The Roaring 20’s

Chapter 20 Notes

Post WWI America

• Nativism: Many Americans feared and had a prejudice against immigrants

• Isolationism: Many Americans wanted America to stay out of world affairs

Post WWI America

• Red Scare: Many Americans feared the spread of communism especially because of the Russian Revolution and there were over 70,000 members of the communist party in America. Some even sent several thousand bombs to government officials.

• Communism: an economic and political system based on a single party government ruled by a dictator

Russian Rebels – Bolsheviks

Vladimir Lenin – Leader of the Bolsheviks

The Palmer Raids• General A. Mitchell Palmer: U.S. Attorney General

• J. Edgar Hoover: Palmer’s assistant Attorney General

• 1919: several dozen bombs were mailed by members of the IWW (International Workers of the World) to government officials and Palmer investigated it– This led directly to the Red Scare because many IWW

workers were Communist

• Palmer Raids: Palmer and Hoover raided suspected Communists, Socialists, and Anarchists

Sacco and Venzetti

Sacco and Venzetti• 2 men who were arrested in Braintree, MA for the

robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and a guard

• The men had alibis and evidence was circumstantial

* Sacco and Venzetti were found guilty and received the death penalty

* Many thought that this happened because they were Italian anarchists, not because they were really guilty

Immigration and the KKK• Nativists wanted immigration to be limited

– Quota system: established the max. number of people who could enter the U.S.

• KKK – a terrorist organization that sought to harass any group of people unlike themselves– African Americans; immigrants; Catholics;

Jews; etc. – Organizations like the KKK still exist today

ABC News: Young Singers Spread Racist HateDuo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist

Movement

Thirteen-year-old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede have one album out, another on the way, a music video, and lots of fans.

They may remind you of another famous pair of singers, the Olsen Twins, and the girls say they like that. But unlike the Olsens, who built a media empire on their fun-loving, squeaky-clean image, Lamb and Lynx are cultivating a much darker personae. They are white nationalists and use their talents to preach a message of hate.

Known as "Prussian Blue" -- a nod to their German heritage and bright blue eyes -- the girls from Bakersfield, Calif., have been performing songs about white nationalism before all-white crowds since they were nine.

ABC News: Young Singers Spread Racist Hate

Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement

"We're proud of being white, we want to keep being white," said Lynx. "We want our people to stay white ... we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race."

Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. "They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening," said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins' father. "I'm going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would."

ABC News: Young Singers Spread Racist Hate

Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement

April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April's father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs -- specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he's even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification.

"Because it's provocative," explains April of the cattle brand, "to him he thinks it's important as a symbol of freedom of speech that he can use it as his cattle brand."

ABC News: Young Singers Spread Racist Hate

Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement

Teaching HateSongs like "Sacrifice" -- a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess,

Hitler's deputy Fuhrer -- clearly show the effect of the girls' upbringing. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up."

"It really breaks my heart to see those two girls spewing out that kind of garbage," said Ted Shaw, civil rights advocate and president of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund -- though Shaw points out that the girls aren't espousing their own opinions but ones they're being taught.

ABC News: Young Singers Spread Racist Hate

Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement

On that point, April Gaede and Ted Shaw apparently agree. "Well, all children pretty much espouse their parents' attitudes," she said. "We're white

nationalists and of course that's a part of our life and I'm going to share that part of my life with my children."

Since they began singing, the girls have become such a force in the white nationalist movement, that David Duke -- the former presidential candidate, one-time Ku-Klux-Klan grand wizard and outspoken white supremacist -- uses the twins to draw a crowd.

Prussian Blue supporter Erich Gliebe, operator of one of the nation's most notorious hate music labels, Resistance Records, hopes younger performers like Lynx and Lamb will help expand the base of the White Nationalist cause.

"Eleven and 12 years old," he said, "I think that's the perfect age to start grooming kids and instill in them a strong racial identity."

