THE ROARING 20’S

It was the Cat’s Pajamas

Or the Bee’s Knees

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

From 1920 on more than 2 million Americans a year were moving to the cities. New York had over 5 million, Chicago 3 and Philadelphia 2

Behaviors differed between these two groups. • City dwellers were often more liberal • Casual Dating• Smoking in public• Drinking• Gambling • More scientific

PROHIBITION

18th Amendment to the US Constitution banned the manufacture and distribution of alcoholic beverages

• Anti-Saloon League• WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union)

• One famous evangelist, Billy Sunday said this about Prohibition• “The reign of tears is over! The slums will soon be only

a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright, women will smile and children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent!”

PROHIBITION

Was this a good idea? In your notes make two columns and on one side pros and the other cons. Take the next 5 minutes and write down your opinion on this issue. What similar situations are we discussing today in the US that mimic this issue?

PROHIBITION

Volstead Act was established in 1919 and was supposed to provide financial support to back the enforcement of Prohibition but failed

Consumption of Alcohol increased during Prohibition

Speakeasies-sold it illegally

Bootleggers- manufactured alcohol

Increased organized crime like Al Capone

AL CAPONE

Demonstrated that the Govt. had no power to enforce the Amendment

Killed off his competition

Netted 60 million a year in the 1920’s!!

The “Big Fellow”

Ran 10,000 Speakeasies

EC story---

PROHIBITION ENDS

Eventually, the government repealed the 18th Amendment with the 21st amendment in 1933

Decided to place laws to limit who could drink and how much

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Rural towns promoted an idea of Fundamentalism

• Claimed that all important knowledge came from Bible

• Skeptical of science and its usefulness

• Bible should be taken literally• Evangelists like Billy Sunday

(baseball player turned evangelist)

• Based in the South and West

THE SCOPES TRIAL

March of 1925 in Tennessee a law was passed that made it a crime to teach the theory of evolution as explained by Charles Darwin in public schools!

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) promised to defend any teacher who challenged the law.

In Dayton, TN John T Scopes taught the new science in his Biology class

DARROW VS. BRYAN

Clarence Darrow defended Scopes

William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor• Bryan called on as expert on the Bible

• Ussher’s calculation of 4004BC creation• 6 day creation of 24 hours?• Scopes lost and pays a 100 dollar fine but more people

began to questions the traditional ways.

SCOPES TODAY

Should the government be able to determine what you can and can’t learn today? Take the next five minutes and write about your opinion on this topic. When would it be ok or not?