The Roaring 20’s and the Great Depression

*During the 1920’s, many changes occured that caused the popular culturak ways of life in the United States to change as well. Flappers, were young women who rebelled against the traditional way of acting and thinking. This sparked from the 19th Ammendment, which gave women the right to vote and increased their freedoms. The Prohibition caused the 18th Amendment, which banned the sale of alcohol in America. However, people still wanted their alcoholic beverages, and would smuggle it i from caribbean islands, or go to speakeasies, which were secret bars. Organzied crime increased, as long as many other crimes as well. Industry began to boom, and automobiles became extremely possible, with almost every family owning one. This was thanks to Henry Ford, who made the automobile afforable to every consumer using the assembly line, and supplied more jobs to many Americans. The radio and cinemas became very popular also, as a source of entertainment. The movies sparked a new way of acting, with the beautiful actors and actresses turning into role models for many.

*The actions of anarchists, people who were against the government, began to add to the sense of danger citizens felt. Many anarchists were foreign. When thousands of radicals were arrested and jailed. Foreigners were deported.
*Many foreigners were targeted as communists because many anarchists themselves were foreign. They were believed in wanting to take over the United States government and change the American way of life.

*Italian Immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested for robbery and murder in 1920. The two admitted they were anarchists but swore they had not committed the crime. A jury convicted them unfairly, do to them being anarchists, and sentenced them to death. This trial created a furor across the country. With limited evidence, the judge only made his choice by being prejudice of their anarchist status.
*The K.K.K. had a new approach to keep America for white, Native-born Protestants. They targeted immigrants, especially Catholics and Jews, and AFrican Americans as well. They burned crosses outside of people homes, and used whipping and lynching as a threat. They strongly believed in limited immigration.
*The threat between old and new values errupted in the Scopes Trial. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was banned to be taught since it went against the Bible. John Scopes, a biology teacher, taught it to his class and was arrested and tried. Two of the antions best known figures, William Jennings Bryan, and CLarence Darrow, fought against each other in this trial.
*Prohibition was the ban of the manufactuing, sale, and distribution of alcohol. Thought to help many, it actually caused more harm. Crime increased dramatically, witht he rise of organized crime and smuggling. Speakeasies, or illegal bars, opened in almost every town and city. Many broke the law to be able to have an alcoholic beverage.

*The Great Migration was when the population of African Americans grew in size in Harlem, New York City. New York City was filled with job opportunities, and now, increasing in the arts as well. This sparked the Harlem Renaissance.

*The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of African American culture, with artwork, poems, stories, and music.
*African Americans were learning to be proud of their culture. Many did not want it to vanish from America like many thought it was destined to do. AFrican American writers, artists, and mucisians increased. They created things that refelected Native MAerican culture and spoke to the oncoming generation about keeping their culture alive.

*Many investors believed on the stock market that the good times would soon end. Few lead to more and more, with everyone taking out their stock and cashig it in. Prices began to drop, and people panicked. ALmost everyone tried selling their stock, the market getting lower and lower, until it got to the point where no one was even buying stock. Suddenly, on October 29, the stock market crashed, causing the onset of the Great Depression. In the Great Depression, amny workers lost their jobs. Moneyw as scarce, people lost their homes and most prized possesions and were starving. Banks failed, taking along the millions of dollars citizens had saved in them. A cycle of disatser was forming, and no one could escape it.

*FDR promoised to help farmers, jobless, and the elderly. He turned to a number of college professors to help him form what he would soon call the New Deal.
*First he started with the banks by closing every bank across the nation for 10 days and only opening up the healthy ones. Many new laws were passed like the CCC, FERA, WPA, and TVA. The CCC hired unemployed, single men between the ages of 18-25. For $1 a day, they planted trees, built bridges, worked on flood control projects, and developed new parks. The FERA gave federal money to state and local agencies. They then distributed the money to the unemployed. The WPA also put the jobless to work by building hospitals, schools, parks, playgrounds, and airports. The TVA setout to remake the Tenesse River Valley, which suffered terrible floods. More than half the families there were on relief do to the poor farmland.

*Many people ctricized the nEw Deal acts beacuse people began to believe that the government was beginning to get too powerful and gain too much control over the people. They thought that soon the government would be able to control even more aspects of their lives. However, some critics wanted the gornment to do even more, like taxing the rich even more.
*FDR comapred the Great Depression to a national emergency, in which the government had to get involved if there was going to be good change for all and reform. He said the U.S. had increased its powers just like it had during World War I.

*The Dust Bowl was an area of the Great Plains where a severe drought caused teh topsoil to dry out and be blown away in dust storms with high winds.
*The dust Storms would burry farm houses, fences, and even trees. Shutter over doors and windows of houses couldn’t keep the dust from coming in. Some even contaminated their food. Farms would even be blown away. Year of overgrazing by cattle and plowing by farmers destroyed the grasses that had once held the soil in place. The dorught and high winds of the 30’s did the rest.