the postwar economic downturn national income dropped from $79 billion in 1920 to $63 billion in...

The postwar economic downturn

• National income dropped from $79 billion in 1920 to $63 billion in 1922

• Average annual personal income dropped from $835 - $672

• End of wartime production, factories closed

• Soldiers returned from war to reclaim jobs

• To make way for soldiers many lost their jobs

–Immigrants, women, etc.

African Americans• Between 1910 – 1930 2 Million

African Americans migrated north

• End of war severely limited employment opportunities

• Faced harsh discrimination

• Many were forced out

– Competition for jobs– Class and racial tensions – high

intolerance– Anti-immigrant legislation– KKK harassed & persecuted members of

minority groups– Government jailed black leaders

promoting black power– Religious fundamentalist – Creation vs.

Evolution– Government filled with corruption and

political scandals

Issues facing America after the war included:

• Warren G. Harding – U.S. President 1921-1923

•More likable than Wilson, more open minded

HOWEVER: Cabinet members were corrupt

• Sec. Of Interior Albert Fall leased the U.S. Navy’s petroleum reserves to private investors for a bribe. Harding implicated in the investigation.

LABOR UNRESTLABOR UNREST• 1919 – 4 million workers held 3600

strikes protesting wage cuts & long hours w/no overtime

– Some met success

– most faced rigid & violent opposition from companies, the government and the public

– Labor union membership declined 5 million – 3.4 million

Labor linked to Anti Communist fears

• Fear that Eastern European immigrants (large part of the laboring class) were aimed to carry out a communist revolutionary plot

Radicals & Bombs• American Communist party established 1919• Most American Communist were peaceful.• American Communism was a part of a broad

spectrum of radicals (socialists, anarchists, & pacifists)

• More prevalent in U.S. were left wing radicals. Often American born, upper middle class intellectuals who advocated freedom of expression more than revolution

• 1919-20 anarchists delivered a series of bombs to political officials homes & offices nationwide, raising public hysteria against all communist radicals

• Aftermath of a car bombing on Wall and Broad Streets in New York City in 1920.

Bombing at Washington D.C. home of Attorney-General Palmer

Literary Digest, 6/14/19

Caption: "These attacks will only increase the activities of our crime-detecting forces," declares Attorney-General Palmer, whose Wahington home, shown above, was damaged by a bomb-explosion on June 2.

• A period beginning in 1919 in which the government organized attacks on radicals and foreigners

• Led by Attorney General Palmer

• Between 4,000-10,000 were jailed w/out formal charges

• Over 600 people were deported

Anti-Immigration laws

• Btw. 1880 & WWI over 18 million people had immigrated to the United States

• 1921 Johnson Act – limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe to 3% of the total # here in 1910

• 1924 National Origins Act – set rate at 2% of the total here in 1890

• There was also a push for new restrictions on the number of Asian immigrants

• The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – group formed in 1920 to challenge the Constitutionality of laws that violated the Bill of Rights

The Sacco & Vanzetti Trial

The Sacco & Vanzetti Trial

The Trial:• April 1920 a robbery resulted in the death of a

paymaster and a guard• 3 weeks later Sacco and Vanzetti, both Italian

immigrants and active anarchist, were arrested• The prosecution lacked concrete evidence,

however BOTH were found guilty and sentenced to death

• 1927 – executed by the electric chair

Evidence and conclusions

from the trial:• Missing links in the prosecution’s case

• Guilty or Innocent? (Did it matter)

• Became an example in which American intolerance toward diversity became a source of tension

Nationwide Racial Discrimination• After WWI, a growing number of white

Americans alarmed by the country’s diverse population participated in individual and organized racial discrimination

• Arising from American’s intolerance and racism was the philosophy that to be truly American, a person must belong to one race, religion, and political & economic philosophy.

• Hiram Wesley Evans served as “Imperial Wizard” or leader during the 20’s to mid 1930’s.

• The KKK’s invisible empire attracted more than 4 million members at it’s height in 1924

• Klansman served as mayors, governors, congressman, ministers and police officers

• Although the KKK was responsible Although the KKK was responsible for dozens of beatings and killings for dozens of beatings and killings in the U.S. cities, its mainstream in the U.S. cities, its mainstream acceptance continued until a Klan acceptance continued until a Klan leader was sentenced to death for leader was sentenced to death for second degree murder in 1925second degree murder in 1925

• His conviction unraveled many of His conviction unraveled many of the KKK’s well kept secrets about the KKK’s well kept secrets about its criminal activitiesits criminal activities

From Racial Intolerance to Violence

• Racial Riots• Lynching

– The symbol of the extent to which racial intolerance escalated

– 1920- 53 blacks & 8 whites were lynched

– Lynching usually attracted thousands of spectators

• Facing persistent racism in the 1920’s African Americans looked for new leaders w/alternative solutions to accepting white supremacy

• Jamaican immigrant who organized the Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. in 1914. • Goals were to instill black pride and acquire

economic power for African Americans.• Also led the “back to Africa” movement that

proved unsuccessful

• Whites feared that “passive” American blacks might someday seek societal equality.

• Fearing the organized efforts of African Americans government officials arrested ten UNIA leaders including Garvey. Garvey was later pardoned and released; however he was deported and prohibited from returning to the U.S.

• Garvey inspired the largest mass movement of black people in the twentieth century and his ideas influenced many later U.S. civil rights leaders

Science, Fundamentalism & Modernism

• Evolutionist, fundamentalist and modernist grew increasingly intolerant of each other

• Fundamentalism– Refers to the belief in a literal interpretation of

the Bible

The Scopes Trial• Trial in 1925 in which a

Tennessee school teacher was charged with breaking the law that banned teaching of evolution.

• Became a test case for the ACLU to challenge the law

• Scopes defense led by Clarence Darrow – self proclaimed agnostic (someone that believes that nothing is known or can be known about the existence of God)

• Prosecution led by William Jennings Bryan– A prominent fundamentalist

Scopes convicted and fined, but Tennessee’s Supreme Court set aside the conviction on a technicality

Trial became known as the “Monkey Trial”