Chapter 20: The Jazz Age

American History

Nativism resurfacesAfter World War I, strong feelings against immigrants, especially German Americans and Communists, existed

The re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan came due to strong feelings against immigrants, Jews, Catholics, and African Americans

The eugenics movement, or improvement of hereditary traits, began to form

Believed human inequalities could be inherited and warned against “unfit” species

Sacco-Vanzetti Trial

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants, were accused of killing two employees of a shoe company

News reports confirmed that the two were anarchists, or opposed all forms of government, and that Sacco owned the gun similar to the one used in the murder

Even though they claimed themselves innocent, the public, and the jury, were quick to find the two guilty and sentenced them to death

Controlling Immigration

In 1921, President Warren Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act, which established a temporary quota system, limiting immigration

3% of an ethnic group could be admitted in a year

The quota system was made permanently, and decreased it for all nations by 2% in the National Origins Act of 1924

Further restricted immigrants to a total of 150,000 admitted a year

Due to the availability of jobs, corporations requests the help and influx of Mexican immigration to fill those jobs

Began in 1902, and increased in the 1920’s with their exemption from the National Origins Act

The New Morality

A new morality came into being during the 1920’s

Ideas of romance, pleasure, and friendship came into discussion

Single women began holding up jobs of their own and attending college

The automobile gave teenagers the opportunity to escape the watchful eyes of their parents

Fashion changed, with the introduction of bobbed haircuts and flappers, a type of dress

The Fundamentalist Movement

Others joined the Fundamentalist movement, and wanted to keep traditional values, and were afraid of the new morality

Believed the Bible was all true, and rejected the theory of evolution and support the theory of creationism, or the belief that God created the world as described by the Bible

Fundamentalist and Evolutionist clashed during the Scopes Monkey Trial

The Butler Act in Tennessee forbade the teaching of anything that negated the creationist theory

John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution to his high school biology class

Scopes was convicted, but Fundamentalist soon lost favor with the public

Prohibition

The movement towards prohibition began in the late 1800’sBelieved that prohibiting alcohol would decrease unemployment, domestic violence, and poverty

Progressives, traditionalists, and fundamentalists supported the passing of the 18th Amendment, banning the manufacturing, distribution, and consumption of alcohol

To try and enforce the amendment, Congress passed the Volstead Act

Power to enforce the amendment was granted by the state and federal governments under the Treasury Department

Used police powers, or the power to control people and property in the interest of public safety, health, welfare, and morals

Loopholes to Prohibition

Despite the powers of the government, people still disregarded the 18th amendment

Flocked to speakeasies, or illegal bars

Bootlegging was common in rural towns

Organized crime, especially among Italian and Irish immigrants, began to use the illegal distribution of alcohol from Canada as big business opportunity

Art and Literature

Many artists and writers flocked to New York’s Greenwich Village and the South Side to embrace the Bohemian movement

Many new art forms, including Impressionism, were derived from European art forms

Several poets and writers, including T.S. Eliot, Eugene O’Neill,F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, began to immerge during this time

Sports and Entertainment

The rise of professional sports, such as boxing, baseball, and football, began to become organized and viewed by the public

With the innovation of motion pictures came the rise of movie stars and Hollywood

Radio and music became the main entertainment outlet of the 1920’s

Mass media, or radio, movies, newspapers, magazines aimed at a broad audience, began to gain influence

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was an influx of African American arts and culture in the Harlem section of New York

Many writers, such as Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, made their careers during this time

The introduction of jazz, blues, and African American theater, made its way to Harlem

Many famous artists of these categories started out at the famous Cotton Club

African American Politics

A surge in racial pride not only brought on the Harlem Renaissance, but also more involvement in politics

African Americans in the North helped elect Republican Oscar DePriest, the first African American in Congress

The NAACP battles lynching and discrimination in the SouthFirst victory was defeating Judge John J. Parker’s nomination to the Supreme Court

Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association

Supported self-education and segregation and independence from whites