More civil liberty sadness

Before the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917, many German-Americans — especially those that had been born in Germany — openly supported the Germans in the war against Britain, France, and Russia. Once the U.S. entered the war, though, the vast majority of German-Americans supported the American war effort.

Every war the U.S. has fought has been vocally opposed by a minority of Americans, and World War I was no different. But it was quickly assumed by many Americans that all German-Americans were loyal to the Kaiser. People with German-sounding last names were persecuted. German-owned businesses faced boycotts. In towns founded by German immigrants, German street names were changed. A Minnesota man was tarred and feathered when he was heard praying in German with a dying woman. At least one man was hanged merely because he was believed to be of German descent. High schools dropped German classes, and schools in majority-German areas were required to teach only in English. In Iowa, a 1918 law prohibited speaking any language other than English in public.

Woodrow Wilson’s administration was directly responsible for this anti-German-American hysteria. The government’s propaganda posters portrayed Germans as brutes and barbarians, encouraging Americans to dehumanize the enemy — to think of Germans as less than human.

In November 1917, former U.S. ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard made a speech in which he openly questioned the loyalty of German-Americans. Speaking to the Ladies Aid Society of St. Mary’s Hospital in New York, he demanded the complete devotion of all Americans to the war effort and threatened to hang German-American spies from lamp-posts. Twenty years earlier, Gerard’s speech would likely have been forgotten. But by 1917, the speech could be recorded, pressed onto records, and distributed. Gerard’s references to lynching were heard across the country.

Civil Liberties during War Time

Remember how we talked about how when Woodrow Wilson campaigned for the presidency, he ran on the platform that the United States would stay out of the affairs of Europe. In particular, the United States would not get involved with The Great War which would later become commonly known as World War I?

So, when Wilson did find it necessary in his second term to enter the war, there were large segments of the population that do not support the war effort. In some cases, the government felt many of these groups were taking steps to undermine the war effort. To help facilitate the winning of the war, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917 and extended by the Sedition Act on  May 16, 1918.

Public criticism of the war was definitely a major concern of the government. Since a significant number of troops would be needed to carry out the war effort, a draft was imposed. Among the concerns the government had was the notion that constant criticism would make recruitment and even conscription difficult.

The purpose of these Acts was to prohibit interference with military operations, to ban support of U.S. enemies during wartime or to promote insubordination in the military.

The Espionage Act gave US postal officials the authority to prohibit the mailing of  newspapers and magazines. The law also threatened individuals convicted of interfering with or refusing the draft  with $10,000 fines and 20 years in jail.

The U.S. Congress amended the Espionage law with the Sedition Act of 1918. Its purpose was to make it illegal to write or speak anything critical of American involvement in the war.

The Sedition Act of 1918 made it a federal offense to use "disloyal or abusive language" about the Constitution, the government, the American uniform, or the US flag.

Watch this five minute video and then comment on the blog. Do you feel like these Acts were unconstitutional or do you feel like they were the right thing to do under the circumstances?  Why do you feel this way?  

1920's Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age

The Harlem Renaissance was a period during the 1920's 

when African-American achievements in art, literature and music flourished. A period of great diversity and experimentation. The WW1 Great Migration saw the movement of thousands of African Americans from the farmlands in the south to the cities in  the north in order to find new opportunities and build better lives. Many made their way to the New York city neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan, New York City which became the home of the movement.

The Harlem Renaissance coincided with the Jazz Age, a time of innovative ideas and modernism with rapid cultural and social changes. Harlem became a cultural center buzzing with new ideas and attracting African American scholars, writers, poets, artists, actors, musicians and singers. The Cotton Club was the most famous Harlem night spot where musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington played Dixie, the blues and developed the improvisational style of music called Jazz.

The Harlem Renaissance was important because it inspired an explosion of cultural pride and was perceived as a new beginning for African Americans. Black Americans were inspired to create works rooted in their own culture instead of imitating the styles of white Americans. African Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage.

The Harlem Renaissance was an era in U.S. History so full of creativity that it was short lived due to the Great Depression in 1929 and the beginnings of World War II.

