Ch.4 – The 1920s: Minority Rights, Prohibition, and a National Scandal

What We’ll Learn How women won the right to vote and hold office. How minorities still suffered from racism. Why Prohibition didn’t work. How the Teapot Dome scandal affected New Mexico.

Women’s Suffrage Suffrage = right to vote. Obstacles: Male voters, traditional ideas, women seen as too virtuous. Overcoming: Nina Otero-Warren Lobbied Congress Ratification of the 19th Amendment. What did men think of women in office?

Civil Rights – Segregated Schools Black’s education not protected. Jim Crow – “separate rooms for the teaching of pupils of African descent.” Legislature supported Jim Crow laws. Most towns DID NOT segregate – what area of the state did?

Civil Rights – Segregated Schools Blacks forced to sit in the back of the class. Placed in the middle of procession lines – why? Segregated yearbooks – Blacks always in the back.

Civil Rights – Segregated Schools Hispanics were protected, but forced to feel inferior. More gradual and subtle, but still horrible. Teachers especially mean to Hispanic boys. Many forced to drop out due to treatment. Overcame through proud heritage.

Native American Rights Forced to attend boarding schools – why? 1924 – Natives had the right to vote in all but two states: NM and AZ. NM limited suffrage to those living off-reservation.

Native American Rights Bursum Bill – would have given non-Pueblos land on the Pueblos. Tony Lujan: All Pueblo Council Lobbied and used peaceful means to defeat the Bursum Bill. New political skills learned to help later on.

Blue Lake Taos Pueblo – used new political skills to protect Blue Lake. Belonged to Taos for centuries; 1906 – National Forest claims it. Cooperative Use Agreement – what was it, and did it work for Taos Pueblo?

Prohibition Potential evils of alcohol – Women’s Christian Temperance Union wanted Prohibition. 18th Amendment = Prohibition Christian morality said to eliminate drinking. Officially began in 1920.

Prohibition Hispanics, Germans, Italians: didn’t drink a lot, but still broke the law on purpose – Why? Rise of organized crime: Capone, “Machine Gun Kelly”. NM is big, so there is a lot of places to hide brewing and distilling operations. Dangerous to enforce – Why?

Prohibition NM began questioning Prohibition in the early 1930s. NM reported a higher number of teen/youth consumption. Did Prohibition make things worse? Did it control alcohol or cause more problems?

Teapot Dome Scandal Albert Fall appointed Secretary of the Interior by Pres. Harding. Fall oversaw federal land and the BIA. While in poor health, Fall illegally leased land at Teapot Dome, WY. Leased land after a $100,000 bribe. National disgrace until the Watergate scandal in the 1970s