The Roaring Twenties (1919-1929)

1. The Roaring Twenties (1919-1929)

2. Politics and Prosperity • Warren G. Harding was elected as the new President in 1921. World War I helped the economy. Factories expanded rapidly to meet the need for military supplies. When the war was over more than 2 million soldiers came home looking for jobs. At the same time factories stopped turning out materials. The result was a sharp recession, or economic slump. Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson, a mother of seven children, age 32, in Nipomo, California, March 1936. Warren G. Harding

3. Harding filled his cabinet positions with his old friends. This created a scandal. Many believed Harding sudden death was attributed to the many scandals during his presidency. In the Teapot Dome Scandal the first cabinet official was sent to prison for being involved in an oil bribery. On the day Harding died, Calvin Coolidge, the Vice President became the new President. Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge Doheny (2nd from right) testifying before the Senate Committee investigating the Tea Pot Oil Leases

4. What came to be known as the Teapot Dome scandal involved Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, who accepted large sums of money and valuable gifts from private oil companies. In exchange, Fall allowed the companies to control government oil reserves in Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. The U.S. Senate soon began investigating Fall, who was convicted of accepting bribes. POLITICAL CARTOON During the Teapot Dome scandal, people began to question the judgment and honesty of government leaders. This cartoon, called “Juggernaut,” was published in 1924 to show how harmful the scandal had been. A juggernaut is an indestructible force that crushes everything in its path. Teapot Dome How do the images in the cartoon illustrate the destructive force of the scandal? ANALYSIS SKILL Why do you think the artist called this cartoon “Juggernaut”?

5. Coolidge set out to repair the damage caused by the scandals. Coolidge cut regulations on business to make the country prosper. As a result industry had a rapid economic growth. As a result their was more jobs and incomes rose. To encourage the buying of products, business allowed installment buying, or buying on credit.

6. Buying on credit led to a soaring stock market. Buying on credit meant purchasing with the promise to pay back. Corporations sold stocks, or shares of ownership, to investors. Investors made or lost money depending on whether the price of the shares went up or down. A period of increased stock trading or the rising of stock prices is known as a bull market. The New York Stock Exchange

7. The Soviet Union set up a government called communism. Communism is an economic system in which all wealth and property is owned by the community. Americans refused to recognize this government started by a man named Lenin. Most Americans disliked Communism. An Arms race was one of the Causes of World War I. Many Americans were in favor of a disarmament of Europe. A disarmament of weapons is a reduction of weapons. Lenin The Soviet Flag

8. These attitudes led to a Red Scare , a time of fear of Communists, or Reds. The Red Scare began in April 1919, when U.S. postal workers found bombs hidden in several packages addressed to famous Americans. Offi cials never found out who sent the bombs, but they suspected members of the Communist Party. In June a bomb exploded outside the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Palmer responded by organizing police raids to break up Communist and other groups. In what became known as the Palmer raids, government agents arrested thousands of suspected radicals, often without evidence. Palmer frightened the public by warning that radicals were planning a revolution. The Red Scare

9. The Red Scare led to one of the best known criminal cases in American history. In 1920 police arrested Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for the robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard. However, they were believed to be anarchists by government officials. (Anarchists are people opposed to organized government.) Though both men declared themselves innocent of the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), founded in 1920 to defend people’s civil rights, tried unsuccessfully to get the verdict overturned. Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted. They were executed in 1927. Sacco and Vanzetti Supporters of Sacco and Vanzetti held rallies and raised money for the immigrants’ defense. The men were found guilty and were executed in 1927. Why did the Sacco and Vanzetti case become so famous?

10. 2. New Ways of Life Prohibition began in the 1920’s. Prohibition was the ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor any where in the United States. Supporters of prohibition were overjoyed. Soon the Eighteenth Amendment went into affect. It banned the use of liquor in the United States. Liquor was banned in the United States. Eighteenth Amendment

11. Click on picture to learn more about smugglers Twenty First Amendment Many Americans found ways to get around the law. People manufactured their own liquor in their own homes to get around the law. Smugglers hid bottles in their own boots, they became known as bootleggers. Organized crime took a great boost by providing liquor for every illegal speak-easy. Soon in 1933 the United States ratified the Twenty First Amendment which repealed, or cancelled the Eighteenth Amendment.

12. Primary Source PHOTOGRAPH Prohibition Prohibition Agents of federal and state governments tried to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment against great odds. They usually destroyed any liquor that they found. This photograph shows an illegal barrel of beer being broken with an axe. More illegal beer and liquor would soon turn up, however. Faced with a lack of public support and an impossible task of enforcing the ban on alcohol, prohibition was repealed with the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933. Analysis Skill Why was enforcing prohibition such a hard task?

13. Another Amendment that changed American lives was the Nineteenth Amendment. Ratified in 1920, it gave women the right to vote. The league of women voters was set up to help educate the voters. Suffragettes

14. Soon women served as delegates in the Republican and Democratic conventions. In 1924 two women governors were elected, Nellie Tayloe Ross and Miriam A. Ferguson. Women of the suffrage movement also worked to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. The Equal Rights Amendment stated that no rights shall be denied or abridged by the United States based on account of being a man or a woman. Nellie Tayloe Ross Equal Rights Amendment

15. The invention of the automobile had a great impact on Americans in the 1920’s. Car sales grew rapidly during this period. Americans traveled to more places then ever before thanks to the automobile. The cost of the Model T dropped from $850 to $290. As a result, Americans do not to be rich to buy a car. Car prices also fell because factories became more efficient. Henry Ford and the Model T Model T

16. ANALYZING VISUALS The Model T Assembly Line The chassis, or frame, and the engine are assembled on separate lines. Workers on a third line then attach them. Workers use large amounts of leather to upholster the interiors of the carriages. The assembled chassis is then connected to the body of the car. Analysis Skill A foreman ensures that the line continues to run smoothly. How does the moving assembly line reduce the time it takes to build a car?

