race and religion

• segregation

  The 1920s was a period that witnessed a growth in racial intolerance, particularly against black Americans. This hostility was fuelled by a corresponding growth in the KKK.
• The Jim Crow Laws


  in 1910, around 12 million African Americans lived in the USA, 75% of them lived in the southern states.
• The Jim Crow Laws


  slavery had been abolished in the southern states in the 1800s, but white-controlled state governments soon introduced laws to control the freedom of black Americans.
• The Jim Crow Laws


  the Jim Crow Laws introduced segregation, separating black and white Americans in schools, parks, hospitals, swimming pools, libraries, toilets and other public places.
• The Jim Crow Laws


  Life for black Americans living in the south was very hard. They were discriminated against and found it difficult to get fair treatment. They couldn't vote, were denied decent education and jobs.
• Bible Belt: southern America where the Christian belief was very strong, and was filled with Christian Fundamentalists.
• Bible Belt

  the Bible Belt states believed in creationism [all living species were created by God]. from 1924 to 1925, 6 states banned the teaching of the theory of evolution, because it went against their religious beliefs.
• Monkey Trial

  July 1925: Biology teacher, John Scopes, from Dayton, Tennesse, ignored the ban and taught the theory of evolution. He was arrested.
• Monkey Trial

  Supporting Scopes was the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and Lawyer Clarence Darrow. Christian Fundamentalists were supported by the lawyer William Jennings Bryan [who died of a heart attack 5 days after the trial].
• Monkey Trial

  scopes was fined $100 [which was paid for by the ACLU], but the whole trial was broadcast to the media so the public image of the Christian Fundamentalists was negative.
• Monkey Trial: Christian Fundamentalists

  1924 Butler Act: banned the teaching of evolution.
• Native Americans

  Assimilation: the process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group.
• Native Americans


  1928 Meriam Report:

  • stated that boarding schools were underfunded, understaffed, and too harsh --> shows that assimilation through education had failed
  • said that Native Americans should learn about the skills and education of their communities as well as American society.
  • recommended that teaching only European-American cultures should be dropped.
• Native Americans

  thousands of native american children were taken away and stripped from their families and cultures, to be put in special boarding schools to attempt to assimilate them into american society through education. [1928 Meriam Report]
• Native Americans

  Americans destroyed the identities of these tribes, encouraged children not to speak their native language and convert to christianity. they were also forbidden to practice any of their religious rituals.
• Native Americans

  1924 Indian Citizenship Act:

  • granted all Native Americans an American citizenship
  • at the beginning of the 20th century, Native Americans were placed in reservations.
• Native Americans

  entertainment:

  • Native Americans were only seen performing stereotypical Indian acts.
• Native Americans

  in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Eugenics Project has a program which managed the planning, education and reproductive control of native Americans and other social 'undesirables'
• the KKK

  KKK: Klu Klux Klan
• the KKK

  they aimed to terrorise black people, freed from slavery, mainly Black Americans, foreigners and divorcees.
• the KKK

  they thrived in the Southern States [Bible Belt]. by 1920, they had 100,000 members. by 1925, they claimed to have 5 million.
• the KKK

  they became popular because of the 1915 movie: The Birth of A Nation, which depicted WASPs as heroes, and black Americans as villains and rapists.
• the KKK

  methods of violence:

  • kidnapping
  • murder
  • mutilation
  • beating up
  • flogging
  • lashed
  • ordered to leave towns
  • tar and feathering
• the KKK: late 1920s

  • a white divorcee woman was beaten in her home
  • a foreigner was flogged for marrying an American woman
  • an African American was lashed until he sold his land to a white man for a fraction of its value.
• the KKK: downfall

  in 1925, Grand Wizard David Stephenson was convicted of rape and mutilation of woman on a Chicago train. The Governor of Indiana refused to pardon him, so Stephenson produced evidence of illegal Klan activities, which led to a sharp decline.
• why was no action taken against the KKK?

  they were particularly influential in the southern states, where even Governers of states were members.
• why was no action taken against the KKK?

  their violent tactics created fear and its members were so widespread that people felt they couldn't oppose them.
• why was no action taken against the KKK?

  there was a lot of racial intolerance, xenophobia and tension in America, so many accepted their views. --> the Birth of a A Nation was shown in the White House
• why was no action taken against the KKK?

  the KKK had many people of power who protected this secret organisation e.g. senators, lawyers, police officers
• why was no action taken against the KKK?

  the sheer scale of its membership made them very powerful, up to around 8 million before 1925.
• NAACP

  NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

  • tried to change the Jim Crow Laws
  • peaceful
  • through lawyers
• UNIA:

  UNIA: Universal Negro Improvement Association

  • forceful
  • promoting Black Pride
  • promoting a proud Black community
• W.E.B. Du Bois

  peaceful and thought that laws should be changed and white supremacy should be challenged. 90,000 members of the NAACP in 300 branches
• Marcus Garvey

  militant, violent, thought that Black people should form their own communities.
• The Great Migration

  many moved to the North and West - New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit - in search of jobs and an escape from racial intolerance.
• The Great Migration

  life was better for them because there were organisations set up to protect them against racial intolerance. but they were still given low-paying jobs and poor housing. there was a growth in black middle class, and their life expectancy increased by 3 [ to 48 years old].
• The Great Migration: Harlem Renaissance

  a period in history where the African - American community had a burst in creativity in the areas if music and literature,
• The Great Migration

  good quality universities for black Americans --> they became lawyers, writers, singers and dancers.