1920’s

1. 1920’s

2. Nativism • Post WWI America wants to pull out of European affairs • Americans also feel that Europeans can never really be full Americans • 1921 immigration is limited to 350,000 • 1924 164,000 • Restrictions aimed at different ethnic groups such as southern and eastern Europeans

3. Suffrage • Women win the right to vote in 1920 • Focus on women not voting instead of women who did • Women voted the same as men in national elections but did make a difference in local elections • Given minor roles in major parties

4. Effects of Women’s Suffrage • Polling places were moved out of saloons into neutral public places • Serve on juries • Sheppard-Towner Act (1921): Federal money for prenatal and infant care • Cable Act (1922): Women who married foreigners kept their citizenship

5. The Great Migration • Jobs for African Americans in the south were low paying and few • Racial discrimination and violence kept African Americans second class citizens in the South • Northern factories expanded due to the war and were losing workers to the Army • As a result of the discrimination and availability of jobs 500,000 African Americans moved North • Great Migration

6. Life in the North • North did offer more opportunity but discrimination was still prevalent • White workers saw them as a threat to their employment and wages • Race riots in East St. Louis (1917), Washington D.C. (1919) and Chicago (1919) • In Chicago a young African American boy swam into the white part of the beach accidentally(defacto-segragation). A white man threw a rock at him and he drowned. African Americans started attacking whites in the end 40 people were dead, hundreds injured and thousands homeless.

7. The Harlem Renissance • Harlem located in New York, New York had an African American population of 14,000 in 1914 by 1930 it had 200,000 • Jazz flourished in the night clubs • Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong • Writing and the arts also flourished • Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes

8. The Jazz Age • Jazz spreads beyond African American culture and into the mainstream • The phonograph allowed music to be played anywhere. • Young adults had dance marathons • Last one standing wins • Youths also entertained themselves with: • Flag pole sitting (literally) • Goldfish eating • Talking on the phone • Driving their dates in cars

9. Immoral Youths • Here are some of the ways young adults challenged society in the 1920’s • Dated without chaperones • Went out on dates away from the home • Danced while their bodies touched • Women wore dress that exposed their arms, and knees • Wore makeup • Women had to adhere to a double standard as society told them to grasp onto new ideas it also told them to stay with the old

10. Flappers • Flapper: A woman who grasped onto the new changes of the jazz age • Wore shorter more revealing dresses, used makeup and had bobbed hair • The flappers is the mascot of the Jazz Age

11. Women in the 1920’s • While the Jazz Age did allow women more freedom it was short lived • Women held jobs but not trained above entry level • Most employers believed white women would quit after they married or had a child. Some were even fired • African American women stayed on due to economic reasons • Many women also felt the pull of traditional life to marry and take care of their children

12. Technology and Women • Technological advances dramatically affected women’s lives. • Cars allowed for easier errand running • Cheaper electrical products and installment buying allowed women to buy: • Sewing machines • Vacuum cleaners • Other time saving devices • While electrical appliances did help women with housework it also put more pressure on them as well. • “By their floors ye shall judge them” • “It is written that floors are like unto a mirror reflecting the character of the housewife.”

13. America at Leisure • Average factory work week was 50 hours • People looked for ways to spend their leisure time • Radios • 1922 500 radio stations around the country • Broadcast games, shows, music, news • NBC used small stations that broadcast the same material and the nation was now enjoying the same shows, jokes and music

14. Leisure time • Movies • Large luxurious movie theaters began to show movies • Some even had iced air • Talkies arrived in 1927 • By 1930 patrons bought 100 million movie tickets

15. National Heroes • Sports athletes became national heroes as a result of radios and news reels • Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey • Charles Lindbergh the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic became an instant national hero

16. National Products • Chain super markets sold name brand merchandise • Kleenex • First Fast food chain appeared in the 1920’s • A&W • National advertising changed the way Americans referred to items • Kleenex instead of facial tissue • Victrolas instead of phonographs • Advertisers sell to desire instead of need

17. The Model T • Ford had a dream of making cars ordinary people could afford • Accomplished with the moving assembly line • Ford had a 60% market share in the automobile industry • General Motors surpassed Ford by making cars in different colors and styles • He then started producing the model A in different colors

