses promised them at a later date (1945). They were joined by thousands of other veterans who brought their wives and children and camped in improvised shacks near the Capitol. Congress did not pass the bill. Hoover ordered the army to break up the encampment. General Douglas MacArthur, the army’s chief of staff, used tanks and tear gas to destroy the shantytown and drive the veterans from Washington. The incident showed Hoover as heartless and uncaring.

26. Hoovervilles Home foreclosures and unemployment caused many to be homeless. With few or no choices, many people ended up constructing shacks in vacant lots or parks . The collection of these shanty towns were called Hoovervilles. The homeless used newspapers as blankets and called them Hoover blankets.

27. 1932 Election The depression’s worst year, 1932, happened to be a presidential election year. The disheartened Republicans renominated Hoover, who warned that a Democratic victory would only result in worse economic problems. The Democrats nominated New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt for president. As a candidate, Roosevelt pledged a “new deal” for the American people, the repeal of Prohibition, aid for the unemployed, and cuts in government spending. The big issue was the depression and which candidate could do a better job of ending hard times. Almost 60% concluded it was time for a change. Not only was the President to be a Democrat but both houses of Congress were to have large Democratic majorities.

28. 1932 Presidential Election Franklin D. Roosevelt won with 472 electoral votes. Roosevelt decline to work with Hoover before inauguration, not wanting to be tied to any of the Republican President’s ideas.

29. Roosevelt’s New Deal The three R’s Relief—for people out of work Recovery—for business and the economy as a whole Reform—of American economic institutions.

30. New Deal To restore confidence in those banks that were still solvent, the president ordered the banks closed for a bank holiday on March 6, 1933. He went on the radio to explain that the banks would be reopened after allowing enough time for government to reorganize them on a sound basis.

31. Keynesian Economics Economist John Maynard Keynes taught Roosevelt that he had made a mistake in attempting to balance the budget. According to Keynesian theory, deficit spending was acceptable because in difficult times the government needed to spend well above its tax revenues in order to initiate economic growth. Deficit spending would be like “priming the pump” to increase investment and create jobs. Roosevelt’s spending on public works and relief went up, so too did employment and industrial production.

32. New Deal—Financial Recovery Programs The Emergency Banking Relief Act authorized the government to examine the finances of banks closed during the bank holiday and reopen those judged to be sound. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteed individual bank deposits up to $5,000. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) provided refinancing of small homes to prevent foreclosures. The Farm Credit Administration provided low-interest farm loans and mortgages to prevent foreclosures on the property of indebted farmers.

33. New Deal—Programs for Relief for the Unemployed The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) offered outright grants of federal money to states and local governments that were operating soup kitchens and other forms of relief for the jobless and homeless. The Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted money to state and local governments for building roads, bridges, dams, and other public works. These projects were a source of thousands of jobs. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed young men on projects on federal lands and paid their families small monthly sums. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) As a government corporation, it hired thousands of people in one of the nation’s poorest regions, the Tennessee Valley, to build dams, operate electric power plants, control flooding and erosion, and manufacture fertilizer. The TVA sold electricity to residents of the region at rates that were well below those previously charged by a private power company.

34. New Deal – Farm Production Control Farmers were offered a program, TheAgricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) encouraged farmers to reduce production (and thereby boost prices) by offering to pay government subsidies for every acre they plowed under.

35. New Deal – Other Programs The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was added to the PWA and other new Deal programs for creating jobs. This agency hired laborers for temporary construction projects sponsored by the federal government. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created to regulate the stock market and to place strict limits on the kind of speculative practices that had led to the Wall Street crash in 1929. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) gave both the construction industry and homeowners a boost by insuring bank loans for building new houses and repairing old ones.

36. Second New DealPrograms Works Progress Administration (WPA) – Large than the relief agencies of the first New Deal, the WPA spent billions of dollars between 1935 and 1940 to provide people with jobs. It employed 3.4 million men and women who had formerly been on the relief rolls of state and local governments. Most WPA workers were put to work constructing new bridges, roads, airports, and public buildings. Unemployed artists, writers, and actors were paid by the WPA to paint murals, write histories, and perform in plays.

37. Second New Deal Programs Social Security Act – It created a federal insurance program based upon the automatic collection of taxes from employees and employers throughout people’s working careers. The Social Security trust fund would then be used to make monthly payments to retired persons over the age of 65. Also receiving benefits under this new law were workers who lost their jobs (unemployment compensation), persons who were blind or otherwise disabled, and dependent children and their mothers.

38. Women During the Depression Added pressures were placed on the family as unemployed fathers searched for work, and declining incomes presented severe challenges for mothers in the feeding and clothing of their children. To supplement the family income, more women sought work, and their percentage of the total labor force increased. Women were accused of taking jobs from men, even though they did not get the heavy factory jobs that were lost to all, and most men did not seek the types of jobs available to women. Many New Deal programs allowed women to receive lower pay than men.

