USA 1910 - 1929 Problems and Challenges

The banning of making, transporting and selling alcohol.

Intoduced by 18th ammendment - volstead act.

Introduced because grain was being wasted, could be used for food for soldiers, health problems, increase in crime and poverty, unpatriotic - many brewers were German, pressure groups - Anti saloon league and temperance society, abesenteeism and family problems.

Prohibition agents - Mo Smith, Izzy Einstein, Two Gun Heart, Elliot Ness. Weren't enough of them to enforce law.

Bootlegging- smuggling alcohol into the country, borders were too long to guard all of it.

Moonshine - illlegally brewed alcohol.

Speak Easies - Secret drinking places, kept open because police, judges and government were being bribed.

Gangsters - Al Capone - Chicago - famous for St. Valentine's day Massacre. Finally caught for tax evasion.

21st ammendment banished prohibiton because - couldn't enforce law because bribery and not enough agents. Gangsters were making money, more organised crime. People wanted to drink - weren't happy - government were drinking.

Native American Indians were discriminated agianst by WASPs ( White Anglo - Saxon Protestants) had there land taken from them. Boys made to cut long her and stopped from doing traditional dances such as Sun dance. Children sent to boarding schools and made to humiliate and criticise parents.

Black people were discriminated against. 

Especially in southern states because of slavery.

Jim Crow laws introduced segregation.

The KKK ( Ku Klux Klan) were a white supremacy group. Their symbol was a burning cross and they wore white gowns and hoods. They tarred and feathered blacks and lynched them.

Groups to help black people - NAACP - William Du Bois ( national association for the advancement of coloured people) and the UNIA - Marcus Garvey ( universal ***** improvement associaiton)

Revivalists wanted to bring back religion because morals were dropping. Aimee Semple Macpherson was a revivalsit preacher. She was know as Sister Aimee and often dressed as an angel. Billy Sunday was also a revivalist. He used hell fire sermons, he was also a fundamentalist.

Monkey trial - John scopes ( a teacher) was put on trial for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution. Clarence Darrow was defending him and William Jennings Bryan was prosecuting him.

Open door policy - everyone was welcome in America.

Too many immigrants because they thought they could live the 'American Dream' .

Ellis Isalnd (island of tears, hopes and dreams) - immigrants taken there to have medical tests, some sent home.

Xenophobia - fear or hatred of immigrants.

People didn't like immigrants because they were taking jobs and creating ghettos.

Laws introduced to reduce immigrants. Literacy test 1917 - had to read a small passage in English to get in.

Emergency Quota Act 1921 - only 3% of the race already living in America could get in.

National origins act 1924 - Reduced quota to 2%.

Immigration act 1929 - only 150,000 immigrants a year, no asians at all.

Red Scare - scared of communists.

Communists beleived in equality for all - rich people such as business owners and landowners ( people who had something to lose were scared)

Scared of Russian Revolution - Leaders ( Lenin and Trotsky ) were trying to spread communism.

Palmer Raids - A. Mitchell. Palmer raided peoples houses and arrested around 6,000 looking for communists. This was because his house had been blown up and he had found a communists newspaper outside so he blamed them. Nobody was bothered because they were so scared of the communists.

Sacco and Vanzetti trials. Two Italian/ Communists that were on trial for armed robbery during which two guards were shot. There wasn't enough evidence but they were sentenced to death anyway because Judge Thayer was caught up in the red scare.

One example was during prohibiton - the politicians were drinking in the white house.

The Ohio gang was when president Warren Harding appointed his friends from Ohio, his cabinet. They were not necessarily the right people for the job.

The teapot dome affair - Albert Fall leased oil reserves at teapot dome to private oil companies.