USHC 6 Stimulus Questions

1. Which cultural trend is best illustrated in this photograph?

• fundamentalism

• temperance movement

• prohibition

• flappers

. . . While in reality national prohibition sharply reduced the consumption of alcohol in the United States, the law fell considerably short of expectations. It neither eliminated drinking nor produced a sense that such a goal was within reach. So long as the purchaser of liquor, the supposed victim of a prohibition violation, participated in the illegal act rather than complained about it, the normal law enforcement process simply did not function. As a result, policing agencies bore a much heavier burden. The various images of lawbreaking, from contacts with the local bootlegger to Hollywood films to overloaded court dockets, generated a widespread belief that violations were taking place with unacceptable frequency. Furthermore, attempts at enforcing the law created an impression that government, unable to cope with lawbreakers by using traditional policing methods, was assuming new powers in order to accomplish its task. The picture of national prohibition which emerged over the course of the 1920s disenchanted many Americans and moved some to an active effort to bring an end to the dry law [Volstead Act].

Source: David E. Kyvig, Repealing National Prohibition, Kent State University Press, 2000

3. Which of the following events caused the phenomenon described in document above?

• World War II

• ratification of the 18th amendment

• ratification of the 21st amendment

• the Great Depression

2. Which event below occurred before this photo was most likely taken?

• World War II

• Roe v. Wade

• World War I

• The Great Depression

. . . While in reality national prohibition sharply reduced the consumption of alcohol in the United States, the law fell considerably short of expectations. It neither eliminated drinking nor produced a sense that such a goal was within reach. So long as the purchaser of liquor, the supposed victim of a prohibition violation, participated in the illegal act rather than complained about it, the normal law enforcement process simply did not function. As a result, policing agencies bore a much heavier burden. The various images of lawbreaking, from contacts with the local bootlegger to Hollywood films to overloaded court dockets, generated a widespread belief that violations were taking place with unacceptable frequency. Furthermore, attempts at enforcing the law created an impression that government, unable to cope with lawbreakers by using traditional policing methods, was assuming new powers in order to accomplish its task. The picture of national prohibition which emerged over the course of the 1920s disenchanted many Americans and moved some to an active effort to bring an end to the dry law [Volstead Act].

Source: David E. Kyvig, Repealing National Prohibition, Kent State University Press, 2000

4. The events described above resulted in

• the United States annexing Philippines

• the Great Depression

• the Repeal of Prohibition

• the Red Scare

. . . While in reality national prohibition sharply reduced the consumption of alcohol in the United States, the law fell considerably short of expectations. It neither eliminated drinking nor produced a sense that such a goal was within reach. So long as the purchaser of liquor, the supposed victim of a prohibition violation, participated in the illegal act rather than complained about it, the normal law enforcement process simply did not function. As a result, policing agencies bore a much heavier burden. The various images of lawbreaking, from contacts with the local bootlegger to Hollywood films to overloaded court dockets, generated a widespread belief that violations were taking place with unacceptable frequency. Furthermore, attempts at enforcing the law created an impression that government, unable to cope with lawbreakers by using traditional policing methods, was assuming new powers in order to accomplish its task. The picture of national prohibition which emerged over the course of the 1920s disenchanted many Americans and moved some to an active effort to bring an end to the dry law [Volstead Act].

Source: David E. Kyvig, Repealing National Prohibition, Kent State University Press, 2000

5. What claim is best supported by the evidence in the document above?

• prohibition solved the social problems caused by alcoholism

• prohibition improved workplace safety

• prohibition was difficult for police agencies to enforce

• prohibition led to the temperance movement

…The time was ripe for a renaissance back then. After the defeat of the kaiser in Germany [in World War I], a spirit of optimism and positive expectation swept across Harlem. The Allies won the war for democracy, so now it was time for something to happen in America to change the system of segregation and lynching that was going on. In Europe, the black [African American] troops were welcomed as liberators; so when they came back to America, they were determined to create a situation that would approximate the slogans they had been fighting for. They wanted democracy at home in the United States. And this general idea helped feed the concept of “The Renaissance.”… A lot of people wonder how there could be joy and optimism in a community under the conditions of segregation and discrimination. But the black community had two very important forces that enabled it to survive and grow. One was the church, where you had the gospel and the spiritual, which were inspirational in their basic content. And the other was the entertainment world, where you had the music of the secular side, expressed in jazz.…

Source: Howard Johnson, interviewed in Jennings and Brewster, The Century, Doubleday, 1998

6. According to the author, which of the following events influenced the development of the Harlem Renaissance?

• The emancipation of enslaved African Americans

• African American participation in World War I

• African Americans obtaining the right to vote

• The Great Depression

…The time was ripe for a renaissance back then. After the defeat of the kaiser in Germany [in World War I], a spirit of optimism and positive expectation swept across Harlem. The Allies won the war for democracy, so now it was time for something to happen in America to change the system of segregation and lynching that was going on. In Europe, the black [African American] troops were welcomed as liberators; so when they came back to America, they were determined to create a situation that would approximate the slogans they had been fighting for. They wanted democracy at home in the United States. And this general idea helped feed the concept of “The Renaissance.”… A lot of people wonder how there could be joy and optimism in a community under the conditions of segregation and discrimination. But the black community had two very important forces that enabled it to survive and grow. One was the church, where you had the gospel and the spiritual, which were inspirational in their basic content. And the other was the entertainment world, where you had the music of the secular side, expressed in jazz.…

Source: Howard Johnson, interviewed in Jennings and Brewster, The Century, Doubleday, 1998

7. Which of the following historical figures is most closely associated with the cultural movement described in the document above?

• Langston Hughes

• Lorraine Hansberry 

• Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Jacob Riis

…The time was ripe for a renaissance back then. After the defeat of the kaiser in Germany [in World War I], a spirit of optimism and positive expectation swept across Harlem. The Allies won the war for democracy, so now it was time for something to happen in America to change the system of segregation and lynching that was going on. In Europe, the black [African American] troops were welcomed as liberators; so when they came back to America, they were determined to create a situation that would approximate the slogans they had been fighting for. They wanted democracy at home in the United States. And this general idea helped feed the concept of “The Renaissance.”… A lot of people wonder how there could be joy and optimism in a community under the conditions of segregation and discrimination. But the black community had two very important forces that enabled it to survive and grow. One was the church, where you had the gospel and the spiritual, which were inspirational in their basic content. And the other was the entertainment world, where you had the music of the secular side, expressed in jazz.…

Source: Howard Johnson, interviewed in Jennings and Brewster, The Century, Doubleday, 1998

8. Which social issue does the author refer to in this document?

• Jim Crow laws

• Reconstruction era Black Codes

• enslavement of African Americans

• women obtaining the right to vote

One Way Ticket (excerpt)

 

 I am fed up

With Jim Crow laws,

People who are cruel

And afraid,

Who lynch and run,

Who are scared of me

And me of them.

I pick up my life

And take it away

On a one-way ticket

Gone Up North

Gone Out West

Gone!

 — Langston Hughes, 1926

9. The author states that he has “Gone” because

• jobs were available in northern industries

• there was no racial prejudice in the West
  

• farmland was more available in the North
  

• racial discrimination drove him away

One Way Ticket (excerpt)

 

 I am fed up

With Jim Crow laws,

People who are cruel

And afraid,

Who lynch and run,

Who are scared of me

And me of them.

I pick up my life

And take it away

On a one-way ticket

Gone Up North

Gone Out West

Gone!

 — Langston Hughes, 1926

10. In the poem above, the author has decided to participate in

• the Great Migration

• Jim Crow segregation

• lynching of African Americans

• prohibition movement