Changing Minority Roles

&Religious

Fundamentalism

Eugenics Pseudo-science that

taught that the “unfit” or inferior should not be allowed to have children, since they would pass on their undesirable genetic traits

This belief was used to support racism, nativism, and to discriminate against the mentally ill and mentally handicapped

Return of the Klan

The Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915, this time with the purpose of protecting American “purity” from not only blacks, but also immigrants

This new Klan started an organized membership drive, leading to as many as 15 million members joining in the 1920s

The NAACP Began to flex its

political power during the 1920s by pushing for anti-lynching laws

In 1930, organized a successful campaign to keep racist judge John J. Parker from being appointed to the Supreme Court

Marcus Garvey 1887 – 1940 Endorsed “Negro

Nationalism” or taking deep pride in black culture

Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), whose purpose was to promote black pride and unity, as well as education for blacks

Also supported his “Back to Africa” movement, a call for blacks to leave America (and its white government) and return to Africa, the only place they could find true justice and freedom

Failed to win widespread support, especially after being sent to prison and then deported for mail fraud

The Great Migration

Between 1910 and 1930, about 2 million blacks left the South in an effort to escape racism and to find good industrial jobs in Northern and Midwestern cities

This migration continued into the 1970s, but has since reversed – today, many blacks are leaving the North and moving south

Emergency Quota Act

1921 Restricted immigration to

3% per year of the total number of people within that ethnic group living in the US in 1910 (for example, if 100 Koreans were living in the US, then only 3 more Koreans per year would be allowed into the country)

Designed to limit immigration from Southern & Eastern Europe (since these groups had only begun immigrating recently, they had small numbers); these were the areas where communism and anarchism were the strongest

National Origins Act of 1924

Placed permanent restrictions on immigration

Lowered quota to 2% per year and changed base year from 1910 to 1890

In 1929, immigration was capped at 150,000 total people per year

Hispanic Immigration

Emergency Quota Act and National Origins Act led to a major drop in available labor in the US

Hispanics took advantage of the fact that they were excluded from the quotas set by both acts, and over 600,000 moved to the US to fill the labor gap

19th Amendment 1920 Finally granted

women suffrage (the right to vote) in federal elections

Suffrage had been sought by women since the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848!

Women in the Workforce

Thousands of women began to enter the workforce during the 1920s, primarily in low-wage, low-skill jobs such as secretarial work, and as sales clerks and telephone operators

Most of these workers were single women seeking financial independence from their restrictive parents

FlappersMany young

women rebelled against the mores of their parents by wearing shorter skirts, shorter hairstyles, smoking, drinking, dancing, and dating without “adult” chaperones

Margaret Sanger 1879 – 1966 Nurse Believed that large

families led to poverty and to fewer opportunities for women

Began to promote use of birth control, especially amongst the poor and minorities

Opened her own chain of birth control clinics, mostly in poor ghettos

American Birth Control League

Founded by Sanger in 1921

Promoted education about, and access to, harmless means of birth control

Also promoted sterilization of the mentally insane and mentally retarded (eugenics)

Merged with other birth control advocacy groups in 1942 form Planned Parenthood

The New Morality

Marriage began to be redefined among the younger generation – they began to believe that a successful marriage required romance, friendship, and sexual compatibility rather than just a sense of duty to one’s family

Young people also began to focus on having fun, something that became more available to them with the increased mobility offered by automobiles

Religious Fundamentalism

The relaxed morality and growing materialism of the US during the 1920s led many people, especially the older and more rural population, to embrace a new wave of religious fundamentalism

Fundamentalists placed much of the blame on immigration, alcohol, science, and new technologies for America’s slide into immorality

Billy Sunday 1862 – 1935 Former Major League

baseball player who left sports to become a wildly popular revivalist minister, preaching to over 1 million people during his career

One of the driving forces behind Prohibition, he also opposed unrestricted immigration and the teaching of evolution in schools

Aimee Semple McPherson

1890 – 1944 Revivalist minister who

sometimes engaged in faith healing and speaking in tongues, she operated her own 5000 seat church in LA and broadcast her sermons over the radio

Lifelong opponent of the teaching of evolution

Complicated personal life included several marriages, a faked kidnapping publicity stunt, and death by accidental overdose of sedatives

Tennessee’s Butler Act

Passed in 1925 The state of Tennessee

banned all schools, including universities, from teaching human evolution and required the teaching of creationism

Punishment for breaking the law was a fine of $100 - $500 per offense

ACLU The American Civil

Liberties Union had been founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.“

In 1925, the ACLU sought out a teacher who would be willing to intentionally violate the Butler Act in order to test the constitutionality of the Act

John Scopes 1900 – 1970 Tennessee high school

teacher who agreed to be the ACLU’s test case

Used the state-approved biology textbook (which contained a chapter on evolution) to teach the subject, thereby breaking the law and triggering the Scopes Monkey Trial

Encouraged his own students to testify against him!

Scopes Monkey Trial

Tried in July 1925 Case drew high-profile

coverage from all over the world as science faced off against religious fundamentalism

Defense would argue both that evolution was not necessarily in conflict with creationism and that the law was unconstitutional on the grounds that it was designed to benefit the beliefs of a specific religious group

William Jennings Bryan

1860 – 1925 3-time candidate for

president and former Secretary of State

Served as a special prosecutor for the state during the Scopes trial and even testified as an “expert witness” (his testimony was largely damaging to his own case and was struck from the record)

Died 5 days after the trial ended

Clarence Darrow 1857 – 1938 Celebrity criminal

lawyer, fresh off a nationally covered murder case in Chicago where he had saved the lives of his teenage clients

Brought in as a “hired gun” by the ACLU both for his skill as a lawyer and for the publicity his reputation would bring

The Decision Scopes was found

guilty by a jury and fined $100 by the judge

On appeal, his conviction was overturned on a technicality, but the constitutionality of the Butler Act was upheld (it was repealed in 1967 and laws like it were declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1968)