The Roaring Twenties: Crash, Culture, and Prohibition
American Wall Street Crash
When?: October 29, 1929
Why?: Overinflated shares, growing bank loans, overproduction, panic selling, stock purchased on margin, higher interest rates, and negative media coverage.
How?: Millions of people invested their savings or borrowed money to buy stocks, pushing prices to unsustainable levels.
Consequences: Massive unemployment, contraction of international trade, breakdown of the international payment system, and the Great Depression, which contributed to the causes of World War II.
Where?: New York, USA
How Long to Recover?: 25 years
The African American Experience
Ku Klux Klan
Who Were They? An American far-right, white supremacist hate group known for promoting racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and anti-Catholicism.
What Did They Fight For? They fought to eliminate the rights and freedoms of African Americans.
Difference Between North and South for African Americans: In the North, African Americans had a better chance of getting good jobs and a good education. In the South, Black employees were often relegated to menial labor or slavery.
Key Figures
- W.E.B. Du Bois: Founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and campaigned to end racial segregation.
- Marcus Garvey: Established a shipping line to support UNIA businesses and his emigration scheme. The UNIA reached over 1 million members in 1921.
- Malcolm X: An African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black Nationalism in the early 1960s. He advocated for black empowerment and separation of Black and White Americans.
Women in the 1920s
Impact of the War: During 1917, some women entered industries, gaining experience in skilled factory work.
The Car: During the 1920s, women shared in the liberating effects of the automobile.
The Vote: In 1920, women gained the right to vote in all states.
Behavior: For younger urban women, many traditional roles and behaviors were relaxed.
Employment: More women took on jobs, typically in new industries. With their own money, working women became a target for advertising.
Choices: Films and novels exposed women to more choices. Newspapers, magazines, and the film industry found that sex sold better than anything else.
Limitations: Women were still paid less than men and did not have access to significant political power.
Alcohol Prohibition
Why?: It caused damage to social and family life, including illness, crime, and fathers abandoning their families due to alcohol addiction.
Bootleggers: Suppliers of illegal alcohol.
Stills: People who made and sold their own illegal whisky.
Speakeasies: Bars where people could buy illegal alcohol without needing to create their own drinks.
Politicians, Judges, Policemen, etc.: Instead of preventing alcohol sales, they were often part of the corrupt alcohol trade.