Unit 4 Key Concepts
 19th Amendment- Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution (1920) extended the right to vote to
women in federal or state elections.
 Equal Rights Amendment
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Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by any sate on account of
sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the
date of ratification.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 First Red Scare- erupted in the early 1920’s. The
American public was scared that communism would
come into the U.S. Left-winged supporters were
suspected. This fear of communism helped
businessmen who used it to stop labor strikes.
 Immigration quotas- there was an act passed in 1924
which cut quotas for foreigners from 3% to 2% of the
total number of immigrants. The main purpose was
to freeze America’s existing racial composition which
was largely Northern European.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Nativism- severe immigration laws to discourage and
discriminate against foreigners, believed to erode oldfashioned American values.
 Palmer raids- a 1920 operation coordinated by Attorney
General Mitchel Palmer in which federal marshals
raided the homes of suspected radicals and the
headquarters of radical organizations in 32 cities.
 Sacco and Vanzetti Trial- murder trial in Massachusetts
(1920-1927); two anarchist Italian immigrants are put
on trial for the robbery and murder of a paymaster and
a guard at a shoe factory, found guilty, and sentenced to
death after attempts at retrial failed.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Anti-lynching campaign- movement against the
illegal hangings of African Americans in the south.
Ida B. Wells was a leader of this movement.
 Great Migration- movement of over 300,000 African
Americans from the rural south into Northern and
Western cities between 1914 and 1920.
 Harlem Renaissance- a period in the 1920s when
African-American achievements in art , music and
literature flourished.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Jazz Age- term used to describe the image of the
liberated, urbanized 1920s, with a flapper as the
dominant symbol of the era. Many rural,
fundamentalist Americans deeply resented the
changes in American culture that occurred in the
“Roaring Twenties.”
 Eighteenth Amendment- prohibited the
manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic
beverages.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Bootlegging- the act of making or transporting
alcoholic liquor for sale illegally
 Speakeasies- an illegal bar where drinks were sold,
during the time of prohibition. It was called a
Speakeasy because people literally had to speak easy
so they were not caught drinking alcohol by the
police.
 Organized crime- consisted of businesses that
supplied illegal goods or services. Al Capone was one
of the most famous and richest men in America.
Made millions of dollars from bootlegging and
racketeering.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Flappers- carefree young women with short,
“bobbed” hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The
flapper symbolized the new “liberated” woman of the
1920s. Many people saw the bold, boyish look and
shocking behavior of flappers as a sign of changing
morals. Though hardly typical of American women,
the flapper image reinforced the idea that women
now had more freedom.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Jim Crow Laws- series of laws passed in southern
states that segregated the races in many facets of life,
including public conveyances, waiting areas,
bathrooms, and theatres; it legalized segregation and
was upheld as constitutional by Plessy v. Ferguson.
 Ku Klux Klan- major rebirth of the KKK in t he
1920s. (mainly b/c they were unhappy w/the
changing of American culture). The new klan was
anti-….foreign, catholic, black, Jewish, pacifist,
gambling, communist, and evolutionist. 1920s
membership far surpassed that of the mid 1850s
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Electrical appliances- seemed to promise consumers
more time for leisure activities; free time to do things
that they wanted to do.
 Airplanes- Cut travel times across seas to much less
time; Charles Lindbergh- first crossed the Atlantic
Ocean by himself in an airplane; item of
convenience.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Motion pictures and radio- Radio and motion
pictures became incredibly popular forms of
entertainment during the 1920s; also the newest
form of mass communication.
 Assembly Line- allowed workers to remain in one
place and master one repetitive action, maximizing
output. It became the production method of choice
by the 1930s.
 Henry Ford- developed the mass-produced Model-T
car which sold at an affordable price. Greatly
increased his workers wages and instituted many
modern concepts of regular working hours and job
benefits.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Marcus Garvey- leader of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA), urged blacks to
return to Africa because, he reasoned, blacks would
never be treated justly in countries ruled by whites.
 Scopes Trial- “Monkey Trial” that pitted creationism
against Darwin’s theory of evolution. Science vs.
Religion
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Warren Harding and “normalcy”- became President
after Woodrow Wilson. “Return to normalcy” was his
campaign theme during the election of 1920. It
reflected the conservative mood of the country.
Return to isolationism.
 Calvin Coolidge- took over the Presidency after
Harding’s death. Restored honesty to government,
and accelerated the tax cutting and anti-regulation.
Nickname was “Silent Cal”
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Causes of the Great Depression Uneven distribution of wealth
 Stock market speculation “buying on the margin”
 Excessive use of credit
 Overproduction of consumer goods
 Weak farm economy
 Government policies (laissez-faire)
 Global economic policies
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Overproduction- Overproduction- after WWI, many
U.S. producers continued making goods at the
wartime levels, even though demand had decreased
sharply.
