SS.912.A.5.10

SS.912.A.5.10

​Analyze support for and resistance to civil rights for women, African Americans, Native Americans, and other minorities.

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part 1​

By Richard Orton

​Nativism and Immigration Policies

The 1920s was a time not only of economic growth but of turmoil as well. The fear and prejudice many Americans felt toward Germans and Communists during and after World War I extended to include all immigrants. This also led to a rise in racism and nativism, which is a belief that one’s native land needs to be protected against immigrants. During the 1920s, the majority of immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. Many Americans blamed the bombings, strikes, and recession of the 1920s on immigrants. Many believed that immigrants had taken jobs away from soldiers who had returned from World War I.

Subject | Subject

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Multiple Choice

The belief that one's homeland needs to be protected from immigrants is called _______.

• A.isolationism

•  B.culturalism

•  C.nativism

•  D.racism

Poll

Is nativism bad?

• yes

• no

• undecided

​The Sacco-Vanzetti Case

Two Italian immigrants who became victims of this prejudice were Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. On April 15, 1920, two men robbed and murdered two employees of a shoe factory in Massachusetts. Police arrested Sacco and Vanzetti, for the crime. Newspapers revealed that the two men were anarchists. An anarchist is a person who opposes all forms of government. Newspapers also reported that Sacco had a gun that was similar to the murder weapon. The fact that both men were anarchists and immigrants led many people, including the jury, to find them guilty.

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Multiple Choice

What fact about the Sacco-Vanzetti case prejudiced the jury into convicting them for murder?

• A.Sacco and Vanzetti were immigrant anarchists.

•  B.The gun evidence against them was compelling.

   

• C.There were several eyewitnesses who also happened to be veterans.

   

• D.Both men had protested American involvement in World War I.

Open Ended

How did the Sacco-Vanzetti trial show an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment in the country

​Return of the Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) began in the South after the Civil War. This hate group used violence to intimidate newly freed African Americans. The group continued its violent actions into the 1900s, as well. One incident occurred in early January 1923, in the town of Rosewood, Florida, when a white mob killed an African American man. White mobs, probably encouraged and provoked by KKK members, began burning the town. African American women and children took refuge at the home of a white resident. A train came through Rosewood in the early morning hours to help take residents to safety. A grand jury convened in February 1923 to investigate the Rosewood riot, but no convictions were made. In the 1980s, a journalist uncovered the town’s history, and in 1994, the state of Florida agreed to pay compensation to survivors and their descendants.

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​Return of the Ku Klux Klan

The new Ku Klux Klan also targeted other groups they deemed as “un-American,” such as Jews, Catholics, labor union members, and immigrants. The new KKK of the 1920s promoted the idea of “100 Percent Americanism.” This was a promise to preserve America’s white, native-born Protestant civilization. By 1924, the KKK had about 4 million members across the country before scandals and power struggles among its leaders caused a period of decline and the group’s national influence diminished.

SS.912.A.5.9

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Multiple Choice

Anger against immigrants and emerging racial tensions over jobs led to the rise of which previously defunct group?

• A.the Ellis Island League

•  B.the Veterans of Foreign Wars, or VFW

   

• C.the Nativist Society

•  D.the Ku Klux Klan

​Increasing Mexican Immigration

The National Origins Act exempted natives of the Western Hemisphere from the quotas. As a result, employers could hire Mexican immigrants. The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 funded irrigation projects in the Southwest. This led to the creation of large farms that needed thousands of workers. By the end of the 1920s, nearly 700,000 Mexicans had migrated to the United States.

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Multiple Choice

What did the 1924 National Origins Act do?

• A.It restricted immigration by closing Ellis Island and imposing regulations.

•  B.It restricted immigration in a way that favored northwestern European countries.

•  C.It called for a new census and based immigration quotas on the results.

   

• D.It ended all immigration during the 1920s by levying special taxes on immigrants.

Open Ended

Why did the National orgins act exclude people of the western hemisphere?

​A Clash of Cultures

Many people who wanted to restrict immigration also wanted to preserve their definition of America’s traditional values. These people often feared the decade’s cultural trend that glorified youth and personal freedom and changed the status of women.

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​Changes for Women

After winning the right to vote in 1920, women wanted to break away from traditional roles. Many women worked because they needed the wages, but they also worked as a way to break away from parental authority and gain financial independence. Romance, pleasure, and friendship became linked to a successful marriage. Women’s fashions changed during the 1920s. Women shortened their hair and wore flesh-colored silk stockings. Some women, known as flappers, smoked cigarettes, drank prohibited liquor, and wore makeup. Beyond surface appearance changes, a growing number of women made their own significant contributions in science, medicine, literature, and law.

SS.912.A.5.7

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Multiple Choice

How did the "new morality" of the 1920s change traditional views of marriage?

• A.Women helped pass legislation making divorce easier.

•  B.Men started to seek out women who retained a pre-1920s attitude about traditional roles.

•  C.The ideals of romantic love and friendship became more important.

   

• D.Women became more resistant to getting married.

Multiple Choice

For women of the 1920s, new fashions represented ________.

• A.their traditional values

   

• B.the nation's growing urbanism

•  C.their new social, economic, and intellectual freedoms

•  D.the new wonders of industrialism

Multiple Choice

Women who wore makeup, drank prohibited liquor, and smoked cigarettes in the 1920s were called _______

•  A.flappers

•  B.bobbers

•  C.speakeasies

•  D.independents

​Religious Fundamentalism

Although many Americans supported the new morality of the 1920s, some feared that the country was losing its traditional values. These Americans believed that the consumer culture and changing roles of women represented a moral decline in the nation. Many people, especially in rural areas, responded by joining a religious movement known as Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists believed that the Bible was literally true. They rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which said that human beings had developed from lower forms of life over the course of millions of years. Fundamentalists believed in creationism, a belief that God created the world as described in Biblical scriptures.

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Multiple Choice

The 1920s movement that believed the Christian Bible was literally true and denied the theory of evolution was _______.

• A.the Darrow Movement

•  B.the Fundamentalist Movement

•  C.the Charismatic Movement

•  D.the Creationist Movement

​Prohibition

In the early 1900s, the movement to ban alcohol sales grew. Many people believed that the prohibition of alcohol would reduce unemployment, domestic violence, and poverty. Temperance movement supporters were numerous enough to win ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment. This 1920 constitutional change made the sale of alcohol illegal. The Volstead Act gave the U.S. Treasury Department the power to enforce Prohibition.

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​Prohibition

The Treasury Department arrested more than 540,000 people, but many Americans ignored the Prohibition law. People purchased alcohol in secret bars. This type of bar was known as a speakeasy. In rural areas, liquor was available through bootlegging—the illegal production and distribution of alcohol. Smuggling liquor from Canada and the Caribbean yielded huge profits. Organized crime grew larger because of the demand for illegal alcohol. Gangsters used money from illegal alcohol sales to corrupt local politicians.

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Multiple Choice

Fundamentalists were active in which social movement that pushed for the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment?

• A.Isolationism

•  B.Prohibition

•  C.Creationism

•  D.Nativism

​Prohibition

The Twenty-first Amendment passed in 1933 and repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. The so-called “noble experiment” did not improve society as greatly as its supporters hoped it would.

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Open Ended

EVALUATING

What was the impact of the Eighteenth Amendment on liquor consumption in the United States?