Morality in the 1920’s
1. PROHIBITION
2. SCANDALS
3. WOMEN
4. FUNDAMENTALISM
5. THE SCOPES TRIAL
Discussion Point
With your partner, please discuss the following
1.
What items in America are prohibited today?
2. Why do you think the Government prohibits these
things?
The 18th Amendment
Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified
January 16, 1919.
Section 1.
After one year from the ratification of this article the
manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating
liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the
exportation thereof from the United States and all
territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for
beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Prohibition
Why prohibition?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Religious Reasons
Unemployment
Domestic Violence
Poverty
Work Production
Challenges of prohibition
1. Hard to enforce
1.
Police powers were
normally reserved for the
states
2. Speakeasies
3. Bootlegging
4. Organized Crime
1.
Corruption
Quick Review
With your partner, please discuss the following
What Amendment passed prohibition?
2. What product did prohibition impact?
3. What were three reasons America implemented
prohibition?
4. What were three challenges facing prohibition?
1.
Scandals
The Ohio Gang
1.
1.
2.
3.
Harding’s cabinet
Many members were his
old poker friends
Made choices that
benefited them more than
the nation
Teapot Dome
1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Involved Secretary of the
Interior Albert B. Fall
Fall granted U.S. Navy oil
right to Henry Sinclair’s
Mammoth Oil in exchange
for cash (400k)
U.S. law requires
government business to be
bid on
Fall was charged with
bribery, and was the first
person sent to jail while
holding a cabinet post
Quick Review
Please discuss the following with your partner
What were two reasons why America implemented
prohibition?
2. What were two challenges facing prohibition?
3. What was the Ohio Gang?
4. What was the Tea Pot Dome scandal?
1.
`
Women in the 1920’s
Flapper
1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
An independent and free spirited woman who wanted to provide
for herself
Began wearing skirts
Had more employment opportunities open to them
Were less dependent on men
Competed in the Olympics for the first time
Margret Sanger made birth control readily available
Began drinking and smoking in public
Obtain suffrage
Quick Review
Please discuss the following with your partner
What is prohibition?
2. What was the Tea Pot Dome scandal?
3. What was a flapper?
4. What are 3 ways women began challenging the
norms of society?
1.
Fundamentalism
The belief that the country was losing its Christian
way and needed to return to it
1.
Fundamentalists believe everything in the bible is literally
true
Many Americans were concerned by the changing culture
1.
2.
Specifically consumer spending, women, and ethics
1.
Creationism
3.
1.
2.
1.
Belief that God created people as the bible describes it
Rejected Charles Darwin and his findings
Darwin believed in Evolution
1.
Theory that humans have evolved from lower levels of life over
time
The Scopes Trial
Tennessee made it illegal to teach anything but the
bible’s version of creation
2. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and
John Scopes (a biology teacher) challenged this
3. Scopes was arrested and tried
4. The court found Scopes guilty, but the
Fundamentalists ended up looking foolish
1.
1.
2.
Their chief lawyer, William Jennings Bryan admitted he did
not literally believe the world was created in 6 days.
The Fundamentalists lost momentum, and their political
influence dissipated.
Final Review
With your partner discuss the following about
how morality was challenged in the 1920’s
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
What was prohibition?
Why did America call for prohibition?
What challenges did prohibition face?
What was the Tea Pot Dome Scandal?
What is a flapper?
How did women’s roles in the 1920’s change?
What is a Fundamentalist?
What is the difference between creationism and evolution?
What was the result of the Scopes trial?
Congratulations!!!
You are now masters of Morality in the 1920s!