Unit III – A Modern Nation

Unit III – A Modern Nation Chapter 10 Section 1 American Life Changes

American Life Changes • The Main Idea • The United States experienced many social changes during the 1920s. • Reading Focus • What were the new roles for American women in the 1920s? • What were the effects of growing urbanization in the United States in the 1920s? • In what ways did the 1920s reveal a national conflict over basic values? • What was Prohibition, and how did it affect the nation?

New Family Roles • The 1920s brought a shift in many people’s attitudes toward men and women’s relationships. • The basic rules defining female behavior were beginning to change. • American women continued to have primary responsibility for caring for the home, and most still depended on men for financial support. • More, however, sought greater equality. New Opportunities • The 19th Amendment allowed women to vote, and some were elected to state and local office. • In general, however, women voted about as much as the men in their lives. • Many women had taken jobs during World War I but lost them when men came home. • During the 1920s women joined the workforce in large numbers, though mostly in the lowest-paying professions. • Women attended college in greater numbers. New Roles for Women

Womens Suffrage- 19th Amendment • Why We Don't Want Men to Vote • Because man's place is in the army. • Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it. • Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them. • Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums. • Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.

Womens Suffrage- 19th Amendment • 1920 Henry Burn casts the deciding vote that makes Tennessee the thirty-sixth, and final state, to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. August 26: The Nineteenth Amendment is adopted and the women of the United States are finally enfranchised. • 19th Amendment • “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

One popular image that reflects changes for women in the Roaring Twenties was the flapper, a young woman of the era who defied traditional ideas of proper dress and behavior. Other Women • In much of the U.S., women only read about flappers in magazines, and many disapproved of flappers or wouldn’t dare to be so reckless. • Some older women’s rights reformers thought flappers were only interested in fun. • Many did not take flappers seriously. Flappers • Flappers shocked society by cutting their hair, raising hemlines, wearing makeup, smoking, drinking, and dancing. • The dress style was popular among young, rebellious girls. • .The term flapper suggested an independent, free lifestyle. • Flappers mostly lived in cities, though rural people read about them in magazines. The flapper craze took hold mainly in American cities, but in many ways the flappers represented the rift between cities and rural areas. The Flapper

Flappers • The flapper was "modern." • Lively and full of energy, she was single but eligible. • With short hair and a short skirt, with turned-down hose and powdered knees - the flapper must have seemed to her mother (the gentle Gibson girl of an earlier generation) like a rebel. • No longer confined to home and tradition, the typical flapper was a young women who was often thought of as a little fast and maybe even a little brazen • These young women further blurred the boundaries between respectable and depraved by their public activities; swearing, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, dancing, and dating were among her pastimes.

ankle: to walk, i.e.. "Let's ankle!” apple sauce: flattery, nonsense, i.e.. "Aw, applesauce!” beeswax: business, i.e. "None of your beeswax." Student. Tin Pan Alley: the music industry in New York, located between 48th and 52nd Streets palooka: (1) a below-average or average boxer (2) a social outsider, from the comic strip character Joe Palooka, who came from humble ethnic roots killjoy: a solemn person ankle: to walk, i.e.. "Let's ankle!” apple sauce: flattery, nonsense, i.e.. "Aw, applesauce!” beeswax: business, i.e. "None of your beeswax." Student. Tin Pan Alley: the music industry in New York, located between 48th and 52nd Streets palooka: (1) a below-average or average boxer (2) a social outsider, from the comic strip character Joe Palooka, who came from humble ethnic roots killjoy: a solemn person Slang

Jazz Age – 5:18 min.

The Jazz Age • Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in America. And by the mid-1920s, jazz was being played in dance halls and roadhouses and speakeasies all over the country. The blues, which had once been the product of itinerant black musicians, the poorest of the southern poor, had become an industry, and dancing consumed a country that seemed convinced prosperity would never end. • Dances like the Lindy Hop, Charleston, Shimmy, Blackbottom, the Break-a-way, Texas Tommy, Cake Walk, Turkey Trot, Grizzley Bear, and Apache Dance.

New Roles for Women • Explain- What was the purpose of the Nineteenth Amendment? • Analyze- Why do you think women tended to vote as their husbands or fathers did? • Develop- How do you think World War I changed women’s lives?

New Roles for Women • Describe- How were supporters of women’s rights different from flappers? • Evaluate- Why do you think flappers lived mostly in urban areas?

Effects of Urbanization • Though the 1920s was a time of great economic opportunities for many, farmers did not share in the prosperity. • Farming took a hard hit after World War I, when demand for products went down and many workers moved to industrialized cities. • The 1920 census showed that for the first time ever, more Americans lived in cities than in rural areas, and three-fourths of all workers worked somewhere other than a farm. • The rise of the automobile helped bring the cities and the country together, and rural people were now likely to spend time in town and were less isolated. • Education also increased, and by the 1920s many states passed laws requiring children to attend school, helping force children out of workplaces. School attendance and enrollment increased as industry grew because more people could afford to send their children to school, not to work.

