The World of the 1920s

Prosperity

• Productivity up• Wages rise ¼• Corporate profit rise 2x as much• 40% of Americans still in poverty

The New Economy

• Mechanization affects farm, factory workers• Growth of education, retail, professions

Business Fights Unions

• “welfare capitalism”• “open shop”• Pinkertons

Women’s Movement Splits

• Black feminists want racial equality• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) controversy

The Nativist Nation

• “100% Americanism”• Fear of radicals, foreigners• KKK: 3 million members• Founding of ACLU

Who Is White?

• Immigration Act of 1924• Restricts non-European immigration w/

quotas• US v. Thind (1923)

Morality in the Jazz Age• The flapper• Speakeasies• Black music, white audiences• “Scopes Monkey trial”

The Many Faces of Black America

• Durham, NC – the “black Wall Street”• 1 million leave South• Join educated migrants from West Indies in

Harlem

Harlem Renaissance

• “The New Negro”• Langston Hughes• Marcus Garvey – Jamaican migrant– Back to Africa movement– Convicted of mail fraud in 1923

“The Business of America Is Business”

Herbert Hoover and the Crisis of Individualism

• Engineer• Self-made man• Led food relief during WWI• Secretary of Commerce

Election of 1928

• Republican Hoover against Dem. Al Smith of NYC

• Smith = Catholic• Hoover wins w/ 58% of vote

October 29, 1929 – “Black Tuesday”

Crash

• $10 billion disappears in 1 day• Banks fail• Families lose savings• 25% unemployment by 1932

The Bonus Army under attack in DC