The 1920’s and the The 1920’s and the Great DepressionGreat Depression

THEME:THEME:

A disillusioned America turned away from A disillusioned America turned away from idealism after WWI and toward social idealism after WWI and toward social conservatism, a new mass-consumption conservatism, a new mass-consumption economy, and exciting new forms of popular economy, and exciting new forms of popular culture that undermined many traditional culture that undermined many traditional values.values.

The Return to “Normalcy”The Return to “Normalcy”

ELECTION OF 1920

Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge (REP)

Vs.

James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt (DEM)

OUTCOME:

REPUBLICANS WIN BY WIDE MARGIN. WHY? Harding pledges “normalcy” again.

PRESIDENT HARDINGPRESIDENT HARDING

“America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality...."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh29.html

America turns InwardAmerica turns Inward• RED SCARE

– AG Mitchell Palmer – the Palmer Raids– the Buford Deportations– IWW and Socialists– Sacco-Vanzetti trial and execution

• KKK’s NEW NATIVISM– 5 million members in 1920’s– Ultraconservative and anti-modern

• NEW IMMIGRATION LAWS vs. “New Immigrants”– Emergency Quota Act of 1921– Immigration Act of 1924

WHO WAS BEING TARGETED???

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IMMIGRATION QUOTASIMMIGRATION QUOTAS• US experience a wave of racism, lynchings, and

nativism after WWI.• Immigration booms after WWI• Quota System enacted to slow the flow• Quotas discriminate against Southern and Eastern

Europeans, Roman Catholics and JewsAND excludes Japanese. http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/taks/images/PWU4ques10-11.jpg

PROHIBITIONPROHIBITION

What were the causes of Prohibition?

What Amendment banned alcohol?

What were the effects of prohibition?

Scopes TrialScopes Trial

What was the trial about?

Who was on trial?

What was the verdict?

Who got “punished”?

Was the debate resolved?

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/90.3/images/moran_fig03a.gif

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scopes/SCOPE2.JPG

Innovation EX: Ford’s

Assembly Line

Increased Production

AdvertisingIncreased Consumption

Increased Credit

Increased Profits

THE MASS-CONSUMPTION ECONOMY

=BAD HABITS

CHANGE IN CHANGE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIETYAFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIETY

• Great Black Migration during WWI and 1920’s

• 4.8 of 12 million Af-Am move from South to cities, mainly in Northeast and Mid-West

• 1917-1919: 25 race riots

• NAACP membership doubles

• James Weldon Johnson leads NAACP on anti-lynching crusade

• Fails to pass anti-lynching bill in Congress

MARCUS GARVEYMARCUS GARVEY

• Marcus Garvey founds more radical UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association)

• Promotes collective action and Af-Am businesses

• Argues for separatism and separate businesses, such as Black Star Line, attempt to re-colonize Africa.

• Deported to Jamaica for mail fraud

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/gallery/3.html

HARLEM RENAISSANCEHARLEM RENAISSANCE

• Harlem is the “Mecca” or “Capital” of Black America

• At 330,000 inhabitants, it is the largest black urban community in the world

• 1920’s Harlem is the epicenter of an artistic and literary movement, the Harlem Renaissance

African-American WritersAfrican-American Writers• Claude McKay: Poet, inspired resistance to prejudice,

known for his militant verses.

“America”

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,Stealing my breath of life, I will confessI love this cultured hell that tests my youth!Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,Giving me strength erect against her hate.Her bigness sweeps me like a flood.

African-American WritersAfrican-American Writers• Langston Hughes: Poet, described every-day life

of African-Americans

I am a NegroBlack as the night is blackBlack like the depths of my Africa

“Backlash Blues”Mister rich man, rich man,Open up your heart and mind.Mister rich man, rich man,Open up your heart and mind.Give the poor man a chance,Help stop these hard, hard times.

