-
Period: to
Transition to Modern America
-
The rise of the KKK
William Simmons and thirty-five followers founded the modern Klan. Only the native born, white, gentile Americans were allowed to join. The modern Klan wasn't just antiblack, they were also against aliens, Jews and Catholics. -
Eighteenth Amendment
Congress ratified the amendment in 1919. It prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. Urban resistance to prohibition finally led the amendment's repeal in 1933. -
Palmer Raids
Attorney General Palmer led the attack on the alien threat. Palmer launched a series of raids that began on November 7. Federal agents seized suspected anarchists and communists and held them for deportation with no regard for due process of law. 249 aliens were sent to Russia and nearly all were innocent of the charges against them. -
Red Scare comes
The Russian Revolution and the triumph of Marxism frightened many Americans. A growing turn to communism amoung American radicals accelerated these fears. This caused an intense out break of national alarm called the red scare. -
Volstead Act
The act came into effect because of the of the prohibition amendment. The act banned most commercial production and distribution of beverages containing more than one-half of 1 percent of alcohol by volume. -
Nineteenth Amendment
The passage of this amendment gave women the right to vote. -
Election of 1920
The Republican candidate, Warren Harding is elected. During his campaign, he urges the country to return to normalcy, traditional Republican policies. -
Andrew Mellon's budget cut
He was Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1932. Mellon, using the new budget system adopted by Congress in 1921, reduced government spending from its WWI peak of 18 billion to just over 3 billion by 1925. -
Sheppard-Towner Act
Social feminists pushed for humnitarian refomr and won the enactment of this act. It provided for federal aid to establish state programs for maternal and infant helath care. -
Teapot Dome Scandal
Harding's Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, was convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for leasing government-owned oil lands in Wyoming and California to private oil businessmen. -
Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act
The act was a post-World War I Republican defense against expected Europeans exports. -
Harding's death
President Harding dies of a heart attack in 1923. Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumes the presidency. -
Equal Rights Amendment
One group of activists, the National Woman's Party, lobbied for full rights under the law. The NWP succeeded in having this amendment introduced to Congress. The amendment stated that men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Most women organizations opposed the amendment and it failed in the 1920s. -
National Origins Quota Act
This law established a quota system to regulate the influx of immigrants to America. -
Scopes Trial
The trial was a contest between modern liberalism and religious fundamentalism. John Scopes was on trial for teaching Darwinism evolution in defiance of a Tennessee state law. He was found guilty and fined 100 dollars until the appeal. -
The fall of the KKK
The Klan fell even more quickly than it rose. Its more violent activities began to offend the nation's conscience. Membership declined sharply after 1925 and by the end of the decade, the Klan had virtually disappeared. -
Charles Lindbergh's flight
Lindebergh flew non-stop across the Atlantic from New York to Paris, France. Instantly, Lindbergh became a national idol. -
The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were italian aliens who were arrested in May 1920 for a payroll robbery and murder. They were condemned in court more by more what they believed in that the evidence that was given. They were killed in the electric chair. -
Farm-price bill
In order to solve overproduction, farmers wanted to raise domestic crop prices by having the government sell the surplus overseas at low world prices. President Coolidge vetoes the legislation on grounds that it involved unwarranted government interference in the economy. -
Election of 1928
Republican, Herbert Hoover, won the election by more than 6 million votes. Even though it was such a huge loss for the Democrats, they still gained huge control in the cities.