Read this website and answer the questions on your

 Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance Worksheet

Flapper girls

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote, and declared that they deserved full citizenship. Finally, the battle was won! 

Watch each of these 2 minute video on suffrage.

A young woman emerged during the 1920’s who was very different from ladies of the past in her appearance, attitude and behavior. She was called a flapper. She had bobbed hair and short skirts. She behaved in ways that many people called unladylike.

Check out the dance styles of the 1920's...

Women's fashion and image changed drastically during the 1920's... 


The 1920's was an era of Consumerism and mass advertising and, although men were reluctant to wear the new fashions, women wanted to see their men in modern, fashionable clothes that reflected their prosperity and position in society.

Fashion for Men wore well-tailored pinstriped suits, tuxedos, silk shirts and handkerchiefs, raccoon fur coats, fedora hats, suspenders, bow ties, black patent leather shoes and spats.

Credit: https://kidskonnect.com/history/roaring-twenties/ 

Comment on the Blog: If YOU lived during the 1920's what would be YOUR preferred outfit? :)

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods during the Roaring Twenties. 

The most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. 

Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable. 

In 1929, there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Motels and gas stations were created to serve the needs of this new mobile society.

Henry Ford and mass production not only revolutionized the auto industry but changed what life looked like for most Americans. In the 1920's the motorcar came to represent the American dream, by offering independence and adventure.

Watch the following this videos: 

Then comment on the BLOG: What is consumerism??

1920's Consumerism

The rise of prosperity of the United States in 1920 led to the emergence of American Consumerism in the period in history known as the Roaring Twenties. 

Consumerism is the theory that it is economically attractive to encourage the attainment of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. 

American Consumerism increased during the Roaring Twenties due to technical advances and innovative ideas and inventions in the areas of communication, transportation and manufacturing. Americans moved from the traditional avoidance of debt to the concept by buying goods on credit.

Mass advertising and marketing techniques via the 1920's newspapers and the radio saw a massive increase in sales via easy consumer credit.

What does Consumerism mean? 

Consumerism is the theory that an increasing expenditure on goods is economically desirable. American consumerism in the 1920's led to the preoccupation of the purchase of consumer goods

What is an example of Consumerism 1920s America?

An example of American Consumerism 1920s the purchase of automobiles. In the Roaring Twenties over 60% of Americans bought their automobiles on credit. Debt was not a worry - people believed that America, and the Stock Market, were invincible.

Watch this 3 minute video and Comment on the blog one fact that you learned. Try not to repeat a fact that has already been stated. 

Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties is the name given to the era in American history between the end of WW1 in 1918 and the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. 

The "Roaring Twenties" ushered in the birth of a new, modern national lifestyle, as war-weary Americans wanted to enjoy themselves and began to value convenience and leisure over hard work and self-denial. The period of the Roaring Twenties witnessed many Political, Economic and Social changes. 

What Characterized the Roaring Twenties?

The Roaring Twenties era was characterized by technological advances and prosperity with new labor-saving inventions that led to the large scale use of automobiles, telephones, the radio, motion pictures and electricity. 

People challenged traditional ideas and the new morality glorified personal freedom, nonconformists and youth, personified by the fashions and lifestyles of the "flappers" who danced the Charleston to the new music of the Jazz Age in the city speakeasies.

Read through this website choosing NEXT at the bottom of the page until you get to page three. At the bottom of the page click: QUIZ TIME: 1920s Quiz. 

Comment on the blog how many questions out of ten that you got correct . Tell us one cool thing that you learned about the 1920's.

Credit: http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/roaring-twenties.htm 

1920's Intro

Welcome to the 1920's!!

The 1920’s were a time of change in the United States. For the first time in history, more people were living in cities than in the country. The United States was also more wealthy than it had ever been.

The first movie theaters, called palaces, opened in 1915 in New York City. Historians estimate that by the end of the decade, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week.

Watch this Scholastic video (2 min) and this History Channel video (1.34) on the 1920's. 

Take a peek in the Dropbox for your famous person assignment. If you are asked to share a video upload it to this Dropbox. 

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Comment:  

Name an invention that changed life for those living in this era? Dont repeat an invention that one of your classmates has already mentioned! 

