3. Prosperity and its Limits
The business of America was business
The automobile industry was the
backbone of American prosperity
Stimulated the expansion of steel, rubber,
and oil
Road construction; it virtually helped all
sectors of the economy
Businessmen like Henry Ford and
engineers like Herbert Hoover were cultural
heroes
4. Prosperity and its Limits
A New Society
Consumerism was rampant; salespeople,
advertisements
Any way to satisfy Americans’
psychological desires and everyday
needs (do we still think this way)
Americans spending more money on
leisure; vacations, movies, and sporting
events (the rise of Baseball as the
American pastime)
5. Prosperity and its Limits
A New Society
Americans considered their standard of
living as a “sacred acquisition” (Pride
always comes before a fall)
Rise of the middle class led to the
disproportion of wealth; it’s no surprise
this ended in a market crash; everyone
has money to speculate with now
6. Prosperity and its Limits
Limits of Prosperity
Increased production and wealth was
distributed unequally
1929, over 40 percent of the population
still lived in poverty (almost a kickback to
the Gilded Age, but with a focus on
consumerism; these patterns keep
repeating)
7. Prosperity and its Limits
Limits of Prosperity
Farmers definitely didn’t share in the prosperity;
California started to receive many of the
displaced farmers; the “Dust Bowl” was
beginning due to poor crop rotation and over
farming
Prohibition led to a stellar increase in crime;
youths in America became enamored with an
obsessive interest in the mafia and bootleggers
○ Prohibition could be seen as a monumental failure of
progressive reform; gangsters, racketeering, and
bootlegging became an extremely profitable business
and by 1933, FDR repealed the amendment
8.
9. Prosperity and its Limits
The Decline of Labor
Nativism, Americanism, and industrial
freedom were used as weapons against
labor unions
○ Propaganda linked unionism and socialism as
examples of the evil influence of foreigners of
‘pure, free’ American life
○ During the 1920s, labor unions lost around 2
million members
10. Prosperity and its Limits
Women’s Freedom
Female liberation spread after the
passage of women’s suffrage
○ They were greatly influenced by advertising
and mass entertainment
○ Sex becomes a marketing tool
○ This new freedom only lasted while the
woman was single; married life was still about
the same as before
11. Prosperity and its Limits
Women’s Freedom
“Flappers” – drank, smoked, and demanded sex
with the same gusto that was traditionally
reserved for men; these were single, young
women
○ The greatest change in family life was the discovery of
adolescence
○ The automobile became a fear for parents as they
worried about their children having premarital sex and
engaging in vice
○ Teenage sons and daughters no longer had to work and
could engage in excitement of a consumer oriented
lifestyle
○ Sex became the all-encompassing obsession for young
men and women
12.
13. Progressivism Gives Way to
Republicanism
Numerous publications such as Public Opinion and
The Phantom Public criticized progressives’ hope of
applying intelligence to social problems in a mass
democracy
Voter turnout declined dramatically in the 1920s; mostly
due to people’s preoccupation with consumerism
Republicans quickly gained control and pro-business
ethos ruled the 1920s (here’s the Gilded Age again)
Lower taxes
Higher tariffs
Anti-Unionism
Supreme Court remains very conservative
14. The Harding Scandals
Warren G. Harding’s administration
quickly became one of the most corrupt
in American history, however, most of
the country liked him
Harding cared little for ethics and
surrounded himself with cronies that
used their office to further their own
private gain
15.
16. The Harding Scandals
Teapot Dome Scandal
Bribery scandal during Harding’s
administration
Harding transferred the Naval oil reserves at
Teapot Dome, WY, Elk Hills, and Buena
Vista, CA to the Department of the Interior in
1921
Dept. of Interior Secretary; Albert B. Fall
leased (without competitive bidding) the
Teapot Dome field to an oil operator named
Sinclair and the field in Elk Hills to Edward L.
