INCREASED SOCIAL TENSIONS (1920s)

• What is the Sacco and Vanzetti case?

  • on 15th April 1920, two Italian immigrants commited armed robbery in Massachusetts - stole over over $15,000 and murdered 2 people
  • Early May, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and caught with guns
  • May 1921, a trial was held for Sacco and Vanzetti, there were 167 eyewitnesses for evidence against them
  • on 14 June 1921, they were found guilty and sentenced to death by electrocution. they were executed in 1927
• What is the significance of the Sacco and Vanzetti case?

  • led to international riots - Anarchists responded by bombing the American Embassy, Bank of New York in Buenos Aires in 1932
  • highlighted the prejudice towards Immigrants and America's xenophobia in society and judicial system
• what were the US morals and values?

  • In the 19th Century US Christian beliefs divided into fundamentalists (took Bible literally) and modernists
  • Fundamentalists - most influential in rural areas of the Bible Belt (southern & mid-western states), held old-fashioned values and strict morals
  • Modernists - accepted Darwinsism, argued moral values had to change according to historical circumstances
• what were the origins of the 'Monkey Trial'?

  • Anti-Evolutiuon League of America passed the Butler Act in 1925 - prohibition of teaching the theory of evolution in Tennessee
  • consequences to breaking the Butler Act was a fine of up to $500
  • a public school teacher in Dayton, John Scopes, agreed to deliberately teach evolution and test the law
  • he was arrested
• What happened in the 'Monkey Trial'?

  • the trial took place in July 1925
  • Darrow was Scopes' defendant and an atheist
  • Bryan was the prosecutor and anti-evolution
  • trial became a national sensation and debate between fundamentalism and moderism
  • Darrow cross-examined Bryan about his beliefs on creationism, Bryan failed to answer all the questions
• What was the judgement in the 'Monkey Trial'?

  • Judge ruled that Scope broke the law
  • Scope was fined $100
  • the Butler Act wouldn't be repealed until 1967
• Who was the Klu Klux Klan?

  • the Klu Kulx Klan (KKK) was formed after the American Civil War ( 1865) to defend white supremacy over black people, but shut down in 1871
  • Resurged in 1915 by William Simmons - KKK now targetted Black Americans, Jews, non Anglo Saxon immigrants, Catholics, leftists
  • Between 1920-25, the KKK had up to 5 million members
• what methods did the KKK use?

  • violence - flog, lynch, kidnap, castrate their targets
  • controlling education - prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution
  • economics - Klan boycotted buisnesses whose owners disagreed with them
• what led to the down fall of the KKK

  post-1925, David Stephenson (a state leader) was found guilty of the rape and murder of a woman - damaged KKK reputation and membership fell to 200,000 by 1929
• what was Prohibition?

  the ban of manufacturing, selling and transporting alcohol
• when did the prohibition come into effect?

  16 January 1920
• when was Prohibition abolished and by who?

  1933 by FDR
• what caused for the prohibition to happen?

  • temperance movements like the Anti-Saloon League pressured the government to ban the consumption of alcohol
  • they argued: alcohol damged society, led to sinful behaviour, weakened the economy, created problems for a country at war
  • by 1919 the whole US was on the alcohol ban
• what were the positive effects of prohibtion?

  • improved Americans health - death from liver disease dropped from 29.5 per 100,000 (1911) to 10.5 (1929)
  • people were in favour of the ban - ~40% agreed with the ban by the weekly magazine
• what were the negative effects of prohibtion?

  • thousands of Americans lost their jobs or part of their income
  • drinking alcohol became an underground activity - people went to speakeasies, smuggled from Mexico and Canada, made their own moonshine
• who was one of the most successful gangster during the 1920s?

  Al Capone
• what was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre?

  • happened 14th Feburary 1929
  • Al Capone's gang murdered 7 members of the rival Bugs Moran gang
  • showed a rise in gang violence
• how did the prohibtion promote organised crime?

  the bootlegging of alcohol production enabled criminal gangs and organised crime to fill the gaps in the supply
• what were the impacts of gangsters?

  • extreme violence - by 1924, Chicago has 200 gang-related murders
  • turned ordinary people into criminals - ~200 gallons of alcohol was being made per day in Chicago's South Side