Post WWI America:

 

Postwar Economic Downturn

 

Incomes decreased and recession began as America adjusted to peacetime production

 

Unemployment went up as wartime factories closed and soldiers returned to reclaim their jobs, women were forced out of the workplace

 

Immigrants and African-Americans often lost their jobs to “native White” Americans with the squeeze for jobs

 

This competition led to racism, and class conflicts:

     Workers strikes which turned violent

     Government raids on left wing groups

     anti-immigration laws

     growth of the Klan

     religious controversy over evolution

 

Political Scandals

 

Harding: likable guy but had many corrupt officials in his cabinet who he supported rather than fired

 

Examples:

     Attn General Daugherty was overly harsh in

           breaking strikes and allowed cronies

           to break the law

     Jesse Smith sold public offices for cash or political

           promises

     Teapot Dome: Sect of Interior Albert Fall leased US

           Naval oil reserves to private business for bribes;

           Harding was implicating in helping cover

    

 

 

Labor Unrest

 

Key social dislocation was labor strikes

     1919: 4 million workers staged over 3,600 strikes

 

Most faced violent opposition by business, government and the public

 

Labor Union membership declined during the period because of the general failure of unions to gain success

 

Eastern European immigrants in labor unions were viewed with extra suspicion because of the growth of socialism/communism in Europe

 

American Communist Party was formed in 1919 which solidified suspicion that unions were commies in disguise, here to bring the proletarian revolution to America

 

Radicals and Bombs

 

Most American communists were peaceful and law-abiding

 

Splits within the party over ideology and goals often disrupted their plans

 

Many American radicals were upper-middle class intellectuals who supported freedom of expression and embraced Russian art and literature more than advocating revolution

  

A small minority of radicals did use violence, bombs were delivered to many govt. officials homes and offices which increased hysteria 1919 and 1920

More bombs were delivered to John D Rockefeller, American Senators, Attorney General Mitchell Palmer’s home with pamphlets titles “Plain Words” led Mitchell to determine to break the power of “organized crime directed against organized government”

 

Red Scare

 

Government organized attacks against  radicals and foreigners

 

Palmer raids resulted in arrests of many radicals who were held without being charged for long periods of time

 

Several were deported, fined, had their offices ransacked, marched through the streets etc

 

Anti-immigration laws were passed to limit eastern European immigration

 

American Civil Liberties Union was formed in January 1920 to protect the rights of minorities and immigrants that were being violated by the Palmer raids

 

The ACLU’s victories were far and few between in the 20’s because most Americans supported the Palmer raids and deportations

 

  

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

 

April 1920 a robbery at a factory in Massachusetts led to the death of two men

 

3 weeks later Sacco and Vanzetti (two Italian immigrants and active anarchists who opposed the Palmer raids) were arrested (they had guns on them when they were arrested)

 

The men had no solid alibi but the prosecution had no solid evidence, the judge was pro-prosecution and sentenced them to death

 

August of 1927 after many appeals, they were finally executed

 

Debate continued over the propriety of the trial and conviction: victims of improper/unfair persecution and xenophobia or fairly tried and given due process?

 

Rising Intolerance

 

Nationwide a renewed spirit of racism arose as a reaction to the rapidly diversifying population

    

Nativists  began a rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan

     Evans (their leader) emphasized that the Klan  was patriotic and was NOT

            centered around the hatred of others

     In reality: they opposed Catholics, blacks, Jews, immigrants, homosexuals,

            Asians, drug dealers, “wild women” the Pope, and FDR

Reached 4 million members at its peak in 1924

“Swift justice” was visited upon people: flogging, tarring

           and feathering

 

Intolerance to Violence

 

“Red Summer” of 1919: over 200 race riots occurred

    

Lynchings increased throughout the 20’s which became large spectator shows in the south

 

1930’s jazz singers wrote lyrics about this: Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”

 

 

From Marcus Garvey to Black Pride

 

Marcus Garvey  became the leader of movement for “universal, Africa-centered Negro liberation”

 

Taught about Black Pride: African Civilization pre-dated Euros,

 

1914 he formed the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which sought to empower blacks for independence,

 

The Negro World (publication) and Black Eagle Flying Corps (paramilitary group)

 

Promoted a vision of Africans returning to Africa and regaining it from the Europeans

 

He supported (initially) WEB and Booker T but differences caused him to abandon supporting them

 

UNIA fizzled in the mid 1920’s after 10 leaders were jailed as anarchists and Garvey was deported BUT this was the first mass movement for black equality

 

 

Religion and Science Debate

 

Another divisive area of the 20’s was the area of religion vs. science:

     Evolution vs. Creationism

     Fundamentalists spoke out against  other “non-Christian” activities

     Modernist Christians tried to reconcile the two theories

 

ACLU tested a Tennessee law in 1925 by asking John Scopes to teach evolution in violation of the law which forbade the teaching of evolution in a science classroom

 

William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow took up the defense

 

The “monkey trial” decided that Scopes was guilty, but the spectacle of the trial became a simple debate between religion and science