Doheny
17. The Harding Scandals
Teapot Dome Scandal
The Senate conducted an investigation
and found out that Doheny lent Fall
$100k interest free and under the table;
Sinclair lent Fall another large sum of
money on his retirement; Senate indicted
Fall for bribery and conspiracy to accept
bribes
Oil fields returned to US Government
property in 1927 after a SC decision
18. Economic Diplomacy
Foreign affairs were a reflection on the
close relationship between business and
government in the 1920s
Most foreign policy was conducted
through private business exchange and
relationships over governmental
diplomacy in the twenties
Bankers loaned Germany an enormous
amount of money
19. Economic Diplomacy
US Government acted similarly to the
Gilded Age officials in the Spanish
American war by dispatching soldiers
to the Caribbean when a change in
regime threatened American
economic interests
Little concern for legitimate government
in Latin America at this time
20. Civil Liberties in the 1920s
Free Mob
As wartime repression continued after
the war ended, Europeans quickly began
to view America as a repressive cultural
wasteland
Actors adopting the Hays code
21. Civil Liberties in the 1920s
“Clear and Present Danger” Clause
SC Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
questioned this as the SC gave the
concept of civil liberties a devastating
blow when it ruled that situations such as
“shouting fire in a theater” that does not
have a fire is a danger to the safety of
citizens and is not protected by the First
Amendment (1919 Ruling)
22. Civil Liberties in the 1920s
“Clear and Present Danger” Clause
Overall, this blurred the lines between what is
considered appropriate communication,
disorderly conduct, and seditious
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) was
established in 1920
The most stringent protection of free speech
would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a
theater and causing a panic. [...] The question in
every case is whether the words used are used
in such circumstances and are of such a nature
as to create a clear and present danger that
they will bring about the substantive evils that
Congress has a right to prevent.
23. Civil Liberties in the 1920s
“Clear and Present Danger” Clause
Holmes began to speak out against
the infringement of civil liberties
Went beyond political expression;
became the “indispensible birthright of
every free American”
24. Fundamentalist Backlash
Fundamentalism – literal interpretation
of the Bible; rural people believing in this
took their religion with them to the cities
Evangelical Protestants feeling threatened
by the decline of traditional values and
increased visibility of Catholicism and Jews
because of immigration (fueled by nativism)
This becomes the Klan’s official religious
faction in Texas and in the South at large
25. Fundamentalist Backlash
Fundamentalists went on a campaign
to rid Protestant denominations of
modernism (evolution)
They supported prohibition, while
most others viewed it as a denial of
individual freedom
The press viewed them as
backwards, backcountry bigots
26. The Scopes Trial
ACLU gets involved with the clash
between fundamentalism and
evolution (and the legality of it)
John Scopes, a biology teacher from
Dayton, TN (who teaches evolution),
agrees to be participate in this
experiment (gets arrested) and tried
for teaching evolution in public school
(against TN statutes)
27.
28. The Scopes Trial
This became the hallmark case of the tensions
between fundamentalists and modernists (two
very different definitions of freedom)
Clarence Darrow (a renowned labor lawyer
defended Scopes)
William Jennings Bryan aided the state as an
expert in the Bible
Classic moment where Bryan talks of the inerrancy
of the Bible and Darrow questions him about the
book of Joshua (stopping the sun and moon)
Everyone nationally realizes what a circus this has
become and sees the fallacies with fundamentalists
30. The Scopes Trial
Even though Scopes loses and is made to pay a
fine (paid by the ACLU), fundamentalists think they
gain ground, but in reality, isolate a great part of
the nation from their cause for many years
The connection between Republicans and
fundamentalists helps lead to the decline of the
Republican party during the Depression
33. A combination of the following:
Progressivism
Fundamentalism
American Nationalism
Nativism
Lingering racial tensions
Millennialism and the Klan
Remnants of World War I millennialism identified Germany with
the devil; victory would dawn a new and beautiful world
○ When this Utopian hope did not appear, the Klan comes in saying
more work has to be done
Klan millennialism identified a world of sin filled with Catholics,
Jews, and racial tensions that destroyed the “white Utopian
dream”
○ Another “dark side of Progressivism”
Why Does the Klan Return?
