Changing Ways of Life in the 20sChanging Ways of Life in the 20s

What societal differences does America see in the 20s?

Urban living…the place to be• 1920s: 51.2% of Americans now live in a city, 2 mill more a year

move to a city during the 20s • Why? more job opportunities, easy transportation• Big Cities include New York (5.6m), Chicago (3m), Philadelphia (2m)• Positives: very diverse; drinking, gambling & casual dating tolerated• Negatives: impersonal (too many strangers), fast paced (no leisure)

Rural LifeRural Life• Rural living = small towns & farms who had conservative values &

were religious• Why? Slower-paced life, saw cities as immoral places

Prohibiting Alcohol (Progressive Era!)• 18th Amendment (Prohibition):outlaws sale, consumption, &

manufacturing of alcohol• Rural people pleased about passage, see alcohol as a crime • Cities are upset, rural America pushing their values on us!• Volstead Act (1919) est. Prohibition Bureau to enforce law, but govt

doesn’t have enough money to fund it• As a result, hidden saloons & “social” clubs called speakeasies open

up in major cities

The Cotton Club• Harlem’s (NY) Cotton Club was the most

famous speakeasy

Organized Crime & BootleggingOrganized Crime & Bootlegging• To get alcohol to the US, bootleggers would smuggle alcohol in from

Canada, Cuba and/or W. Indies● Money from bootlegging & speakeasies helps fund organized crime• Chicago: Al Capone ran 10k Speakeasies and his illegal empire was worth $100 million Capone responsible for 522 gang-related murders

• Bootleggers begin moving to more serious drugs overtime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Tn9Grcu3g

Speakeasy Ad

The Scopes Trial•Fundamentalists (people who take Bible literally) were gaining ground in America, want to challenge the teaching of evolution in schools

•March 1925: Tennessee makes it illegal to teach evolution

•Teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution

•ACLU hires lawyer Clarence Darrow to defend Scopes’1st Amend. right

•William Jennings Bryan runs prosecution. Scopes is found guilty but verdict is overturned, (law still remained in effect)