17. With the low cost of the Automobile people moved outside of the towns, called suburbs. A suburb is a community located outside the city. With cars people could drive to their job in the city even though it was miles away. A suburb

18. Radio’s became very popular in the 1920’s. More than ten million families owned radios and listened to broadcasts. Millions of Americans went to the movies. The first movies had no sound and were in black and white. A pianist played music that went with the action. An early radio

19. 3. The Roaring Twenties During the 1920’s new dances, new music, new games and other new ways of fun swept the country. New fads caught on in the country. A fad is an activity or fashion that is taken up with great passion for a short time. Dances and crazes came and went rapidly. Young women known as flappers rebelled against the traditional ways of thinking and acting. flappers

20. During World War I large numbers of African Americans began leaving the South to take jobs in northern factories. This movement, called the Great Migration, continued during the economic boom of the 1920s. While African Americans found jobs in the North, they did not escape racism. Racial tensions and fear of foreigners helped give rise to a new form of the Ku Klux Klan, the racist group that had terrorized African Americans during Reconstruction. The new Klan harassed Catholics, Jews, and immigrants, as well as African Americans. The Great Migration From 1940 to 1941 artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings that told the story of African Americans moving from the South to northern cities in search of jobs and equality. This is one of 60 paintings in the Migration Series. It shows African Americans about to begin their journey. Where are the people in the painting going?

21. After returning back from World War I African Americans returned back to a segregated society. Racial prejudice was widespread through the United States. Marcus Garvey became a popular black leader. He started a black nationalist movement. Marcus Garvey (far right) in parade Marcus Garvey

22. CASE STUDYBIOGRAPHY Marcus Garvey 1887–1940 Marcus Garvey grew up in Jamaica and moved to the United States in 1916. A talented speaker, he quickly became one of the country’s most famous and controversial black leaders. His newspaper Negro World promoted the idea of building an independent black economy. To encourage worldwide trade among black people, he created the Black Star Steamship Line. Some black leaders, including W. E. B. DuBois, considered Garvey’s ideas dangerous and extremist. After a series of legal problems related to his steamship company, Garvey was arrested in 1922 and was later deported. Drawing Inferences: How did Marcus Garvey try to help African Americans?

23. Louis Armstrong An explosion in the popularity of jazz music gave the decade another nickname — the Jazz Age . Another innovation in the 1920’s was jazz. Born in New Orleans, jazz combined West African rhythms. Louis Armstrong was one of the brilliant young African American musicians who helped created jazz

24. W.E.B. Du Bois was a famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance Duke Ellington and his orchestra In the 1920’s, large numbers of African American musicians, artists , and writers settled in Harlem. This period of time became known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance young black artists celebrated their African and American heritage.

25. Langston Hughes was the best known poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He published his first poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Langston Hughes

26. Primary Source POEM “I, Too” In one of his most celebrated poems, Langston Hughes expressed both pride in being African American and faith in the American dream. “I, Too I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, ‘Eat in the kitchen,’ Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.” Analysis SKILL Analyzing Who do you think Hughes is referring to when he speaks of “they”?

27. Athletes such as Jack Dempsey, Bill Tilden, and Helen Wills became famous during the 1920’s. Charles Lindbergh flew a plane from New York across the Atlantic Ocean. He was known as “Lucky Lindy.” Bill Tilden Charles Lindbergh Jack Dempsey

28. 4. A Nation Divided In 1929 the average family earned $2000.00 a year. Their was trouble with prosperity. Workers were hurt by the changes in industry. Shorter skirts meant lees material needed to be produced. Coal miners lost their jobs as oil became a new source of energy. Trains began losing business to the trucking industry. Farmers were hit the hardest during World War I. Europeans bought products from the farmers. After World War I they stopped buying the farmers products. The farmers could not pay off their loans after the war so they lost their farms. A farmer in 1929

29. In the Scopes Trial the class between old and new values erupted. Darwin’sTheory of Evolution was on trial. Churches condemned Darwin's Theory. As a result of the trial the teaching of evolution was condemned in schools, although it is rarely enforced today. Scopes Trial Theory of Evolution

30. The Scopes TrialPOINTS OF VIEW Although the focus of the Scopes trial was whether or not John Scopes had broken the law, prosecution witness William Jennings Bryan saw the conflict as one between science and faith. Clarence Darrow saw the conflict as a battle over free speech. “Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine . . . The [Scopes] case has assumed the proportions of a battle-royal [a struggle involving many people] between unbelief that attempts to speak through so-called science and the defenders of the Christian faith.” “If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it . . . in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist [force] your own religion upon the minds of men.” “If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it . . . in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist [force] your own religion upon the minds of men.” Analysis Skill Why did Darrow believe the Scopes trial was about free speech? Why did Darrow believe the Scopes trial was about free speech? Why did Darrow believe the Scopes trial was about free speech?

31. A new organization called the Klu Klux Klan began in 1915. The original Klan kept African Americans from voting during the Civil War. Now The Klan's had a broader aim: to preserve the United States for white, native-born Protestants. The Klan terrorized immigrants and African Americans by using lynching and burning crosses on front lawns. Klu Klux Klan

32. In the election of 1928 Herbert Hoover became the new President of the United States of America. He was the 31st President of the United States. Herbert Hoover

33. The End