34. Resurrected in Stone Mountain, Georgia
during the winter of 1915
Their goal: exist as a “patriotic, secret,
social, benevolent order”
“Colonel” William Joseph Simmons is
credited as the founder
His father was an officer in the Klan of the 1860s
Converted to Christianity and became a
Methodist minister
Very influential public speaker and frequented
fraternal orders
The Return of the Klan
36. Klan Ideology
White supremacy
100 percent “Americanism” and patriotism
Anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, anti-immigration
For the “purity of womanhood”
○ However, a women’s order of the Klan develops
ironically
Protestant, fundamentalist ideals
○ Prohibition was key
The Return of the Klan
37. Systematic recruitment
“Kleagles” (recruiters) targeted upper class
citizens of importance first
Middle class members readily joined because of
the prestige of belonging to an organization with
the upper class
Lower class citizens were recruited to fill quotas
and sell chapter memberships
○ Membership gave these citizens some feeling of
superiority and importance
The Return of the Klan
38. Membership Requirements
Caucasian ethnicity
Native-born American
Protestant
Believe in 100 percent “Americanism”
Pay a $10 initiation fee
Connection to the Masons
Often, recruiters were Masons also
They typically recruited lower class Masons who
shared anti-Catholic sentiment
Officially, Masons denied any connection
The Return of the Klan
39.
40. Key Biblical verse to their ideology:
Romans 12:1
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
Basically, they appealed to strict separation
of justification and sanctification in the Holy
Spirit
Klan Ritual
41. “Naturalization” into the Invisible Empire
The inductee moves around various points
in the “Klavern” (meeting house) and listens
to various Protestant infused Klan passages
The inductee swears allegiance to the Klan
The final ritual was very similar to a
Protestant baptism
Lastly, the inductee was ‘knighted’ into the
Invisible Empire
Klan Ritual
42.
43. The Klan officially returns to Texas in 1920
Establishment of the “Sam Houston Klan No. 1”
in Houston amidst fears of future race riots
In less than 2 years, the Klan had roughly
90,000 members in Texas
Provinces in Houston, San Antonio, Waco, Fort
Worth, and Dallas
Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans, Grand Titan of
the Dallas Klan emerges as a key leader in
the Texas Klan
Later becomes the Imperial Wizard of the
national Klan
The Ku Klux Klan in Texas
46. In 1921, over 1000 recruits were initiated into Waco’s
Saxet Klan no. 33
Prominent Waco Judge Edwin J. Clark formed the Waco
chapter and declared himself Grand Titan in 1921
Membership included law enforcement, major
businessmen, and members of the legal and judicial
system
Evans attempted to persuade legal officials to join their “national
law enforcement program”
The Klan would often offer monetary assistance for fugitive
bounties
Protestant ministers were often approached for
membership also
Most in McLennan County did not officially join, but sometimes
supported their ideals in sermons
The Klan Comes to Waco
48. 13th Street at Bosque Boulevard: Site of the 1920s Waco Klan Klavern
49. In the fall of 1921,
numerous Klan parades
and events took place in
Central Texas
The Waco Klan set out to
parade in Lorena in
October 1921
Over 4000 citizens attended
The County Attorney and
McLennan County Sheriff
Bob Buchanan felt that law
enforcement needed to
present to prevent riots
The Lorena Riot
50. Origins of the Riot
The Sheriff wanted to know the identities of one of the
Klan leaders
The Klansmen refused to reveal their identities
Buchanan attempts to unmask a Klansmen
Shots are fired
The Sheriff and his deputies are forced to defend
themselves
Results
Buchanan is shot under the right arm
Prominent laundryman Louis Crow is stabbed (later dies)
Deputies and a Waco policeman receive knife wounds
The Lorena Riot
51.
52. Aftermath
The City of Lorena and disgruntled citizens
publish a reprimand against the sheriff in the
Waco Times Herald
Sheriff Buchanan is charged with murder of
Louis Crow
○ It is later refused for prosecution by the County
Attorney
The Lorena Riot
53. Aftermath
Buchanan is later sued by the widow of Crow in
civil court
○ The case is dropped because the court cannot
secure an impartial jury in McLennan County
Buchanan and others who opposed the Klan
easily lose county elections of 1922 largely
because of the event
The Lorena Riot
58. Robert Henry, Sterling Strong, and Earle
Mayfield were considered the Klan political
triumvirate in 1922
Each were competing for the Democratic
party bid for an open U.S. Senate seat
The Klan’s influence was growing at a
rapid pace with the Democratic party
Over 100,000 Klan-influenced votes were at
stake
The issue: Which candidate does the Klan
pick to recognize as the “official” Klan
candidate?