Gliebe, who targets young, mainstream white rockers at music festivals like this past summer's "Ozzfest," says he uses music to get his message out.

But with names like Blue-Eyed Devils and Angry Aryans, these tunes are far more extreme than the ones sung by Lamb and Lynx.

ABC News: Young Singers Spread Racist Hate

Duo Considered the Olsen Twins of the White Nationalist Movement

• "We give them a CD, we give them something as simple as a stick, they can go to our Web site and see other music and download some of our music," said Gliebe. "To me, that's the best propaganda tool for our youth."

• A Taste for Hate

• Gliebe says he hopes that as younger racist listeners mature, so will their tastes for harder, angrier music like that of Shawn Sugg of Max Resist.

• One of Sugg's songs is a fantasy piece about a possible future racial war that goes: "Let the cities burn, let the streets run red, if you ain't white you'll be dead."

• "I'd like to compare it to gangsta rap," explained Sugg, "where they glorify, you know, shooting n****** and pimping whores."

• Sugg shrugs off criticism that music like his should not be handed out to schoolyard children, arguing that "it's just music, it's not like you're handing out AK-47s."

Prussian Blue Link

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFF7hVlqUeA&feature=related

Labor Unrest

• Many different groups of workers were striking because of poor work conditions:

• Boston Police Strike:      Grievances of Police: o    Had not gotten a raise in many yearso    Denied the right to unionize• Outcome: Calvin Coolidge hired new

police and called in the National Guard

Labor Unrest

• Steel Mill Strike:

      Grievances of Steel Workers:

o    Work conditions and low wages

      Outcome:

o    Strike breakers were hired

o    Strikers were beaten by police

o  Steel workers eventually got an 8 hr work day• Workers did not get a Union

Labor Unrest

• Coal Miners Strike:      Grievances of Coal Miners:o    Low wageso    Long hours      Outcomes:o    Union Leader: John L. Lewiso    Coal mines closed down during strikeso    Miners got a wage increase but not shorter hours

Labor Unrest• Many workers were not in Unions:

      Much of the work force consisted of immigrants willing to work in poor conditions

      Since immigrants spoke a multitude of languages, unions had difficulty organizing them

      Farmers who had migrated to cities to find factory jobs were used to relying on themselves

        Most unions excluded African Americans

The Harding Presidency

20-2

Harding as President• Ohio Gang: Harding’s friends who embarrassed

him by using their offices to illegally make money (graft)

• Teapot Dome Scandal: Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California were set aside by the government to be used by Secretary of Interior Albert Fall– Fall secretly leased the land to private oil companies

owned by friends– He became the first person to be found guilty of a

felony while holding a cabinet office even though he tried to argue the contracts were in the countries’ best interest

Hearing after Teapot Dome Scandal

Changes in America during the Roaring 20’s

20-3

President Calvin Coolidge: • Supported the rise

of business (helped businesses make more money by not restricting their policies or taxing them as much)

The Automobile:      Changed the way America looked because of new paved

roads that were good for driving on in any weather and homes had driveways etc.

     First was the Model T Ford:

     In the 1920’s the Model A was a more luxurious car that became popular

     Cars resulted in Urban Sprawl: cities spread in all directions and became larger because people could move around them with more ease

     Auto production also made up the economic base for many Midwestern cities

1920 Model A Ford

1920 Ford Model T

Airplanes

Successful flights sparked their usage:• o   Charles Lindbergh: First person to ever

fly across the Atlantic in a plane called the Spirit of St. Louis:

• o   Amelia Earhart: First female to fly across the Atlantic

• Commercial Airlines started • http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=charles+lindbergh+flight&search_type=&aq=3&oq=charles+lin

Consumerism

     People had many more things they could buy and more money to buy them with

     People could buy things on Credit: borrowed money

     People could use Installment Plans: allowed people to pay for things over and extended amount of time

     Banks offered loans at low interest rates     People spent more money than they had and had

much higher standards of living

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