Roaring 20s: How far was the USA a divided society in the 1920s?

Farmers

• New technologies such as combine harvesters put some farm workers out of work.
• After the war Europe was poor and so imported less food from the USA.
• Agriculture was worth $22 billion dollars in 1919 but by 1928 it had dropped $13 billion dollars.
• Fewer European countries imported wheat from the USA because of the Fordney McCumber Tariff.
• Canadian wheat farmers were more efficient and could sell their wheat at a lower price.

African Americans

• Some African American sought employment in cities in the North, this led to the creation ghettos, such as Harlem in New York.
• The Jim Crow Laws segregated African Americans, in many southern states it was illegal for African Americans to use the same restrooms or water fountains as White Americans.
• In the state of Georgia in 1924-25, 135 African Americans were lynched.
• Many African Americans were sharecroppers in the South, when the price of wheat fell it affected them badly as they were able to make a profit from their crops.
• Most African Americans worked in low-paid, low skilled jobs such as domestic servants or factory hands,

Immigrants

• Literacy Test, 1917 – Immigrants had to pass a series of reading and writing tests.
• The Emergency Quota Act, 1921 – A law which restricted the number of immigrants to 357,000 per year.
• The National Origins Act, 1924 – This law reduced the maximum number of immigrants to 150,000 per year and cut the quota to 2 per cent, based on the population of the USA in 1890.
• White Americans believed Communists, Jews and Asians were undermining the ‘American way of life’.
• Mitchell Palmer spread rumours about the Red Scare and arrested and deported 6000 suspected communists during the Palmer Raids.

Prohibition

• 3,000 prohibition agents were appointed to enforce the law.
• The Anti-Saloon League, Women's Christian Temperance Union, and some religious groups such as the Methodists and the Baptists campaigned for prohibition. 
• Drinking beer during WW1 was considered unpatriotic and was nicknamed the Kaiser’s Brew.
• Gangsters saw a business opportunity and started to produce and sell their own alcohol called moonshine.
• The Volstead Act was made law in January 1920, this act made it illegal to sell and produce alcohol.

Organised Crime

• Al Capone appeared on the cover of Time magazine like a celebrity.
• There was more corruption as gangsters bribed police officers, judges and politicians to turn a blind eye to their illegal activities.
• In 1929 during the St Valentine's Day Massacre Al Capone ordered the murder of 7 of the Bugs Moran gang.
• Capone famously said, ‘I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.’
• By 1925 there were over 10,000 illegal clubs known as speakeasies in New York alone.

Women

• An increase of 25 per cent in the number of women working during the 1920s. By 1929, 10.6 million women were working.
• Young women started to smoke in public. It became acceptable for women to drive cars and take part in energetic sports.
• One famous flapper of the time was Joan Crawford.
• Women in the Bible Belt and many older women were outraged by flappers, some formed the Anti-Flirt Club.
• Flappers visited speakeasies and danced energetic dances like the Shimmy and the Bunny Hug.