The “Waco Agreement”
60. The Solution:
Four of the Texas Klan’s Grand Titans meet at
the Raleigh Hotel in Waco (March 1922) to
discuss which candidate will be officially
recognized
Three of the four Titans believe Mayfield should
be the candidate
○ Prominent Waco Judge (and Titan) Erwin Clark
convinces the others to let the candidates run
without interference of the Klan
○ This becomes known as the “Waco Agreement”
○ Clark was biased towards Henry though
The “Waco Agreement”
61. The agreement is later disregarded as it becomes
apparent that Mayfield would draw better support
from the Texas Klan in general
Henry goes on a rampage denouncing the Klan
publically throughout the state
He loses the Democratic bid and retires from public office
Mayfield wins the Senate seat by a landslide
The Klan’s political influence reached its highest point
Erwin Clark renounces his membership in the Klan
and moves to Houston
He dies a few years later under mysterious circumstances
The “Waco Agreement”
63. Brig. Gen. Jerome B.
Robertson
Brig. Gen. Felix H.
Robertson
Felix D. Robertson
64. After the election of Mayfield, the Texas Klan
set its sights on the Governor’s office
Their goal: successfully elect Felix D.
Robertson
His father and grandfather were both Confederate
generals
He was known as the no-compromising “Dollar-a-
Mile” judge in Dallas
At this point, Klan membership in Texas rose
to 170,000
They were now a well-organized minority that had
significant influence and control of the Democratic
party in Texas
Hood or Bonnet
65. Robertson’s Competition
“Ma” Ferguson
She and “Pa” ran a fierce anti-prohibitionist
campaign against Robertson and used growing
discontent against the Klan effectively
By 1923, the Klan’s reign of violence was
reaching its zenith
Upper-class and middle-class citizenry who
viewed the organization as another social club
began to leave at a rapid pace
The over-recruitment of lower-class citizenry
was largely to blame for the surge in violence
during the period
Hood or Bonnet
66. Pa Ferguson’s death blow to the Klan
After the run-off Democratic primary began, Ferguson
stepped up his campaign against Robertson and the Klan
He struck a decisive blow after news of Imperial Wizard
Evans and a black servant began to spread throughout
the state
○ Evans bought the servant a train ticket and allow him to
occupy a “white-only” train car
Ferguson widely publicized the incident and it cost
Robertson between 50,000 and 100,000 votes
As a result, Ma Ferguson decisively wins the primary
and the governor’s office
This marks the decline of the Klan in Texas at large
By 1930, the organization effectively went
underground
Hood or Bonnet
67. Cultural Pluralism
A society that gloried in ethnic diversity
rather than attempting to repress it
New immigrants were the champions of
this ideal
They asserted the validity of cultural
diversity and identified toleration of
difference as a cornerstone of American
freedom
The Supreme Court supported this by
striking down laws against Americanization
(100 percent)
68. The Harlem Renaissance
1920s led to a resurgence of self-
consciousness among black Americans;
especially in northern ghettos (poorer
areas)
Harlem gains a reputation for the “capital”
of black America
Diverse music, art, and culture came out of
this area during the 1920s
Pushed for the “New Negro” to reject
established stereotypes and place new,
renewed black values in its place
69. The Great Depression
Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and
Hoover enjoyed wide popularity
because of their appeal to traditional
American values
News of Harding’s scandals did not come
out until after his death
Coolidge represented Americans reserve
and prominence (monetarily)
Hoover represents a self-made man who
rises from adversity
70. The Great Depression
Election of 1928
Hoover exemplifies
the rise of a new era
of American
capitalism
He easily defeats
Alfred Smith of NY
due to remnants of
nativism that worked
against his Catholic
background
71.
72.
73.
74. The Great Depression
Stock Market Crash
Days before the crash, Hoover gives a
speech about American progress and
attributes it to businessmen and scientists;
limitless potential
The crash itself did not cause the
Depression
The global financial system was ill prepared
to deal with the crash, causing a world-wide
recession that changes the political and
economic landscape of the entire world
In 1932, the country hits rock bottom
75.
76. The Great Depression
Coping with the Depression
Hoover does virtually nothing; did not want to
commit to anything; too afraid of losing his
association with business
Businessmen strongly opposed federal aid to
the unemployed (need to pull themselves up by
their own bootstraps)
When Hoover did act, it made the situation
worse; he had no clue with how to deal with this
problem
The situation gets so dire that Americans began
to call the ramshackle tenements “Hoovervilles”