 Over speculation/Under consumption- Over
speculators bought stocks hoping to sell them for
high profits in the future. Over speculating
artificially drove up stock prices, but when prices
stopped increasing, many investors sold their stocks
quickly, causing prices to plummet.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Protective tariffs- a tariff is a tax on a particular class
of imports or exports. The goal was for people to buy
more local or American items.
 Unequal Distribution of wealth- While wages were
rising for the majority of workers, they were not
keeping pace with the increase in the cost of living or
the wealth in the hands of the industrialists and
others in the upper income classes.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Weaknesses in agricultural sector- similar to the
industrial sector in regards to overproduction.
Production levels were high but the demand levels
were lower than they were before.
 Consumer debt- Consumer debt was increased by the
introduction of credit. Consumer debt increased as
Americans bought high-priced items that they could
not otherwise afford.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Buying on margin- Investors bought stock on a
margin, meaning they bought the stock for less than
it was worth and promised to pay the rest when the
stock price went up.
 Stock Market Crash- On October 29, 1929, Black
Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16
million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a
single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out
thousands of investors.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Bank failures- Another phenomenon that
compounded the nation’s economic woes during the
Great Depression was a wave of banking panics or
“bank runs,” during which large numbers of anxious
people withdrew their deposits in cash, forcing banks
to liquidate loans and often leading to bank failure.
 Unemployment- probably the biggest issue during
the Great Depression. Rate rose to 25% as a whole.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Hawley-Smoot tariff- enacted in June 1930. Raised
import duties to protect American businesses and
farmers, adding considerable strain to the
international economic climate of the Great
Depression.
 Dust bowl- The Dust Bowl was the name given to the
Great Plains region devastated by drought in 1930s
depression-ridden America.
 Hooverville- Hooverville- as the Great Depression
wore on, people that found themselves unemployed
also lost their homes. A series of shantytowns were
set up on the outskirts of major cities. Named after
President Herbert Hoover.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Bonus Army- The Bonus Army was a group of WWI vets
that demanded their “bonus” promised to them by
Congress. They marched on Washington D.C. demanding
their money and were forced out. Made Hoover look bad
as he was running for re-election.
 Reconstruction Finance Corporation- The goal of this
corporation was to act as a government lending bank. It
was designed to provide indirect relief by assisting
insurance companies, banks, agricultural organizations,
and railroads. Hoover’s major attempt at fixing the
problems caused by the Great Depression.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)- a public work
relief program. Intended to promote disciplined
outdoor labor. Employed about 3 million men
(between 18-25) to work on projects that benefited
the public.
 Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)raised farm prices by restricting output of staple
crops. Restricted production and paid subsidies to
growers. Declared unconstitutional in 1936.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Tennessee Valley Authority- created to generate
electric power and control floods in a seven state
region around the Tennessee River Valley. It created
many dams that provided electricity as well as jobs.
 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation- this entity
provided insurance to personal banking accounts up
to $5,000. Still around today. The max is now
$250,000.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-
government agency having primary responsibility for
enforcing the Federal securities laws and regulating
the securities industry. It protected investors,
listened to complaints, issued licenses and penalized
fraud
 Works Progress Administration (WPA)- helped
create jobs for those that needed them. It created
around 9 million jobs working on bridges, roads, and
buildings.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Social Security Act- government legislation created
to give money to those in need. It created a federal
insurance program based on the automatic collection
of taxes from employees and employers throughout
people’s working careers.
 National Labor Relations Act/Wagner Act- bill was
signed in 1935 and established the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) and addressed relations
between unions and employers in the private sector.
Helped prevent unfair labor practices (such as
refusing to recognize and negotiate with a certified
union or interfering in union activities).
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Black Cabinet- group of African Americans FDR
appointed to key Government positions. They served
as unofficial advisors to the president.
 Supreme Court packing plan- On February 5, 1937,
President Franklin Roosevelt announces a
controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as
many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more
“efficient”.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Limitations of the New Deal Unemployment was still high. 19% by the time WWII started.
 Some of the programs that were set up proved to be
temporary.
 The programs were very expensive to implement.
 Some argued that some of the programs were unconstitutional
(AAA).
 White men still dominated the work force. A huge wage gap
between White men and Women & Blacks still existed.
Unit 4 Key Concepts
 Father Coughlin- Catholic Priest that had a radio show
with over 45 million listeners. He was considered
politically radical, a passionate democrat but also a bigot
who freely vented angry, irrational charges and
assertions. He supported the New Deal initially, later he
opposed it.
 Huey Long- a charismatic Louisiana politician who
served as both Governor and U.S. Senator in the early
1930s. He rose to national prominence during the Great
Depression by becoming the country’s most impassioned
advocate of redistribution of wealth from the rich to the
poor. More than 7 million Americans joined his Share
Our Wealth clubs.