The Roaring 20s, The Great Depression, FDR, and The New Deal Study Guide
The Roaring 20s
The Great Depression
FDR & The New Deal
Scopes Trial
What: John Thomas Scope was charged with violating the Butler Act after reading from a Tennessee approved textbook about evolution
Butler Act: this act forbid the teaching of any theory that denied the biblical story of Creationism
The trial turned into a media circus and it went "viral"
The jury sided with the law but the battle that played out before the nation proved a victory for supporters of evolutionary theory.
Harlem Renaissance
What: an eruption that allowed African Americans to
express themselves culturally, socially,and artistically.
Why: Cause: The Great Migration: Starting in 1890 African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers
Push/Pull Factors of The Great Migration
Push Factors
Sharecropping caused African Americans to go into debt.
Jim Crow Laws
Disenfranchisement
Pull Factors
African Americans wanted a better life
The northern economy was doing great and there were many industry jobs available.
Effect: Political Change: The Harlem Renaissance sparked an era of racial cooperation. Important figures inspired a new sense of national identity among African-Americans.
Effect: The Harlem Renaissance’s greatest impact was to reinforce race pride among blacks.
Flappers
Characteristics of The Flapper: short haircut, smoke, drank alcohol, drugs, foolish, wild
What: Flappers were a generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and didn't follow acceptable behavior.
Gibson Girl vs Flapper: dating, makeup, hair, drugs, and dance
Tulsa Riot
Where: Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahama
Who: John Thomas Scope
When: July 10th, 1925
Why: Scopes broke the law because he wanted to test the constitutionality of the Butler Act
Who: African Americans
Where: Harlem
When: 1920s
When: May 31, 1921 to June 1, 1921
Who: American People
Why: The riot was triggered by a Memorial Day weekend newspaper report about an African American trying to rape a white women. The public was outraged
What: A riot; a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd
End Result: Four thousand white African American men and women were held in custody
Racial Issues: whites were favored over African Americans. At the time if there was an event that both races took part in, African Americans would get blamed.
East St. Louis Race Riot
What: A riot; a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd
Where: East St. Louis Illinois
When: July of 1917
Why: This event was sparked by African Americans taking whites work.
Who: American People
What was done to prevent riots from occurring again and what could have been done?: Laws could have been put in place, police could have strengthened numbers, and people could have been put in jail.
End Result: the riots were tried to stop and a special committee formed to launch an investigation
St. Valentines Day Massacre
Who: George "bugs" Moran's gang and Al "scarface" Capone's gang
When: Fab 14th, 1929
Why: The gangs wanted to take each other out and increase business (they were speakeasy rivals)
What: Al Capone's gang members were sent to take out the other gang and a shooting took place. Bugs wasn't killed because he slept in.
End Result: Moran wasn't killed, people were killed, and it was the last big appearance of Moran's group.
What impact did the 18th Amendment and Prohibition have on the 1920s? What did the indirectly lead to the creation of?
18th Amendment: The Eighteenth Amendment effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring the production, transport, and sale of alcohol (though not the consumption or private possession) illegal.
Prohibition: the action of forbidding something, especially by law
Caused creation of Speakeasy: hidden section underground where many bought and drank alcohol
18th Amendment created the illegal alcohol business
Prohibition had a negative effect and illegal activities lead to organized crime
Represent a changing role of women
Who: Women
Where: America
When: 1920s
Why: WWI allowed women to take men's jobs while they were at war. They didn't want to return to the ways things were before the war because they didn't want ti give up their freedom.
Business Cycle 
What uses does this cycle have today?: predict when a future depression will happen, the cycle always repeats
A boom and bust cycle is a process of economic expansion and contraction that occurs repeatedly. During the boom the economy grows, jobs are plentiful and the market brings high returns to investors. In the subsequent bust, the economy shrinks, people lose their jobs and investors lose money. Boom-bust cycles last for varying lengths of time; they also vary in severity.
