INTOLERANCE IN THE 1920'S

INTOLERANCE IN THE 1920'S

1. The KKK

   • Believed in the supremacy of WASP's
     • Anti-black
     • Anti-Jew
     • Anti-Catholic
   • Frightened black people
     • Powerful members
   • Lynched blacks
     • Set fire to black and Catholic churches and homes
   • 1925: 5 million members
   • After 1925 membership declined
     • Leaders involved in scandals

2. Attitudes to immigrants

   • Hostile
   • WW1 = Anti-German
     • Keep out 'violent' Europeans
   • Benefit of illiterate foreigners?
   • Immigrants taking jobs?
     • Cheap labour

3. The Red Scare

   • Feared the spread of Communism
   • Immigrants = communists and anarchists?
   • Fears fueled by workers and police strikes
     • Boston & Seattle
   • Mitchell Palmer, attorney general had his house bombed
     • = Palmer raids
       • 6,000 suspected Communists to be sent back to Europe
         • (Most found not guilty and stayed)

4. Sacco and Vanzetti

   • Two Italian immigrants
     • Accused of armed robbery and murder
       • Evidence was flimsy
   • Judge Thayer (racist) found them guilty
     • 107 witnesses placing them elsewhere
   • They owned 'similar guns'
   • They 'acted guiltily' when arrested
   • 'Italian looking'
   • They were executed

5. The Monkey Trial

   • Christian Fundamentalists in Bible Belt
   • Believed everything in the Bible was true
   • Banned the teaching of evolution
     • Wearing swimsuits
     • Kissing in public
   • John Scopes taught evolution anyway
     • Put on trial
       • He was found guilty
       • Lawyer showed how absurd the Fundamentalists case was