THE “UNROARING 1920’S”

Was the 1920’s really roaring?

ROARING 20’S

• As you recall, many changes had taken place during the 20’s, but it was not beneficial to everyone, especially:

• Labour Unrest

• Prohibition

• Visible Minorities

• Aboriginal people

WORKERS

• Employees worked long hours with no chance of promotion

• As other forms of energy became available, market for coal dried up –wages for miners were cut by a third [20-30 cents per hour)

• Violent strikes [Winnipeg Strike, 1919]

• We now have EI and welfare programs to help support us, but that did not exist at the time

Unhappy workers joined together to make a union

LABOUR UNREST

PROHIBITION

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union [WCTU] worked to ban sale of liquor in Canada

• Prohibition [1915-1917] outlawing the sale and consumption of alcohol –introduced as part of the war effort

…BUT

• It didn’t work, people who wanted to drink, still did it

• To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons known as “speakeasies”

• “Bootlegging” became a big business as a way to make money illegally

• By 1924, realized it might be better to legalize alcohol

HTTP://KCTS9.ORG/PROHIBITION/RUM-RUNNERS-CANADA-ROLE-PROHIBITION

CRIME

• Prohibition contributed to the growth of organized crime

• Chicago became notorious as the home of Al Capone – a famous bootlegger

VISIBLE MINORITIES

• Many visible minority groups faced political, social and economic discrimination

• Asian Communities:

• By 1920, B.C. already had a large Chinese population –came to build the railway.

• Smaller groups of Japanese and Sikhs settled around Vancouver/Victoria

• They were refused work, paid lower wages [resulted in them starting their own businesses –became a close-knit community]

• Black Communities:

• Many had come from USA, others were escaped slaves

• They were given right to vote at Confederation, but were not treated as equals

• For example: Nova Scotia and Ontario set up schools for Black students, but did not fund them properly

ABORIGINAL PEOPLES

• Since the Indian Act 1876, lives of First Nations peoples had been bound up in strict regulations enforced by the RCMP

• Traditional ceremonies and dances were forbidden

• Could not vote unless they left their reserve

• Residential Schools, 1920

• All First Nations children [aged 7-15] were required to live most of the year in a government funded school [80 in total]

• It was a way to assimilate[forcing someone to stop being who he/she is and become someone else] them into the Canadian culture

• Only speak English, abused, follow Christian ways

HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=SZKJHWTFUPW

QUESTIONS

• Pg. 82 # 5, 6

• Pg 85 # 8

• Pg 88 # 10