While you're livin' in your mansionYou don't know what hard times means.While you're livin' in your mansionYou don't know what hard times means.Poor workin' man's wife is starvin',Your wife is livin' like a queen.

African-American WritersAfrican-American Writers• Zora Neale Hurston: Female Author, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Quotes –"...I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all."

"Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.“

"At certain times I have no race, I am me. When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue, Harlem City, feeling as snooty as the lions in front of Forty-Second Street Library, for instance. ...The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads."

"Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."

African-American PerformersAfrican-American Performers• Paul Robeson: Actor, Lawyer • Louis Armstrong: Trumpet

Player, Band Leader

• Duke” Ellington: Jazz pianist,

Composer,

Band Leader

at Cotton Club

• Bessie Smith: Blues Singer

What were some of the most What were some of the most important ideas, opinions and important ideas, opinions and beliefs expressed in African-beliefs expressed in African-

American art and literature in the American art and literature in the 1920’s?1920’s?

PRESIDENT HARDINGPRESIDENT HARDING

“America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality...."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh29.html

SCANDAL!!!SCANDAL!!!

Harding appoints some good Secretaries:– Charles Evans Hughes as Sec. of State– Herbert Hoover as Sec. of Commerce– Andrew Mellon as Sec. of Treasury

BUT, some really bad appointments too:– “Ohio Gang” member Attorney General

Harry M. Daugherty– Albert Fall as Sec. Of Interior – Charles Forbes at Veterans Affairs

THE TEAPOT DOME SCANDALTHE TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL• US set aside oil-rich public land for US Navy

• Albert Fall, Secretary of Interior, secretly and illegally “leased” the oil rich land to two private oil companies

• Fall got “kickbacks” of over $325,000

• Harding flees scandal on tour to Alaska, dies of heart attack

• VP Calvin Coolidge becomes president in 1923.

http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/oldnews4/teapotdomecartoon.jpg

ALBERT FALL

HARDING AND THE COURTHARDING AND THE COURT

• Appoints former president Taft as Chief Justice

• Appoints 4 out of 9 justices on court

• Harding’s appointees roll-back progressive reforms

• See Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923)

• ICC fails to enforce anti-trust laws

• Big Business has a free hand

Kellogg-Briand PactKellogg-Briand Pact• 1921: US invites nations to freeze naval

construction and begin disarmament.• 1929: 64 nations had signed the Kellogg-

Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of diplomacy.

• US “leads” in disarming after WWI, renouncing building large navy.

PROBLEM: The pact was voluntary and not enforceable.

RESULT: US quickly falls behind – especially behind Japan.

Rate five events of the Harding administration as either Rate five events of the Harding administration as either +, -, or ? Based on whether the event was good, bad, or +, -, or ? Based on whether the event was good, bad, or mixed. Then, give your reasons.mixed. Then, give your reasons.

EVENT RATING REASON

Pres. Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1928Pres. Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1928

• A true “stand-patter” on pro-business policies

• Famously said, “the man who builds a factory builds a temple” and “the man who works there worships there.”

• His administration enjoys five years of prosperity, but trouble is brewing.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/images/cc30.gif

WARNING SIGNS…WARNING SIGNS…

• Farmers crushed by boom-bust cycle following WWI

• Prohibition dividing country and political parties• LaFollette and Progressive revival defeated in

Election of 1924, despite scandals of Harding Administration

• US harshly intervenes in Central America, aka “yanqui imperialism”

• Allies fail to repay their WWI debts to USA, destabilizing international economy

TARIFFS AND REPARATIONSTARIFFS AND REPARATIONSAllies

struggle to pay

Back loans

Allies cannotmake a profit or pay loans

US demands repayment

Fordney-McCumber

Tariff !!!

Allies demand

reparations from Germany

Germany bankrupt

US loans $ to Germany

Germany gives $ to Britain and France

US paid in its own $

OUTCOME:Bad feelings all around.

Unstable economic house of cards.