18. The car • The car allowed people to individually travel instead of waiting for a train • Cars stimulated the construction, rubber, gasoline, tourism, and petroleum industries • Cars also changed the semipublic life of the front porch • People walking by or in a carriage could talk to those on their front porch but the car eliminated the opportunity • Frank Lloyd Wright now designs homes without front porches that are away from the street with discreet entrances

19. Prohibition • 1919 the 18th amendment passed making it illegal to make, sell, transport, import or export any intoxicating beverage. • Many believed this would fix America’s social problems • Allowed for some of the most violent times in American History • Many people openly defied the laws at speakeasies • Illegal backdoor taverns and clubs • Others bootlegged alcohol from Mexico or Canada • Men like Al Capone become rich from the sale of illegal beverages • Others bootlegged which is the making of illegal spirits

20. Morality in Pop Culture • To bring larger crowds film makers started to make films more risqué • However a movement started to control the industry • The movie industry then self censored itself limiting nudity, sex, and crime • By 1929 there were 300 laws limiting and regulating dance halls • Couples needed to be 6 inches apart • No moonlight dances with the lights dimmed

21. Ku Klux Klan • Klan membership soared in the 1920’s • 3-5 million members • Persecuted groups: • African Americans • Catholics • Jews • Violators of prohibition • People who were grasping onto new ideas • They were for the white, American born Protestant

22. The Decline of the Klan • The decline of the Klan happened suddenly and dramatically due to its violent nature • David Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of Indiana violently raped and beat a white women • She died of her wounds • Stephenson then revealed the extent of the Klan influence and corruption in government • Stephenson was punishing those he felt betrayed him by not dropping the charges

23. 1920’s Decade of the Republicans • Warren G. Harding won Election in 1920 • Ran on the slogan “Return to normalcy” • Calvin (Closed Lip Cal) Coolidge took over after he died in 1923 and won elections in 1924. • A lady once bet President Coolidge that she could make him say more than three words. His response, “You lose.” • Herbert Hoover won election in 1928 as Coolidge would not run for another term

24. Warren G. Harding • Considered to be a “amiable second rater” • Coolidge appointed unqualified friends to key posts • They brought scandal to the administration • Tea Pot Dome was the most scandalous of Harding scandals (Harding not a scandaler) • Secretary of the interior Alfred B. Fall leased government oil reserves in Elk Hill California and Tea Pot Dome Wyoming. • In return Fall received $300,000 in “loans” • Later convicted and went to jail

25. Closed Lip Cal • Easily won the Election in 1924 • American Public did not associate him with the Harding administrations scandals • Supported big business in America • “The chief business of the American people is business” • Raised tariffs • Refused to help the average American even in natural disasters

26. Election 1928 Al Smith Herbert Hoover • Democrat • New York • Catholic • Wanted to stop prohibition • Pro worker • Self educated after 8th grade • Product of Tammany Hall • Fiery campaigner • Republican • Iowa • Quaker • Pro prohibition • Pro Business • Stanford education • Popular with female voters • Dull but polished campaigner

27. Why Hoover Won • On the radio he sounded moderate, sensible and trustworthy • Smith had a thick New York accent • Anti-Catholic propaganda worked in his favor • Widespread yet false beilief that the economy was strong

28. Economy of the Late 1920’s • Herbert Hoover proclaimed, “poverty will be banished from the nation.” • All stocks in 1925 were $27 billion by 1929 $87 billion • Real wages increased 40% with unemployment below 4% • John J. Raskob, “Everybody ought to be rich” • Employers used Welfare capitalism • raising wages and benefits to stave off union organization

29. Trouble on the Horizon • 200 companies controlled 49% of American Industry • 0.1% of the wealthiest families owned 34% of the countries savings • 80% of all families had no savings • In these families children even had to work • Installment or credit buying became popular • Cars, radios, electrical appliances were bough with credit • In the past Americans avoided buying things they could not pay for

30. The Stock Market • Pre World War I only the wealthy dealt in the stock market • Speculation by average Americans became a common practice • Buying stock in the hopes the price will rise and then selling for a profit • People also begin to buy on Margin • Paying only a fraction of stocks price in hopes that it would go up making enough money from the sale to pay back the loan and make money

31. Goods and Farmers • Consumer goods production outpaced consumption in the 1920’s • The auto industry along with the industries that supported it started to slump in 1925 • Farmers never shared in the prosperity of the 1920’s • Loans on land and machinery went bad with a drop in crop prices • 6,000 rural banks failed due unpaid loans