Unit 5: The Turbulent Twenties
Flappers: Young women of the twenties who dressed in a bold new style. They wore make-up, dresses above the knee and rolled down their stockings. They were considered very loose women.
Focus: Americans want to forget about war and past to focus on their own lives, jobs and families.
1920’s
American’s reject stiff and formal ways, women throw out their corsets, long skirts, bobb their hair, paint model T cars in wild colors.
Charleston: A popular dance of the 1920’s.
Fads: eating live goldfish, sitting on flag poles, listening to jazz music.
Political Changes:
Americans learn to hate Germans from WWI.
Anarchists: people who are against ALL forms of government.
Communists: believe government should control industry and farms where people go to school and work and how much they earn. Freedom of press, religion and speech limited.
Red Scare: A national fear that the communist party would take over the U.S.
Aliens: non-citizens- thousands of “aliens” and Americans jailed for suspected beliefs n communism.
Intolerance: fear and hatred of outsiders-immigrants and minorities were all targets of hate crimes.
1924 Immigration Restriction Act: restricts number of immigrants allowed into the U.S. ALL Asian laborers not allowed in.
Prohibition: begins in 1920, after the 18th Amendment was ratified outlaws the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
l Gangsters: Take control of illegal liquor trade.
l Bootleggers: illegal dealers/ makers/ smugglers of alcohol into the U.S.
l Speakeasies: Prohibition does not stop illegal bars called speakeasies from operating.
l Women’s suffrage: women fighting for the right to vote.
l Wyoming-1890-1st state to let women vote
l 19th Amendment to the constitution: ratified in 1920-gives all women in the U.S. the right to vote.
Changes to everyday life
l Gadgets: Refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines all make domestic life easier. Electricity starts to reach rural areas
l Wyoming-1890-1st state to let women vote
l 19th Amendment to the constitution: ratified in 1920-gives all women in the U.S. the right to vote.
l Cars-replace horses: Highways appear all over the U.S. Gas Stations, garages and bill boards are all put up because of people traveling in the car.
l Media: by the mid-1920’s most homes have radios. By the end of 1920’s “Talkies”-motion pictures with sound come out. Time magazine starts publishing in 1923
l Jazz: Black musicians come to fore front with this “new” music. Other black artists and writers become famous. Most jazz clubs were white only-jazz musicians could play there but if they couldn’t sit at the tables and listen .
l Charles Lindbergh: Made the 1st solo flight across the
l Atlantic Ocean. He made history when he completed a nonstop transatlantic flight in his single-engine monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh left New York City in the United States on May 20, 1927, and arrived at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, after a flight of 33 hours and 32 minutes. Lindbergh received worldwide recognition for his feat.
l Chapter 22: The Shoemaker & the Fish Peddler
l Were Sacco & Vanzetti Innocent or Guilty?
l Sacco & Vanzetti were Italian immigrants charged with robbery and the murder of a payroll master and guard.
l Verdict: a decision a jury gives a court on whether someone is innocent or guilty.
Evidence against them
• Sacco’s Revolver: Sacco had a gun of the same type that was fired at the crime scene.
• Vanzetti: had a gun which might have been the guards.
• Anarchists: Sacco& Vanzetti were both anarchists. They were afraid of being deported because of this. So when they were arrested they lied and said that they weren’t. This lie is exposed in court and it makes them seem like they had something to hide.
• Draft dodgers: Sacco & Vanzetti both dodge the draft of WWI. They openly criticize the U.S. Government. Many Americans consider them unpatriotic.
Evidence Against Them
• Prosecution Witnesses: They say that they saw Sacco & Vanzetti at the scene. Only 1 witness claims that Vanzetti was at the scene as a driver. An Expert testifies that the bullet taken from the guards body is “consistent with” how a bullet would look from Sacco’s gun. Later this expert admits that he was coached by the prosecution on what to say because he could not positively identify the bullet.
• Evidence for them
• Sacco: skilled shoemaker says he owns a gun for protection from people who hated anarchist.
• Vanzetti: A fish peddler says he bought a gun to protect himself against robberies.
• Sacco & Vanzetti: Have never been in trouble before.
• Driver: only 1 witness claims to have seen Vanzetti. Other witnesses said that the driver of the get away car had very fair skin while Vanzetti was very dark complected.
• 13 Witnesses: testify that they saw Vanzetti selling fish that day.
• Consulate: A place where foreigners go for information and to get help. Witnesses place Sacco at the Italian consulate in Boston that day. Which is over 2 hours from the crime scene.
• Sacco & Vanzetti Found Guilty
• Professional Robbers: after the trial is over a member of a gang confesses to the murders. He looks a lot like Sacco.
• Judge Webster Thayer: Is the judge at the 1st trial. He refuses to accept the confession of the gang member for a re-trial. In the Spring of 1927, after all appeals are turned down. He orders the death sentence for Sacco & Vanzetti. People all over the world protest. MA Gov. Alan T. Fuller appoints a committee to review the evidence. The committee agrees with the verdict. Sacco & Vanzetti claim their innocence until they are executed.
