1920s in Kentucky
Cynthia W. Resor, Ph.D.
Teaching American History Network
Summit
June 2013
What is my focus?
• Literacy in Social Studies
– Historical newspaper/magazine articles
– Images
• Emphasizing what happened LOCALLY that is
related to national events
– Was the local experience the same or different?
– Place-based education
Name things that come to mind
about the 1920s
Flappers in Kentucky???
• The word “flapper” used 11 times in the 1927
editions of The Kentucky Kernel
– University of Kentucky’s newspaper
– Most references were in movie reviews
• 1923 – The Mountain Eagle – Whitesburg, KY
– No mention of flappers
• Why the difference?
Louise Brooks
Mary Pickford
Colleen Moore
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44841559@N03/sets/7215
7622968358560/detail/?page=4
Clara Bow
Find movie clips on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=VIImefcaeTc
Paramount Theatre (Ashland)
Built: 1931 Seats: 1,414
Marianne Theater (Bellevue)
Built: 1941 Seats: 542
Capitol Arts Theatre (Bowling Green)
Built: 1930 Seats: 800
Historic State Theater (Elizabethtown)
Built: 1942 Seats: 700
Plaza Theatre (Glasgow)
Built: 1934 Seats: 1064
Alhambra Theatre (Hopkinsville)
Built: 1927 Seats: 782
Lexington Opera House (Lexington)
Built: 1886 Seats: 1027
Lyric Theatre (Lexington)
Built: 1948
Kentucky Theatre (Louisville)
Built: 1921 Seats: 1200
Palace Theatre (Louisville)
Built: 1928 Seats: 2723
W.L. Lyons Brown Theatre (Louisville)
Built: 1925 Seats: 1400
Russell Theatre (Maysville)
Built: 1930 Seats: 700
Washington Opera House (Maysville)
Built: 1898 Seats: 500
Arcade Theatre (Paducah)
Built: 1911 Seats: 700
Columbia Theatre (Paducah)
Built: 1927 Seats: 1200
Virginia Theatre (Somerset)
Built: 1922 Seats: 750
Lane Theatre (Williamsburg)
Built: 1948 Seats: 600
Leeds Center for the Arts (Winchester)
Built: 1925 Seats: 413
Movies in Ky.
• 1896 – 4 motion picture projects in
Lexington
• 1910 – medium size towns had
theatres
– Maysville, Mt. Sterling, Carlisle
• lack of sound & use of subtitles
– Tough if you were illiterate
• 1918 – Louisville NAACP stopped
showing of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of A
Nation after only 2 day run
Where can I get historic local
newspapers?
• Kentucky Digital Library
– http://kdl.kyvl.org/
– Does not include all years – most from late 1800s to c.
1920.
• Microfilm from local library, historical society,
newspaper office
• Compare to national coverage
– ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times
(1851-2009)
• available through EKU databases
Give students the newspaper
ad/article first.
Let them question . . . . Then fill in
the gaps.
MAKING INFERNCES
What I found reading
The Central Record
From Lancaster / Garrard County KY
BEWARE – VERY ADDICTING!!!
Movie ads
• "Are You Fit to Marry" is a 1927 silent film
that promotes eugenics.
• a male physician whose daughter has just
announced that she is in love and plans to be
married, pressures the daughter's suitor to
undergo a physical examination for eugenic
fitness before he (the father) will approve
the marriage.
Medical Care
January 11, 1923
January 4, 1923
Feb. 1, 1923
January 25, 1923
Odd things
Disease in Ky in early 1900s
•
Tuberculosis
– Ky ranked 2nd in nation in death rate from TB
•
•
30 – 40% of Kentuckians had hookworm
Trachoma (eye disease) common
– 4 – 8 % of children had this disease and were blind
•
Open privies, sewage-polluted rivers
– Caused diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid
•
•
1916 – state diarrhea and dysentery rates were double of national average
1921- Ky had highest death rate for typhoid fever
–
•
Patent medicines commonly used
•
•
•
1901 Lexington city ordinance prohibited sale of cocaine and opium with a dr’s prescription
1910 Lexington city ordinance prohibited sale of morphine
Laudanum, also known as Tincture of Opium, is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approx.