Effects of Urbanization • What were the effects of growing urbanization on the United States in the 1920’s? • Identify- What surprising information was revealed in the 1920 census? • Analyze- How did the automobile change life in rural areas? • Evaluate- Why do you think increasing education opportunities changed rural populations?

Conflicts over Values • Americans lived in larger communities, which produced a shift in values, or a person’s key beliefs and ideas. • In the 1920s, many people in urban areas had values that differed from those in rural areas. • Rural America represented the traditional spirit of hard work, self-reliance, religion, and independence. • Cities represented changes that threatened those values. • The Ku Klux Klan grew dramatically in the 1920s, and many of its members were people from rural America who saw their status declining. • Members of the Klan continued to use violence, targeting African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and all immigrants. • In the 1920s, the Klan focused on influencing politics. • The Klan’s membership was mostly in the South but spread nationwide. • The Klan’s peak membership was in the millions, many from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. • Membership declined in the late 1920s because of a series of scandals affecting Klan leaders.

KKK and the Immigration Restriction • The name was constructed by combining the Greek "kuklos" (circle) with "clan." It was at first a humorous social club centering on practical jokes and hazing rituals but soon spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a "reign of terror" against Republican leaders both black and white.

KKK and the Immigration Restriction • The second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sought to reverse the changes in gender and sexual norms. • The KKK worked to elevate white Protestant men and women while blaming the demise of America's moral standards on Catholics, Jews, and people of color. "pure Americanism." • As a result of pressure from western states and nativist organizations, the federal government enacted laws that specifically targeted Asian immigrants, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and the "Gentlemen's Agreement" with Japan in 1907. Literacy Tests. Immigration Act of 1924 (Quotas) • KKK hatred of Blacks, Jews, Catholics, Flappers and Immigrants. It established one of the largest social movements of the 20th century, enrolling nearly five million of ordinary, "respectable," middle-class Americans

Billy Sunday Changing times caused uncertainty, turning many to religion for answers. One key religious figure of the time was former ballplayer and ordained minister Billy Sunday. Sunday condemned radicals and criticized the changing attitudes of women, reflecting much of white, rural America’s ideals. Sunday’s Christian beliefs were based on a literal translation of the Bible called fundamentalism. Aimee Semple McPherson Another leading fundamentalist preacher of the time Seemed to embrace the kind of glamour that other fundamentalists warned about Her religion, however, was purely fundamentalist. She was especially well known for healing the sick through prayer. The Rise of Fundamentalism

The Scopes Trial • Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution holds that inherited characteristics of a population change over generations, which sometimes results in the rise of a new species. • According to Darwin, the human species may have evolved from an ape-like species that lived long ago. • Fundamentalists think this theory is against the biblical account of how God created humans and that teaching evolution undermine religious faith. • Fundamentalists worked to pass laws preventing evolution being taught in schools, and several states did, including Tennessee in 1925. • One group in Tennessee persuaded a young science teacher named John Scopes to violate the law, get arrested, and go to trial. • Scopes was represented by Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan, three-time candidate for president, represented the prosecution. • John Scopes was obviously guilty, but the trial was about larger issues. • Scopes was convicted and fined $100, but Darrow never got a chance to appeal because the conviction was overturned due to a technical violation by the judge. • The Tennessee law remained in place until the 1960s.

Scopes Monkey Trial: Teaching Creationism or Evolution in School (02:56)

Scopes Trial • THE CAST: • Clarence Darrow,famed and brilliant lawyer specializing in defending underdogs, who volunteered for this case to help combat fundamentalist ignorance • John T. Scopes, a 24-year old science teacher and football coach v.s. • William Jennings Bryan,famed orator, fundamentalist and presidential candidate. • The world's attention was riveted on Dayton, Tennessee, during July, 1925. At issue was the constitutionality of the "Butler Law," which prohibited the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and Kentucky already had such laws. • The ACLU hoped to use the Scopes case to test (and defeat)Fundamentalist meddling in politics. Judge John Raulston began the trial by reading the first 27 verses of Genesis. • Clarence Darrow said: "Science gets to the end of its knowledge and, in effect, says, 'I do not know what I do not know,' and keeps on searching. Religion gets to the end of its knowledge, and in effect, says, 'I know what I do not know,' and stops searching. Darrow Bryan

Conflicts Over Values • In what ways did the 1920’s reveal a national conflict over basic values? • Describe- What were the traditional values of rural America? • Evaluate- Why do you think the KKK began targeting recent immigrants in addition to African Americans?