39. The Dust Bowl A severe drought in the early 1930s ruined crops in the Great Plains. This region became a dust bowl, as poor farming practices coupled with high winds blew away millions of tons of dried topsoil. With their farms turned to dust, thousands of “Okies” from Oklahoma and surrounding states migrated westward to California in search of farm or factory work that often could not be found.

40. Roosevelt’s Court Packing The Supreme Court was ruling Roosevelt’s New Deal programs unconstitutional and striking them down. Six of the nine judges were over 70 and Roosevelt asked Congress to permit him to add a new justice for every judge over 70. The maximum membership would be 15 judges. This was a political misjudgment by Roosevelt, but the Supreme Court did see the ax hanging over its head and started ruling in favor of the New Deal legislation.

41. American Isolationism Public opinion in the United States was also nationalistic but expressed itself in an opposite way from fascism and militarism. Disillusioned with the results of World War I, American isolationists wanted to make sure that the United States would never again be drawn into a foreign war. Japanese aggression in Manchuria and the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany only increased the determination of isolationists to avoid war at all costs. Isolationist sentiment was strongest in the Midwest and among Republicans.

42. America’s Neutrality To ensure that U.S. policy would be strictly neutral if war broke out in Europe, Congress adopted a series of neutrality acts. The Neutrality Act of 1935 – authorized the president to prohibit all arms shipments and to forbid U.S. citizens to travel on the ships of belligerent nations. The Neutrality Act of 1936– forbade the extension of loans and credits to belligerents. The Neutrality Act of 1937—forbade the shipment of arms to the opposing sides in the civil war in Spain.

43. Appeasement The following events showed how unprepared the democracies were to challenge Fascist aggression. Ethiopia, 1935. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. U.S. objected but did nothing. Rhineland, 1936. Hitler defied Treaty of Versailles and took the Rhineland. China, 1937. Full-scale war between Japan and China. A U.S. gunboat in china, the Panay, was bombed and sunk by the Japanese who apologized and U.S. quickly accepted. Sudetenland, 1938. Hitler took the Sudetenland. Roosevelt encourages Great Britain and France to meet with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich. The British and French leaders allowed Hitler to take the Sudetenland unopposed.

44. U.S. Response to Appeasement Roosevelt recognized the dangers of Fascist aggression but was limited by the isolationist feelings of the majority of Americans. When Japan invaded China in 1937, he tested public opinion by making a speech proposing that the democracies act together to “quarantine” the aggressor. Public reaction to the speech was overwhelmingly negative, and Roosevelt dropped the quarantine idea as politically unwise. Preparedness—Roosevelt managed to argue for neutrality and U.S. security at the same time by proposing an arms buildup. Congress went along with his request in late 1938 by increasing the military and defense spending, thinking it would be used only to protect against possible invasion of the Western Hemisphere.

45. U.S. Response to War in Europe “Cash and carry” – The British navy still controlled the seas. Therefore, if the United States ended its arms embargo, it could only aid Britain, not Germany. Roosevelt persuaded Congress in 1939 to adopt a less restrictive Neutrality Act, which provided that a belligerent could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships and paid cash. Technically, “cash and carry” was neutral, but in practice, it strongly favored Britain. Selective Service Act (1940)– Roosevelt persuaded Congress to enact a law for compulsory military service “a draft.” This act called for registration of all American men between the ages of 21 and 35 and provided for training of 1.2 million troops. Destroyers-for-bases deal – Roosevelt could not sell destroyers to the British without alarming the isolationists. He therefore cleverly arranged a trade. Britain received 50 older but still serviceable U.S. destroyers in exchange for giving the United States the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean.

46. Lend-Lease Act Roosevelt proposed ending the cash-and-carry requirement of the Neutrality Act and permitting Britain to obtain all the U.S. arms it needed on credit. The president said it would be like lending a neighbor a garden hose to put out a fire. Isolationists in the America First Committee campaigned vigorously against the lend-lease bill. By now, however, majority opinion had shifted toward aiding Britain, and the Lend-Lease Act was signed in law in March 1941.

47. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech Addressing Congress on January 6, 1941, the president delivered a speech that proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war materials and justified such a policy because it was in defense of “four freedoms.”

48. Pearl Harbor On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes from aircraft carriers flew over Pearl Harbor bombing every ship in sight. The surprise attack lasted less than two hours. In that time 2,400 Americans were killed (including over 1,100 when the battleship Arizona sank), almost 1,200 were wounded, 20 warships were sunk or severely damaged, and approximately 150 airplanes were destroyed.

49. Addressing Congress on the day after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt described the seventh of December as “a date that will live in infamy.” He asked Congress to declare “that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.” On December 8, Congress acted immediately by declaring war. Three days later, Germany and Italy honored their treaty with Japan by declaring war on the United States.

50. World War II – Impact on Society Every group in the U.S. population adjusted in different ways to the unique circumstances of wartime. The increase in factory jobs caused millions to leave rural areas for industrial jobs in the Midwest and on the Pacific Coast, especially California. Entirely new communities arose around the construction of new factories and military bases. A number of new defense installations were located in the South because of that region’s warm climate and low labor costs.