DEPTH: 2 How far did US society change in the 1920s? Flashcards
What were the Roaring Twenties?
A cultural boom for young, rich city dwellers who rejected old fashioned standards of dress, morals and social behaviour.
Why did Americans have more leisure time?
The average working week dropped from 47.4 to 44.2 hours and wages rose by 11%
What was the growth in cinema audiences during the 1920s?
More than doubled reaching 100 million a week by the end of the decade.
Give 5 examples of 1920s film stars
Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino
When was the first ‘talkie’ feature film released?
The Jazz Singer in 1927 with Al Jolson
How were films censored to stop them from corrupting public morals?
The Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) was adopted in 1930. It banned interracial dating, lustful kissing, sympathy for criminals
Where did Jazz and Blues music originate?
In the African American community of the South. It was brought to the northern cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago by migrating black musicians
What was the Cotton Club?
A famous nightclub in Harlem New York which launched the career of Duke Ellington
When was the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) setup?
1926 following the establishment of 500 local commercial radio stations. By 1929 it was making $150 million a year.
What percentage of American households possessed of radio by 1930?
40%
What dance crazes flourished during the 1920s?
The Charleston, the Lindy Hop, the Shimmy, the Foxtrot
What sports boomed during the 1920s?
Baseball with teams like the Red Sox and Yankees. Boxing with the world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.
What groups were feared and persecuted by established traditional Americans?
New immigrants (southern & eastern European), communists/anarchists, trade unionists, Catholics, blacks and Jews.
What was the Red Scare, 1919-21?
Fear of communist and anarchist ideas after the Russian Revolution of 1917 spread to the US by immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Some immigrants held radical beliefs and published pamphlets calling for the overthrow of government but fear was spread by newspapers and local politicians and little evidence was ever found.
What were the Palmer Raids?
Part of the Red Scare: After a wave of strikes and a series of bomb blasts in 1919 (April 10 killed in a Milwaukee Church, May bombs posted to 36 prominent Americans, June bombs in 7 cities plus the home of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer) J. Edgar Hoover was appointed to build files on 60,000 suspected communists/anarchists and rounded up 10,000 for deportation. Only 556 had any basis in fact.
Who were Sacco and Vanzetti?
Italian-American immigrants with radical anarchist beliefs executed in 1927 for the armed robber and murder of a shoe factory paymaster and guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. The flimsy case led to worldwide protests that they were unfairly tried by prejudice against immigrants and radical politics. The judge referred to them as ‘anarchist bastards’.
What was the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925?
High school teacher John Scopes deliberately broke Tennessee state law (Butler Act) by teaching evolution to publicly showcase the arguments for science and against religious fundamentalism.
He was defended by the famous criminal defence lawyer Clarence Darrow and the prosecution was led by the fundamentalist and three times presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 which was later overturned by the state supreme court on a technicality (jurors had to make a fine over $50 not judges). Bryan was ridiculed in his defence of biblical literalism.
What laws were passed to reduce immigration from places outside of north-western Europe?
- 1917: literacy test to read basic English
- 1921: Emergency Quota Act reducing annual immigration to 357,000 (3% of nationalities living in US in 1910)
- 1924: National Origins Act reducing annual immigration to 150,000 (2% of nationalities living in US in 1890 and no Asians)
- This resulted in 85% of immigrants coming from northern Europe.
Who were the KKK?
The Ku Klux Klan was a white supremacy movement that use violence, parades and lynchings to intimidate African Americans, Jews, Catholics and foreigners. Formed in the 1860s after the American Civil War it had a resurgence in the early 1920s.
How many members did the Ku Klux Klan claim to have in 1925?
5 million
Where was the clan strongest in the USA?
The Midwest and rural South. Dominant in Indiana it had Governor members in Oregon and Oklahoma.
What 1915 film played by Wilson in the White House helped to revive interest in the Ku Klux Klan?
The Birth of a Nation
Why did the Ku Klux Klan and decline after 1925?
Grand Wizard David Stephenson was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman on a train in Indiana. He became an informant on the corruption of the Klan.
Where did many African Americans move to escape the the prejudice and discrimination of the South?
Northern cities like Chicago and New York where African American populations doubled during the 1920s.