Conflicts Over Values • Recall-What was the issue at the heart of the Scopes Trial? • Explain- Why did fundamentalists want to ban teaching evolution in schools? • Develop- Why do you think Clarence Darrow was arguing about freedom of speech in the Scopes case?

Prohibition • Throughout U.S. history, groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union worked to outlaw alcohol, but the drive strengthened in the early 1900s, as Progressives joined the effort. • Over the years, a number of states passed anti-alcohol laws, and World War I helped the cause when grain and grapes, which most alcohol is made from, needed to feed troops. • The fight against alcohol also used bias against immigrants to fuel their cause by portraying immigrant groups as alcoholics. • Protestant religious groups and fundamentalists also favored a liquor ban because they thought alcohol contributed to society’s evils and sins, especially in cities. • By 1917 more than half the states had passed a law restricting alcohol. The Eighteenth Amendment banning alcohol was proposed in 1917 and ratified in 1919. The Volstead Act enforced the amendment.

Prohibition in Practice • Enforcing the new Prohibition law proved to be virtually impossible, as making, transporting, and selling alcohol was illegal, but drinking it was not. • Prohibition gave rise to huge smuggling operations, as alcohol slipped into the country through states like Michigan on the Canadian border. • Newspapers followed the hunt for bootleggers, or liquor smugglers, but government officials estimated that in 1925 they caught only 5 percent of all the illegal liquor entering the country. • Many people also made their own liquor using homemade equipment, and others got alcohol from doctors, who could prescribe it as medicine. • The illegal liquor business was the foundation of great criminal empires, like Chicago gangster Al Capone’s crew, who smashed competition, then frightened and bribed police and officials. • 3,000 Prohibition agents nationwide worked to shut down speakeasies, or illegal bars, and to capture illegal liquor and stop gangsters. • Millions of Americans violated the laws, but it would be many years before Prohibition came to an end.

Prohibition • Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. • The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. • The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drink among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe, was spreading. Anti Saloon League, Scientific Temperance Federation, World League Against Alcoholism, and Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Prohibition • Speakeasies were actually illegal "nightclubs." They were created during the 20's when prohibition was lurking about and alcohol was ruled illegal. • They were usually opened late at night and served a playing field for the rebels that wanted to dance the night away and drink alcohol. • They would usually have code words for people to get into and would be run by the local cop on the street. • The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York was the most famous of these speakeasies. • They were a place where the prosperous could party, local cops could make a little extra cash. • In the speakeasies, discrimination was a problem.

Prohibition - Problems • Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became "organized"; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant. • No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. • Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. • It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition. St. Valentines Day Massacre Eliot Ness

Prohibition (01:59)

The Rise of Prohibition -4:31

Changing the Shape of American Organized Crime: Al Capone and Prohibition (04:52)

Capone Begins Long Jail Term (00:47)

Bonnie and Clyde Some day they will go down together, And they will bury them side by side, To a few it means grief, To the law it's relief, But it's death to Bonnie and Clyde. • Clyde Champion Barrow and his companion, Bonnie Parker, were shot to death by officers in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934, after one of the most colorful and spectacular manhunts the Nation had seen up to that time. • Barrow was suspected of numerous killings and was wanted for murder, robbery, and state charges of kidnapping. • At the time they were killed in 1934, they were believed to have committed 13 murders and several robberies and burglaries. Barrow, for example, was suspected of murdering two police officers at Joplin, Missouri, and kidnaping a man and a woman in rural Louisiana. • Numerous sightings followed, linking this pair with bank robberies and automobile thefts. Clyde allegedly murdered a man at Hillsboro, Texas; committed robberies at Lufkin and Dallas, Texas; murdered one sheriff and wounded another at Stringtown, Oklahoma; kidnaped a deputy at Carlsbad, New Mexico; stole an automobile at Victoria, Texas; attempted to murder a deputy at Wharton, Texas; committed murder and robbery at Abilene and Sherman, Texas; committed murder at Dallas, Texas; abducted a sheriff and the chief of police at Wellington, Texas; and committed murder at Joplin and Columbia, Missouri.

Prohibition • What was Prohibition and how did it effect the nation? • Recall- What did the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act do? • Summarize- What were the main arguments in favor of Prohibition? • Make Judgments- Do you think that the government should regulate what people are allowed to eat and drink?

Prohibition • Recall- How did American’s obtain alcohol during Prohibition • Identify Cause and Effect- How did the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act lead to the rise of organized crime. • Make Judgments- Why do you think law enforcement officials were unsuccessful in enforcing the Volstead Act?

Unit III – A Modern Nation