10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine)
–
–
•
exceeded nation rates by 50%
Sold without prescription until early 1900s
Used as pain reliever and cough suppressant
Few hospitals in rural areas
– Shortage of small-town doctors
•
•
Medical insurance did not exist
Many private, quack medical schools
– By 1911 – University of Louisville only medical schools
•
Had low admission standards
Influenza in Kentucky
•
•
in 1918, a worldwide epidemic of influenza killed half a million Americans
first appeared in Ky. about Sept. 27th, 1918
– troops traveling from Texas on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad stopped in Bowling Green
•
soldiers left the train to explore the city and infected several local citizens
– Louisville had about 1,000 cases during late Sept.
•
By 2nd and 3rd week of the epidemic, Louisville was experiencing about 180 deaths a week from
influenza
– Camp Taylor (near Louisville) was harder hit
•
•
•
•
Camp had 40,000 soldiers from Kentucky and Indiana.
disease tended to strike younger people more aggressively.
week of October 19th, there were 3,772 cases at Camp Taylor alone
1,500 soldiers died
– Lexington not hit as hard as Louisville
– Ky Public Health Service said that "the situation in central and western Kentucky remained
good but...the situation in Carter, Breathitt and Harlan Counties and around the mining camps
was bad.“
– In Webster County, the impact of the flu epidemic combined with a smallpox epidemic
– Hog cholera epidemic (swine flu) in Western Ky also killed hundreds of dead hogs
•
•
•
October 6th, the Kentucky state board was forced to issue a state-wide
proclamation closing "all places of amusement, schools, churches and other places
of assembly.“
The pandemic peaked in the fall of 1918 but influenza remained prevalent
throughout the state during the winter and spring of 1919.
14,000 deaths from influenza in Ky in 1918- 1919
Slow improvements in medicine
• 1878 - State Board of Health created
–
–
–
–
3rd one in the nation
Poorly funded by still made improvements over time
1904 – improved licensing of physicians and dentists
1918 – better funding & support for county medical centers
• new discipline of virology promoted sterile working conditions
• Growing awareness of dietary insufficiencies as a cause for disease
• Medical knowledge of the cause and treatment of malaria, scarlet fever,
diphtheria, and smallpox had begun to make a positive impact by the
1920s.
– By 1940, these diseases had been mostly eliminated.
• By 1940
– typhoid deaths in Kentucky had been reduced to 74.
– Hookworm and trachoma infections were reduced and practically eliminated
– Other conditions were not so easily remedied; in 1918, a worldwide epidemic
of influenza killed half a million Americans.
• 1915, there were 100 deaths among infants under 1 year of age for every
1,000 live births in the United States.
– By 1942, the ratio was 47.9 deaths per 1000 live births in rural Kentucky;
nationally, 40.2 deaths per 1,000 was average.
Who is
Billy
Sunday
and why
is he a big
deal?
March 1923
How did people in the
community make a living?
February 12, 1930
March 19, 1923
Tobacco
• 1900 – 1929 – Kentucky led nation in amount of
tobacco grown
• Prices soared during WWI
– 1919 - .34 cents per lb.
• 1920 crop was a disaster
•
•
•
•
Only .13 cents per lb. (pre-war prices)
Poor harvest
Glutted market
Decline in overseas demand
– 1921- some farmers pooled crops
• Brought prices to .28 cents per lb.
– 1926 – most farmers refused to pool crop
• .12 cents per lb.
– 1931 – down to .08 cents per lb.
Transportation
How did people travel in your
community?
