US Struggles with Postwar Issues Red Scare, Sacco & Vanzetti, KKK, Labor Unrest

1919 and 1920 Labor Strikes Causes: Inflation Concerns about job security Poor working conditions Demand for better wages Peacetime products were scarce - prices soared

In 1919 - more than 3,600 strikes A general strike in Seattle, Washington, nearly paralyzed the city, and U.S. Marines were sent in to restore order. The strike failed. The greatest single labor action, also ended in failure, was the Great Steel Strike in January 1920. It involved 350,000 steelworkers in several Midwestern states.

Strikers were called radicals and violent, and the business leaders, political leaders and newspapers turned against the workers, leading to the decline in the union movement.

How does this affect us? Vladimir Lenin. The leader of Russia advocated for worldwide revolution.

70,000 Americans joined the newly formed communist party in the United States

Palmer Raids! A. Mitchell Palmer (Attorney General)‏ Sent government agents to hunt down suspected communists, socialists, and anarchists.

Invaded homes without search warrants Jailed suspects for weeks without letting them see lawyers. Arrested those who came to visit suspects Deported hundreds of radicals without trying them in courts.

SACCO & VANZETTI Sacco and Vanzetti

Background In 1908 two men emigrated from Italy to the United States. Not knowing each other at the time they later became friends. Sacco became a shoe worker, got married, and had a child. Vanzetti who wasn’t as fortunate shifted from job to job. He eventually became a fish peddler. Years later the men fell into the anarchist circles within the Italian-American community. In 1917 to avoid the draft into World War I Sacco and Vanzetti fled to Mexico.

April 15, 1920 @ 3:00p.m. a paymaster and his guard were carrying the shoe factory pay roll of $15,776 and were shot and robbed Sacco and Vanzetti Accused Arrest resulted in a period of intense political repression called “The Red Scare”

Both had alibis Witnesses had Italian accents and were had for the jury and judge to understand Evidence- Sacco had a handbill in his pocket from an anarchist meeting featuring Vanzetti as the main speaker. When both men were arrested they had guns on them and lied about it Two charges for hold up on Dec. 24, 1919 and hold up attempt on April 15, 1920

July 14, 1921 both men found guilty of robbery and murder Trial lasted 7 years April 9, 1927 men were sentenced to death August 23, 1927 they were executed by the electric chair These men were powerful symbols of social justice throughout the world

2 days before execution Sacco and Vanzetti wrote letters to their supporters thanking them Optimistic letter showed both men were not afraid to die “Just treasure our suffering, our sorrow, our mistakes, our defeats, our passion for future…..” After execution the fight to clear their names still continues and has lasted over 50 years Still don’t know if they were falsely accused

KU KLUX KLAN AS-Level History USA 1917-33 AS History: USA 1917-33

‘Birth of a Nation’ (1915) took American cinemas by storm – many call it the first feature film. The film was based on two books – The Clansman and The Leopard’s Spots by Thomas Dixon – who said he wanted his books to ‘transform every man in my audience into a good Democrat’. The film’s publicity campaign featured men dressed in white robes who rode their horses into the cinemas.

The film is about two families – the Stonemans from the North and the Camerons from the South. The Camerons find their life in ruins as the Northern army brings in black militias who attempt to rape the white women.

The Klansmen rescue young Flora Cameron from the clutches of Gus, who is then lynched. The Reconstructionists are driven from the South and the Klan restores the Southern whites’ rights.

William J. Simmons , 35, a former Methodist preacher, invited the lynch mob (aka The Knights of Mary Phagan) and some of the ageing original Klan members to launch the new Ku Klux Klan, inspired by his viewing of ‘Birth of a Nation’.

They met atop Stone Mountain where a cross was burned – as seen in the film, but not in the first KKK – and the new Klan was formed, with Simmons its leader, or Grand Wizard.

Aims of the new Klan: First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succour the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the widows and orphans of the Confederate soldiers. Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States ... Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers in conformity with the laws of the land.

The over-riding element of the second Ku Klux Klan was the support of Prohibition. This was tied in with anti-Catholicism and opposition to bootleggers and immigrants. It has been described as the ‘militant wing of the temperance movement’, and many of the fund-raising activities were jointly run with the Anti-Saloon League. Klansmen would help the police with raids on bootleggers and moonshiners.

White, Anglo-Saxon or Celtic (Scots/Welsh) ancestry Common factors in Klan membership: White, Anglo-Saxon or Celtic (Scots/Welsh) ancestry Protestant – mainly Methodist or Baptist but also including non-church-goers Native-born Americans (not immigrants)‏ Mainly successful outside of the Deep South this time around – in the cities of the Mid-West like Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis, in the Far-West like Seattle and Portland, and in the huge North-eastern industrial cities like Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore. Drew support from all social classes.

Alcohol and bootleggers Roman Catholics Jews Communists Common hatreds: Alcohol and bootleggers Roman Catholics Jews Communists Immigrants from Southern Europe or Mexico Homosexuals Black Americans Local affairs decided which of the above groups would be the main target for hatred. “As opposed to the anti-black animus in the South, the primary targets of the Klan in New York were Roman Catholics, Jews, immigrants generally, and "Bolsheviks“ - Christine Kleinegger, Senior Historian , Museum of the State of New York. The Klan opposed "vice" in all forms, including prostitution and gambling.