1. The 1920s
Through the 1920s, three Republican presidents would control the executive branch. Congress was also solidly Republican as business boomed, while farmers and unions struggled.

2. Warren Harding Republican elected president in 1920
“return to normalcy”
Appointed former President William Howard Taft to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Pardoned Eugene V. Debs (in prison for violating Espionage Act)
Reduced income tax
Increased tariff rates
Scandals and corruption (like Ulysses S. Grant)

3. Harding and Scandal/Corruption
Harding selected a number of incompetent men to important positions
In 1924, Congress discovered that Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall had accepted bribes for granting oil leases near Teapot Dome, WY
Teapot Dome Scandal
Though Harding was never implicated, his reputation suffers
He died suddenly in 1923

4. Calvin Coolidge VP Calvin Coolidge becomes president “Silent Cal”
“The business of America is business.”
After less than a year in office he ran for the presidency (1924) and wins!
Progressive Party nominated Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
Coolidge believed in limited government that let business do its own thing

5. 1924 Election

6. Election of 1928 Herbert Hoover ran for the Republicans
Alfred E. Smith (Catholic and against Prohibition) ran for the Democrats
Republicans boasted of “Coolidge prosperity”
Hoover won in a landslide
Won several southern states

7. Election of 1928

8. Jazz Age
The youth of the 1920s expressed their rebellion against their elders by embracing jazz
Brought north by African-Americans
Symbol of the “new” and “modern” culture of the cities
Phonographs and radios helped spread music

9. Consumerism
Electricity in homes = refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and radios
Automobiles: replaced RRs as promoter of other industries, such as steel, rubber and glass
Cars also = new freedoms and new problems (traffic jams and accidents)
Advertising
Stores sell new appliances
Chain stores
By /3s have electricity
Standard of living increases dramatically

10. 1920s Advertisements

11. 1920s Advertisements

12. Popular Heroes
During the 1920s, Americans shifted from seeing politicians as role models to the new larger-than-life personalities of celebrities (sport and cinema)
Jack Dempsey: boxer
Babe Ruth: baseball
Gertrude Ederle: swimming
Jim Thorpe: football
Bobby Jones: golf
Charles Lindbergh: flying nonstop from NY to Paris

13. Gender Roles 19th Amendment passed in 1920 gives women the vote
Tended to have same views as husbands
Still regulated to traditional roles, although technology eases work load
Some women worked as nurses, clerks and teachers and for lower pay than men
However new ideas and fashions contributed to change

14. Revolution in Morals
Margaret Sanger advocated birth control (still taboo but growing acceptance)
The flapper look
Shorter dresses (hemmed at knee, not the ankle)
Shocked elders
“bobbing” (cutting short) their hair, drinking and smoking
But when women got married, they were expected to give up the flapper image
Divorces increased

15. Harlem Renaissance By 1930, 20% of African-Ams. Lived in the North
Widespread discrimination
Harlem, NY became famous for its concentration of actors, artists, musicians, and writers
Langston Hughes – poet
Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong – musicians
Bessie Smith- singer

16. Langston Hughes
“I, Too, Sing America” I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll sit at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.  
— Langston Hughes, 1926

17. Marcus Garvey
Jamaican immigrant who advocated individual and racial pride
Black nationalism
Established an organization of black separatism, economic self-sufficiency, and back to Africa movement
Later tried and convicted and jailed in fraud charges
Deported back to Jamaica
Inspired black nationalism

18. Culture Conflict Darrow and Bryan Scopes Trial
Religious fundamentalism (South) vs. modernists (northern cities)
Teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution outlawed in several southern states
John Scopes challenges in Tennessee
Clarence Darrow defends Scopes, William Jennings Bryan prosecutes
Scopes found guilty, later overturned

19. Prohibition 18th Amendment – 1919 “Noble experiment”
Prohibited sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages
Many people defied the law
Speakeasies, bootleggers and corruption
Organized crime grew: Al Capone in Chicago
Arguments grew as to whether crime decreased
21stAmendment - repeals-1933

20. Prohibition
After Repeal

21. Nativism and Quota Laws
Over a million foreigners entered the U.S. between 1919 and 1921
Mostly Catholic and Jewish
Prejudices aroused
Isolationists see them as radicals
Congress passed two laws limiting immigration – quotas
1921 and 1924 Quota Acts
Immigrants from Asia and SE Europe restricted, not those from Canada and Latin America

22. Sacco and Vanzetti Ku Klux Klan
Two Italian immigrants put on trial for robbery/murder in1921
Liberals vs. conservatives
Sacco and Vanzetti executed in 1927
KKK grows stronger – against blacks, communists, Catholics, Jews and foreigners
The “new” Klan developed some political influence in the South and Midwest