Sept. 7, 1907
December 1933
Nov. 3, 1905
Transportation
•
•
•
1915 – last run of a stagecoach in Ky – between Burnside and Monticello
Steamboats used on Cumberland River until 1932; longer on Ohio River
Railroads dominated until WWII
– Everyone at least 1 day ride by horse from rails
•
Streetcars in many towns until 1920s
– Lexington, Louisville, Barbourville, Somerset, Henderson
•
A few automobiles in large cities in 1900
–
–
–
–
•
1915 - 19,500 vehicles registered statewide
1919 – 90,000 vehicles registered
1921 – 127,000 vehicles registered
1928 – 300,000 vehicles registered
1925 – 2,500 autos in Richmond KY
– Gas was .32 cents a gallon
•
Fewer mules, more powered machinery on farms
– 1910-1920 – 20% decreased in horses
and mules in Madison County
•
1914 – public state highway system and road tax established in KY
– Planned to connect every county seat by roads
Gallatin Co, KY
c. 1920
Ky. Historical Society
Clarence M. Newman and Teresa Tate
Newman with their first car. Ashland, Ky
1918
WWI Liberty
Bond Victory
parade on
Winchester
Ave., Ashland.
c. 1918
Walter Williams (right) and friends, c. 1920s
Prohibition in Kentucky
Were the people in your town following
the Prohibition laws?
What happened when Prohibition
ended in your town?
• Dozens of articles
related to Prohibition
• Kentucky made
NATIONAL Prohibition
news – search the
New York Times
September 1929
Prohibition in Kentucky
• Before Prohibition:
– 87 counties already “Dry”
– 32 were “west”
» New York Times, 1907 - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F10FF3C5A15738DDDAC0894D0405B878CF1D3
• Prohibition
– Towns dependant on distilling industry suffered
• Example – Tyrone in Anderson County
• of the 17 bourbon distillers pre-Prohibition, only 7 survived its repeal in 1933
– Jobs and tax revenues declined
• 6,000 – 8,000 jobs lost in Louisville
– Moonshining increased
• Clinton County family owed tobacco warehouse .20 after selling their crop – turned to
moonshing
– “the whiskey they made and sold for 32 dollars was more money than they had worked out in
the three years before”
• Prohibition in Ky was so strictly enforced that “a thirsty stranger may have
to walk all of a half of a block to find a place where he can drink”
Revenue men and sheriffs at courthouse in
Catlettsburg, with moonshine stills confiscated in a
raid, ca. 1928.
The raid took place about 2 or 3
miles south of Ashland. Deputy Sheriff George
Harrison Nicholson is second from right. At right is
Mr. Billiter, who was killed at a raid in Breathitt Co.
Dorsey Keaton, federal agent, is at center with rifle.
Delbert Clark was sheriff, Ed Millis and Sam Smedley
were other deputies. A New York paper had an
agreement with the IRS to come along on the next
raid.)
Charley Birger and His Gang.
Charley Birger
(seated, center on car roof,
with machine gun) and
Illinois Gang; one of those in
Prohibition gang war. Birger
was later hanged. Cabin in
background is called "Shady
Rest"; was covered inside
with armor plate.
Date 1927
April 27, 1933
April 13, 1933
What
can we
infer
from this
article?
Red Scare and Ku Klux Klan
• Only 2 of the 72 cities raided for radicals in 1920 were in
the South
– Louisville was raided
• KKK strongest in Indiana
– Growth fueled by Kentuckian D.W .Griffith’s Birth of a Nation
– Membership increased in KY
• 1924 book - The Kall of the Klan in Kentucky
– Written by a preacher that siad blacks and aliens were responsible for political
crookedness; immigrants were going to turn melting pot into a garbage can
• 1924 membership in KY estimated to be 50,000 to 200,000
– Probably not over 100,000
– June 1924 – huge Klan rally outside Richmond between
Lancaster and Barnes Mill roads
• Klan claimed that 60,000 attended; probably really around 6,000
– 500 masked Klansmen paraded in downtown Richmond
What story is missing?
And sometimes, you find things
that are just FUNNY!
Feb. 28, 1929
Connecting to the local . . . . .
genealogy
How did this affect average Americans in the 1920s?
Above: Family of Mae Brown in 1907.