Stock Market Crash
Some lose all money in stock market and banks
the Stock Market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression
America pays for all the greatness of the Roaring 20s as the Great Depression begins
Black Thursday and Tuesday
On Black Thursday (October 24, 1929) stock prices dropped very quickly and people sold all their shares of stock
Wealthy people buy stocks to slow down the recession
Situation got worse on Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) as the stock market lost $14 billion that day and over 16 million stocks were traded
Causes of Stock Market Crash
Rising Stock Market
The appearance of overnight multi-millionaires convinced people that the stock market was the easy to future riches
This led to Americans frequently investing in stock but using little of their own money.
Margin Loans
the practice of using borrowed money to pay for stocks
Steps: investor goes to bank and receives loan to buy stock, investor offers stock as collateral, due to many poor loans the banks mad more stock than cash, many banks were unable to cover their losses and were short of cash
Overproduction
making too much of one good
business placed emphasis on production
good are available but nobody had money to spend on them
Agricultural Depression
During WWI while crop prices were high, many farmers went further into debt to buy more land and better farm equipment
When the war ended, crop prices plummeted
Farmers had more bills to pay then they did before the war
What was the Great Depression? How did this contrast to the Roaring 20s?
The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939 and was the worst economic downturn in history. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors.
When compared to the Roaring 20s, The Great Depression is terrible. In the Roaring 20s people had money and freedom and were able to buy and do things. However, in The Great Depression everything was terrible.
Over the next several years, consumer spending dropped, causing steep declines in employment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had failed.
Dust Bowl
Causes
Effects
Poor agricultural practices and years of continued drought in the 1930s causes the Dust Bowl
In attempts to get out of debt farmers ignored best agricultural practices and focused on trying to make money
Farmers no longer rotated crops. Continued plowing land year after year
This all resulted in the soil of the plains grasslands turning into dust
Mass Migrations
"Okies": 100's of people from Oklahoma who fled for Arizona and Californa
Migrants were seeking opportunity
Many adolescents left their families to find opportunities. Especially those with familes
Hoovervilles vs Tenement Housing
Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. On the other hand, tenement housing was a little bit better since the person lived in a real building but it was still was crowded and wasn't much better.
Fireside Chats
Fireside chats were a series of radio broadcasts where the nation was addressed by FDR over the radio.
The chats spanned a variety of topics
The effect of the chats was calming to the nation
The New Deal
Goals
Relief: for the suffering (immediate help and temporary)
Recovery: to get the economy back on its feet (money)
Reform: taking steps to avoid future depressions (permanent)
Some New Deal Programs
Relief
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
Federal money given to states to help the poor
Agency sent funds to depleting local relief agencies
CCC taught the men and women of America how to live independently
Recovery
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
Gives farmers a government payment to grow fewer crops
Fewer crops increases demand for these crops
National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
Enforced and regulated wages, prices and working conditions
Mandates that businesses in the same industry work together to set prices
Created the National Recovery Administration which set minimum wage to $0.25 per hour and banned child labor
Reform
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Developed the natural resources of the Tennessee River Valley
Securities Exchange Commision (SEC)
Built dams to control floods and aid navigation
Provides hydroelectric power to be used by industries
the government's watchdog over the nations stock market
Impact of The New Deal
The relief programs were successful in putting millions of dollars into the hands of the people
The recovery efforts were destroyed by the downturn of 1937-1938
The reform programs were successful and were long lasting
The New Deal did provide assistance to struggling Americans during the Great Depression because of how successful its programs were
Supreme Court Reaction To New Deal
Schechter Poultry Corporation vs. US (1935)
Issue: If NIRA and NRA are unconstitutional or not
Ruling: unconstitutional. Becuase the legislative branch was giving power to the executive branch the separation of powers was being violated
Result: This puts DR in place, but doesn't stop him
FDR's Court Packing Plan (1937)
FDR was losing support in the Supreme Court so he took action
Judicial Reorganization Bill
increase size of court from 9 to 15 justices
untended to make Supreme Court approve New Deal laws
Bill never passes