Section 2

 

Youth in the 1920s

        -Many started rebelling

                -Wanted “fun and freedom”

                -New fashions, attitudes

        -More went to college

 

Women

        -Some women saw the 1920s as a time of change

                -Clothing

                        -Shorter skirts, panty hose

                -“Flappers”

                        -Short dresses, wore makeup

                        -Drove, played sports, smoked

                -Work

                        -More started working outside the home

                -Miss America Contest

        -Margaret Sangeràmother of birth control

        -More went to college

        -19th Amendment

                -1924à2 women elected governors

 

Prohibition

        -Conservative values and the “good old days” disappearing

                -Many people still clung to religion, family, neighbors

                -Cheek to cheek dancing was immoral

        -Prohibition

                -Reformers wanted prohibition (alcohol was evil)

-During WWI, reformers told people that breweries were owned by Germans

-January 1919àmaking, selling, transporting alcohol illegal

                -October 1919àVolstead Act

                        -Law that allowed gov’t to enforce prohibition

                -Enforcement was sporadic

                        -Some saw prohibition as a nuisance, not a law

                -BootleggingàAl Caponeàgangs

                        -Seakeasiesàillegal bar

                -Alcoholism did decline

 

Changes for African Americans

        -During the 1920s, 800K moved North

                -About 2.5m living in the North (doubled in 20 years)

                -Detroit, Chicago, NYC, St. Louis

        -Racial tensions broke out

                -Chicago (1919)

-White man threw rocks at an Afr. Am. boy who was swimmingàboy drowned

        -Riots for a week

                -38 dead, 500+ wounded

        -NAACP mounted campaign for equal rights

-Black Nationalism

-Marcus GarveyàFounder of Universal Negro Improvement Assoc.

-African Americans could never achieve equality in the United Statesàneed nation of their own

                -Establish black-owned businesses

                -Create homeland in Africa

                        -Never worked out

 

 

A Divided Society

-Fundamentalism

-Every word in the Bible is true and should be taken literally

                -Did not like theory of evolution

                -Scopes Monkey Trial (TN) (1925)

                        -Can you teach evolution in school?

                                -TN passed law outlawing evolution in school

                        -John Scopes (Bio. Teacher) went to trial       

                -Jury found Scopes guilty

-KKK

                -Distrust by native-born Protestant Americans

                -Restarted at Stone Mountain, GA

                -KKK not limited to the Southàall over country

                -Not just blacks

                -Radicals, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, divorcees

                -Up to 5m. members but declined to about 9K in 1930

 


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