Lecture – 1920s: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Introduction: The 1920s – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

• The Good: Charles Lindbergh
  
  
• The Bad: Sacco & Vanzetti
  
  
• The Ugly – Ku Klux Klan & Lynching

Table of Contents:

• End of The Progressive Reform Movement (1895 – 1920)
• The Red Scare and Palmer Raids
• Intolerance and Discrimination: Race/Ethnicity/Religious
• Prospering Economy
• Women
• Clashing Values
• Hopes Raised, Promises Deferred

The End of the Progressive Reform Movement

• 25 year reform movement
• Failure: American Participation in World War I was a Progressive Crusade
  
  

Progressive Reformers – Had achieved some of its objectives

• Government regulation and intervention – curb excess of monopolies
• Social Justice – Successful: Settlement House Movement, child Labor, protective legislation for women in the workplace; Temperance Movement (18^th amendment)
• Expanded democracy: 19 amendment – right to vote for women

The Red Scare and Palmer Raids

The Red Scare – 1919

Historical Context

· Russian Revolution – 1917

· Marxist Socialism

· The fear of Marx’s ideas: “Workers of the World, Unite”

· Radicals in the United States: Marxist Socialism better than American democracy

Communists and Socialists in the United States

· 25,000 – 40,000

· John Reed, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair

Economic recession after WWI

· Wages decreased in the economic recession; workers laid off

· Labor Strikes: 4,000 strikes in 1919

· Feared by mainstream Americans: Communism / Socialism

· Steel strike: US Steel and Bethlehem Steel

· “Bomb-throwing radicals” – violence in strikes

Response: The Palmer Raids

· Launched by Mitchell Palmer: Attorney General

· Assumption: Incidents of violence = larger conspiracy by “Red” networks

· Founded anti-radical division: J. Edgar Hoover (latter head of FBI)

· Systematic raids – attacks on radical foreign workers

· Deported “aliens” (Emma Goldman) and jailed others

· Violation of Civil Rights of American citizens

Immediate Impact

· Violation of Civil Rights

· Lumped together communists, socialists, progressives, liberals and called them Bolsheviks

· Led to emergence of super patriot organizations

• American Legion
• Resurgence of Ku Klux Klan
  
  

Led to Racial/ Ethnic and Religious Intolerance

· Anti Catholic / Racial Intolerance: Sacco & Vanzetti (Catholic & Italian)

· Religious Intolerance: Scopes Trial (Darwin’s Theory of Evolution vs. the Book of Genesis)

· Anti-Semitism: Henry Ford

A Prospering Economy

Increase in Standard of Living for Middle- and Upper Middle Class Americans

Limited Changes: Workers and Labor Unions

· Limited- to- non-existent support for labor unions among American citizens

· Reduced Hours: from 60 hours per week to 45 hours per week.

· Child labor laws – removal of laws passed in the Progressive Reform Movement

· Protective legislation- women workers = lower paying jobs and little to no advancement

· Assembly Line Work - “Blue Collar Blues”

Modern Corporations

· New managers, focusing on marketing, advertising

· “Welfare capitalism” to counter union’s campaign to recruit workers

· Polarization of wealth – Many families could not move beyond subsistence

Automobile Culture

• 1929 – 4.5 million cars purchased
• Led to development of suburbs
• Ford Motor Company dominates: High pay for workers to ensure loyalty
• Price of Model T - $290 in 1924.

Electricity – Nationwide

• 1929 – 2/3 of homes – electricity
• Telephone, radio
Movies – 100 million views by 1929

Hopes Raised, Promises Deferred.

Women Struggle for Equality

• Achievement: 19^th Amendment – Right to Vote
• Outcome: Shifted activism to League of Women Voters
• National Women’s Party (Alice Paul) - Equal Rights Amendment

The New, New Woman:

• The “Flapper” - Thin, middle class, and beautiful

• Sexual Freedom – Margaret Sanger’s Crusade – Make contraceptives more available
• Tradition: Women’s “Proper Role” – Wife, Mother, & Homemaker

Job Opportunities:

• End of WWI = Fewer Jobs
• Discrimination in hiring by race and ethnicity
• Clerical Work – typewriter
• Paid less than men
• Domestic Work – African American women, Latinas, and recently arrived immigrants.

Hopes: Equality with men in American society, politics and economics

Promises Deferred: Not equal:

• gender discrimination in the work place
• social pressure – wife and mother

The Scopes Trial - Religious Fundamentalism vs. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

• John Scopes - high school biology teacher in Dayton, TN
• State legislature passed a law that stated that evolution could not be taught in the school system
• Scopes decided to break the law; arrested and put on trial
• National exposure : Lawyers and the Radio
  
  

Clarence Darrow

· Defended John Scopes

· Champion of progressive causes.

William Jennings Bryan

· Lead lawyer for prosecution; religious fundamentalism

· Three time candidate for president/republican party

· Hired by World Christian Fundamentalist Association

Outcome: John Scopes found guilty; minimum fine

Hope: Power of Science and scientific method to advance knowledge

Promises Deferred:

• Integrate Religious Fundamentalism into public school education.
• Fueled anti-Catholicism and intolerance for non-Christian faiths, Judaism, Islam, etc.

American Literary Culture - Critics of American Policies and Society

“Lost Generation”

• T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway

• Theme: Alienation - Aftermath of World War I

Critics of American Society: Sinclair Lewis, H.L. Mencken, Sherwood Anderson; Upton Sinclair

Hope: As critics, the authors wanted to cause changes in American culture and foreign policies

Promises Deferred: A work in progress

Immigration Restriction

· Objective: shut down entry for non-desirables, e.g. immigrants who did not share American values, e.g. religious practice, language, political perspective. Targeted immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Asia. (Unskilled labor pool)

· Immigration Restriction Act of 1921: Limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 3% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890.

· Immigration Restriction Act of 1924: Limited that annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people for that country who were already living in the United States in 1890. The law was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans who were immigrating in large numbers starting in the 1890s, as well as prohibiting the immigration of East Asians and Asian Indians. Congressional opposition was minimal.

· Immigration Restriction Act of 1927: Limited total immigration to 150,000; immigrants primarily came from Great Britain and Germany.

· Outcome: Cut supply of unskilled labor from Europe and Asia

New Sources of Unskilled Labor

Mexican migration - Southwest – California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas

African Americans – Southern States

· Industrialized centers of Northeast: Detroit, New York, Chicago

· Recruited by northern companies

· Non-union labor

Hope: America as a Land of Opportunity, Freedom, and Liberty

Promises Deferred:

· Kept out potential immigrants from eastern Europe and Asia

· Exploited the replacements: Mexicans and African Americans

Black Migration and an African American Social and Cultural Revolution

Marcus Garvey – Promoted Black Nationalism

· Location: New York City

· Black pride; black separatist movement

· Back to Africa: Black Star Line; Universal African Legions

· Foundation for Black Muslims & Malcolm X

Harlem Renaissance:

Historical Context:

· Modernism in literature, poetry, art, music

· Movement in Europe and United States

· Writers, artists, intellectuals

Harlem (NYC) – Gathering Place

· New Negro: African American Identity; Alan Locke

· Examples: Langston Hughes (poetry); Zora Neale Hurston (anthropologist; folklore; legacy)

Significance of Harlem Renaissance: First cultural movement by racial group and minority in the United States. Sets an example future actions by other ethnic/racial groups.

Hope: African American Identity

Promises Deferred: Full equality postponed until Civil Rights Movement of 1960s