Chapter 23: Prohibition
l Prohibition: No Alcohol.
l Temperance Movement: Wanted to discourage people from drinking in the beginning-as time passed they wanted alcohol to be illegal.
l Evangelical: according to Christian teachings
l Evangelical Protestant Churches: join other groups to try to convince Americans to outlaw alcohol.
l WWI: Prohibitionist claim that drinking is unpatriotic. Many breweries are owned by Germans- there is a great anti-German feeling left from WWI. In 1920 little more than a year after WWI is over, 36 states outlaw the sale of alcohol.
l Volstead Act: Penalties for violating prohibition. It quickly becomes one of the most disobeyed laws in American history.
l Bathtub Gin: a homemade liquor that was often dangerous- it could end up blinding or poisoning a person because of the wood grain alcohol.
l Corruption: Law officials accept bribes to look the other way concerning alcohol.
l Organized crime: Gangsters start carving out territories-where they sold liquor. They settled conflicts with submachine guns and bombs. In Chicago alone 500 gang murders took place.
l Izzy & Moe: Prohibition Agents who made over 4000 arrests and seized 15 million gallons of illegal liquor.
l 1929: Great Depression starts Prohibition ends.
Chapter 24: Fighting For Rights
l 65 Years: American women had been fighting for the right to vote. Men thought that Politics were a dirty business and unfit for the “gentle sex.”
l Pro-suffragists: people who wanted women to have the right to vote. They argued that women deserve the same rights as men since they are all human.
l Congressional Union: Later becomes the Women’s Party founded by Alice Paul. She wanted the focus on suffrage. She had no fear of embarrassing politicians if it would help her reach her goal.
l Carrie Chapman Catt: Worked for women to get the vote but strongly disagreed with Paul’s tactics.
l War Intervenes: Focus falls off of women’s right to vote with the outbreak of WWI. Suffragists do not support the war but Catt decides to support the war so that President Wilson will support the women’s right to vote. Women still demonstrated, but were peaceful. Police begin arresting them-eventually 200 women were arrested and sent to prison. The Prison is dirty, food is full of maggots and worms. The women start a hunger strike which is publicized across the country. It creates such a scandal that the suffragist movement is passed through an amendment. Women can vote.
l Lobbied: attempted to influence law makers.
Chapter 25: The Harlem Renaissance
l Harlem: The largest black urban community at the time.
l The Crisis: A newspaper for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP. It published black authors.
l Opportunity: A magazine with black artists published by the National Urban League
l Harlem Renaissance: A period of cultural rebirth of Harlem. Harlem Renaissance authors cried out against the social injustice they saw. They demanded full equality for blacks.
l Langston Hughes: An African-American poet and author. He wrote about the problems people of color faced in America. He wrote about the Harlem Renaissance.
l Jazz and Blues: Music brought by black musicians from the South to the North. Famous musicians were: Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong. They played in clubs like the Cotton Club, they played there but were not allowed to go as a customer.
l Harlem Renaissance Ends: The renaissance ends in 1930 with the Great Depression. No one had money to go to shows.
Chapter 26 “My Candle Burns”
l Bohemia: an area where people lived who had unconventional lifestyles. Greenwich in New York, Hate Ashbury in San Francisco. They had social freedom, could dress casually, women could go places unchaperoned, people mingle- these behaviors were forbidden elsewhere.
l Edna St. Vincent Millay: A famous female poet of the 1920’s.
l F. Scott Fitzgerald: A writer, who wrote The Great Gatsby. He led an extravagant life. He died at the age of 44 from alcoholism.
Chapter 27: The Tin Lizzie
l Model-T: a car built by Henry Ford also known as Tin Lizzie.
l Henry Ford: at age 16 he quit farming to work as a mechanic in Detroit. December 1893, he begins working on gasoline engines. They use 2 cylinders and have 3 horsepower. The car weighed 500 pounds, first trial run on June 4, 1896.
l Ford Motor Company: formed in 1903. The first Model T came out in 1908. The Model T is the only Ford model produced until 1927.
l Crank start: the Model T had no ignition starter to turn the engine over. You had to crank it. The Tin Lizzie or the Model T was only 8 feet long, high enough off the ground to clear ruts, large stones, and it was very light, it could pull itself out of the sand and mud. Farmers could use the Model T engine to pump water, saw wood and run machinery. Hardly anything goes wrong with the Model T and if it does it is very cheap to fix.
l Ford’s Assembly Line:
11,000 Model T’s made in 1908, sold for $850, other cars of the time sell for $2550. Assembly-line makes it possible to turn out cars, much faster and cheaper. By 1924 1.6 million Model T’s were produced and cost $300
l June 4, 1924: 10th million Model T made car was driven from New York to San Francisco
Chapter 28: The Amazing Box & Flying Machine
l Guglielmo Marconi: Built the first radio in 1895. The first radio could not carry voices or music only static-like sounds. Radio’s used Morse Code. In 1900 radios started sending music and voices over the air.
l Dr. Frank Conrad: Set up an amateur radio station. People started listening to him. He worked for the Westinghouse Company. Westinghouse thinks that radio is going to be big so they start the first commercial station. The First commercial station broadcast is of the Presidential elections and Warren Harding was elected President.
l Live Music: The music that was on the airways was made with a live band and was broadcast from coast to coast.
l Flying Machine-Lucky Lundy: May 1927: Charles Lindbergh’s “The Spirit of St. Louis” Airplane flew 33 and ½ hours from New York to Paris. He became the first man to make a transcontinental flight. He was considered a national hero for doing so. His child was later kidnapped and found dead.
Al Capone: 1st: 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Bugs Malone: 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Henry Ford 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Carrie Chapman 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Gulielmo Marconi 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Langston Hughes 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Sacco & Vanzetti 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Chapman Sisters 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Charlie Chaplin 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Jack Dempsy 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Louis Armstrong 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Bessie Smith 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Babe Ruth 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Lou Gehrig 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Ernest Hemingway 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
F. Scott Fitzgerlad_1s 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Warren Harding 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th
Elizabeth Stanton 1st 2nd 3rd 4-5th