Mae had 4 older siblings and 3 younger
siblings (born 1905, 1909, 1911). Her mother
died of tuberculosis in 1921 and Mae cared
for the family.
Right: Wedding Photo of Willie Vanhooser
and Mae Brown, March 15, 1923. Willie was a
farmer, Mae a farmer wife.
How did this affect average Americans in the 1920s?
Walter Williams (b.
1897in Fentress Co.
TN) was drafted for
WWI.
Before and after his
military service he
worked in oil fields in
Estill County and
Daviess County. He
lived as a boarder in
both areas.
In 1934 he married
Helen Brown. He
bought a farm in
Wayne County.
How did this affect average Americans in the 1920s?
Above: early 1930s
Right: Late 1920s –
Helen wearing
Centertown KY high
school sports uniform
Helen Brown (born 1912 in Ohio
County KY) attended Western
Kentucky Normal School to earn a
teaching certification (2 years). She
taught school in Ohio County, KY
until she married Walter Williams in
1934 and moved the Wayne County,
KY. Helen became a farm wife.
What was happening in Kentucky?
• 3 distinct parts of Kentucky received much attention
• Appalachia featured in many state & national stories
• Louisville
• Bluegrass – horse farms
– BUT other regions rarely mentioned
•
•
•
•
Northern Kentucky
Jackson Purchase (far west)
Ohio River cities - Owensboro
Bowling Green & south-central Ky
– 1900 - 9 out of 10 Kentuckians had been born in Ky.
• 1910 – 1 in 50 Kentuckians were foreign born (1 in 7 of all people in US were
foreign-born)
– 1900-1910
– Population boom in eastern Ky – due to coal and train boom
– Urban areas grew
• 1910-1920 – most counties lost population
– 1900 - African-Americans – 13.3% of population
• by 1920 – decreased to 8.7%
• 2011 – decreased to 7.8% (compared to 12.6% nationally)
1930 – Kentucky
farmer and his mules
1900-1930
Change in Kentucky
Women’s Suffrage
• Laura Clay
• February 9, 1849-June 29, 1941
– Daughter of Cassius Marcellus Clay
– Committed to women’s rights after unfair treatment of her
month during divorce
– 1888- led in forming Kentucky Equal Rights Association; president for 24 years
– 1890s – leading southerner in American Women Suffrage Association
• Madeline McDowell Breckinridge
• May 20, 1872 – November 25, 1920
– Great-granddaugher of Henry Clay
– Wife of Desha Breckinridge – editor of Lexington Herald
– 1912 - President of Kentucky Equal Rights Association
• Vice president of national Equal Rights Association
– Advocate for social settlement work in Appalachia,
education reform, juvenile court reform, establishing a state
tuberculosis sanatorium
Modern Improvements
• Electricity
– 1890-1910- most county seats had electricity
– But took much longer in rural areas (1940s, 1950s)
• Radio
– 1922 – WHAS in Louisville went on the air
• Among the last 7 states in nation to get a commercial station
• 1922- 1930 – Lexington, Paducah, Hopkinsville had stations
• Telephone
– 1,100 – Southern Bell had 1,100 connections in
Richmond
Impact of World War I in Ky
• 84,172 Kentuckians served
–
–
–
–
–
12,584 were Black soldiers
½ went overseas
890 killed in action
1,528 died from accidents of disease
Thousands were wounded or gassed
Robert Garner in WWI
Uniform, 1918
Left- Soldiers in France, c.
