Chapter 22 Key Terms

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Red Scare of 1919-1920: A short-lived but intense period of political intolerance inspired by the post-war strike wave and the social tensions and fears generated by the Russian Revolution.

Palmer Raids: In 1919 and 1920, federal agents were dispatched to raid the offices of radical and labor organizations throughout the country.

Sacco and Vanzetti: Two Italian immigrants who were accused of participating in a robbery in which a security guard was killed. In the atmosphere of anti-radical and anti-immigrant fervor, their conviction was a certainty though neither fingerprints nor possession of stolen money linked to the crime.

flappers: Young, sexually liberated women who frequent dance halls and music clubs, wore bobbed hair, short skirts, smoked and drunk in public, and used birth-control methods. This ideal became a device to market goods from automobiles to cigarettes.

welfare capitalism: A more socially conscious kind of business leadership which provided employees with safety measures such as private pensions and medical insurance plans, job security, and greater workplace safety. It was not the government's place but private employers'.

Equal Rights Amendment: This amendment proposed to eliminate all legal distinctions on account of sex.

Teapot Dome Scandal: An infamous scandal in which a prominent government official accepted a bribe in return for giving access to oil rigs. It was thought under Harding's administration, there was much corruption.

civil liberties: Personal rights an individual may assert even against democratic majorities that government cannot take away.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): In 1920 shifted from the Civil Liberties Bureau. Would take part in most of the landmark cases that helped to bring about a rights revolution.

Schenck v. United States (1919): Schenck, a socialist who had distributed anti draft leaflets through mail, was convicted under the Espionage Act. This conviction was deemed constitutional in this Supreme Court case.

fundamentalists: Clung to the traditional idea of "moral" liberty--voluntary adherence to time-honored religious beliefs, stuck strongly to the letter of the Bible.

Scopes trial: John Scopes was arrested for violating a state law that prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution. The ACLU persuaded him to violate the law in order to test its constitutionality, as to them, freedom meant above all the right to independent thought and individual self-expression. William Jennings Bryan was brought in to defend fundamentalists, though he interpreted the Bible against their beliefs. Scopes was found guilty, but the decision was overturned on a technicality.

second KKK: The Klan was reborn in Atlanta in 1915 after the lynching of a Jewish factory manager accused of killing a teenage girl. Now sank deep roots in the North and West. Took on all immigrants and not just blacks. The Klan's influence faded after 1925, when its leader in Indiana was convicted of assaulting a young woman.

cultural pluralism: Describes a society that reveled in ethnic diversity rather than attempting to suppress it.

Harlem Renaissance: New York's Harlem gained an international reputation as the capital of black America. Poets and novelists were sponsored and published by white presses. Broadway for the first time presented blacks in serious roles. It celebrated New Negro, meaning the rejection of established stereotypes and a search for black values to be put in their place.

Herbert Hoover: Republican president from 1929-1933. When faced with the Great Depression, he quoted Cleveland: "The government should not support the people. Federal aid weakens the sturdiness of our national character." He remained committed to associational action, putting his faith in businesses and establishing commissions but removing government dictation.

Great Depression: On Black Tuesday of 1929, the stock market crashed. After the war, Germany was unable to pay back Europe, who in turn was unable to fulfill debts to the United States. Farm produce demand dropped after its peak in World War I.

Bonus Army: In 1932, thousands of World War I veterans descended on Washington to demand early payment of a bonus due in 1945, though they were quickly turned away.