Flu pandemic of 1918

The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadliest in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. 

More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic. The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the U.S. and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. Surprisingly, many flu victims were young, otherwise healthy adults. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain or prevent its spread. 

In the U.S., citizens were ordered to wear masks, and schools, theaters and other public places were shuttered. Researchers later discovered what made the 1918 pandemic so deadly: In many victims, the influenza virus had invaded their lungs and caused pneumonia.

credit: http://www.history.com/topics/1918-flu-pandemic 

Watch this video on the Flu pandemic of 1918

Chicago Race Riot

The “Red Summer” of 1919 marked the culmination of steadily growing tensions surrounding the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North that took place during World War I. When the war ended in late 1918, thousands of servicemen returned home from fighting in Europe to find that their jobs in factories, warehouses and mills had been filled by newly arrived Southern blacks or immigrants. Amid financial insecurity, racial and ethnic prejudices ran rampant. Meanwhile, African-American veterans who had risked their lives fighting for the causes of freedom and democracy found themselves denied basic rights such as adequate housing and equality under the law, leading them to become increasingly militant.

Did You Know?

In the summer of 1919, Richard J. Daley, who served as Chicago's powerful mayor from 1955 until his death in 1976, was a 17-year-old member of an Irish-American organization called the Hamburg Athletic Club. Though an investigation later identified the club among the instigators of the rioting, Daley and his supporters never admitted that he participated in the violence.

In this fraught atmosphere, the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization revived its violent activities in the South, including 64 lynchings in 1918 and 83 in 1919. In the summer of 1919, race riots would break out in Washington, D.C.; Knoxville, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; Phillips County, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska and–most dramatically–Chicago. The city’s African-American population had increased from 44,000 in 1909 to more than 100,000 as of 1919. Competition for jobs in the city’s stockyards was particularly intense, pitting African Americans against whites (both native-born and immigrants). Tensions ran highest on the city’s South Side, where the great majority of black residents lived, many of them in old, dilapidated housing and without adequate services.

A DROWNING IN LAKE MICHIGAN

On July 27, 1919, a 17-year-old African-American boy named Eugene Williams was swimming with friends in Lake Michigan when he crossed the unofficial barrier (located at 29th Street) between the city’s “white” and “black” beaches. A group of white men threw stones at Williams, hitting him, and he drowned. When police officers arrived on the scene, they refused to arrest the white man whom black eyewitnesses pointed to as the responsible party. Angry crowds began to gather on the beach, and reports of the incident–many distorted or exaggerated–spread quickly.

Violence soon broke out between gangs and mobs of black and white, concentrated in the South Side neighborhood surrounding the stockyards. After police were unable to quell the riots, the state militia was called in on the fourth day, but the fighting continued until August 3. Shootings, beatings and arson attacks eventually left 15 whites and 23 blacks dead, and more than 500 more people (around 60 percent black) injured. An additional 1,000 black families were left homeless after rioters torched their residences.

Watch this video on the Chicago Race Riots of 1919.

LASTING IMPACT

In the aftermath of the rioting, some suggested implementing zoning laws to formally segregate housing in Chicago, or restrictions preventing blacks from working alongside whites in the stockyards and other industries. Such measures were rejected by African-American and liberal white voters, however. City officials instead organized the Chicago Commission on Race Relations to look into the root causes of the riots and find ways to combat them. The commission, which included six white men and six black, suggested several key issues —including competition for jobs, inadequate housing options for blacks, inconsistent law enforcement and pervasive racial discrimination—but improvement in these areas would be slow in the years to come.

President Woodrow Wilson publicly blamed whites for being the instigators of race-related riots in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., and introduced efforts to foster racial harmony, including voluntary organizations and congressional legislation. In addition to drawing attention to the growing tensions in America’s urban centers, the riots in Chicago and other cities in the summer of 1919 marked the beginning of a growing willingness among African Americans to fight for their rights in the face of oppression and injustice.

Comment on the blog: 

What started the Riot?  How do you feel about the behavior of white people when they saw the boy in the raft?  What was the response of the police?  Tell us what you felt as you heard this story.