1918-1919
Soldier on Right in from KY
Home Front in Ky during WWI
•
•
•
•
•
•
“lightless” evenings
“meatless” Tuesdays
“Wheatless” Wednesdays
Scrap drives (often took park or courthouse fences)
Liberty Loan drives
1918- Mt. Sterling man sentenced to 60 days in jail for cursing the
president when he couldn’t buy wheat flour
• Committee of UK and U of L professor to censor “all German
textbooks”
• Houses of prostitution closed in Louisville and Lexington
– Too near to army camps
– Lexington’s madam Belle Brezing said she wouldn’t re-open after the
war because “amateurs” had taken her business
• “All you need now is an automobile and a pint of whiskey”
Kentuckians respond to change
1900-1930
Joining – Security in time of change
• 1890s – Daughters of America Revolution begun
– Co-founded by Kentucky Mary Desha
• Community Service Clubs
– 1912 – 1st Rotary Club in Ky
– 1916 – 1st Kiwanis Club in Ky
– 1915 - “Jaycees” or Junior Citizens - Young Men's Progressive Civic
Association (YMPCA) founded nationally
– 1917 - Lions Cub begun nationally
• Babbitt (1922)
– novel by Sinclair Lewis
– satire of American culture, society, and behavior
– critiques middle-class American life and its pressure on individuals
toward conformity.
– Main character – George Babbitt and “boosterism”
County Court Day
London KY
c. 1918
1900 - 1930
Kentucky Issues
1911- Frank Butler was going to Tates Springs,
Tenn. as prescribed for consumption, in
1911. He never returned to Carroll County.
“Tate Epsom Water” was shipped all over the
world as a cure for stomach, kidney, and liver
ailments.
http://www.kyhistory.com:2010/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=
/ORP&CISOPTR=697&CISOBOX=1&REC=16
Manufacturing in Kentucky
• 1926 – most manufacturing along Ohio River and near
Louisville
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Printing,
Foundry and machine sho9ps
Baking
Tobacco plants
Varnish
“Kentucky jeans”
Soap
Distilled spirits
• 1914 – Ky was 2nd in production of liquor (Illinois-1st)
• 1918 - Ashland Refining Company organized
Coal
• Coal boom in Eastern Ky.
– as timber boom was ending – timber supply exhausted
– 5 million tons mined in 1900
– 31 millions tons mined in 1918
• Perry and Letcher County did not produce commercial coal
in 1911
– By 1915 – produced 3 million tons
• Perry, Letcher and Harlan County
– population doubled between 1910-1920
• Harlan County had 10,000 in 1910
– 64,000 in 1930
• Also coal fields in west – Muhlenberg County, Webster
County
Impact of Coal Boom
• Poor safety
– 1910-1920 – 754 mining fatalities
– 1920-1930 – 1,612 mining fatalities
• left widows, orphans without support
• But miners were making money
– more than most had ever earned before
• Some company towns exemplary
– Jenkins – Letcher County
• Model town built by Consolidated Coal Company with over 1,000 homes,
school, library, park, hospital, electric plant, churches; water, sewage and
garbage systems
– Lynch – Harlan County
• Town begun in 1917 – had 1,500 workers in 4 months
• Many coal towns were miserable
• By 1930s – all had declined
Miner at coal opening on Bowling Creek,
Breathitt County, 1920
http://www.kyhistory.com:2010/cdm4/item_viewer.p
hp?CISOROOT=/PH&CISOPTR=1932&CISOBOX=1&REC
=7
c. 1916 – Jenkins
http://www.kyhistory.com:2010/cdm4/item_vie
wer.php?CISOROOT=/PH&CISOPTR=560&CISOBO
X=1&REC=15
Labor in KY
• 1900 in Louisville – Kentucky Federation of Labor created
• 1902 - Ky legislature passed:
– A child labor law
• Child under 14 could only work with parent’s approval
– 1914 – compulsory education for all children under 14
– Act making Labor Day an official holiday
– Law creating a labor inspector
• 1902-1903 – labor inspector toured state
–
–
–
–
Laborers worked on average a 10-hour day
Men earned between $1.59 – 1.66 per hour
Women earned $ .86 - .90 per hour
Of 869 factories visited – 102 were unionized
• Union laborers worked 40 minutes less per day but earned wages almost $1
higher
Strikes in Kentucky
• 1922 – Newport – Andrews Steel strike
–
–
–
–
One of worst
Workers organized by management refused to recognize them
Strike became violent
National Guard sent
• 100 rounds fired into the crowd of strikers
• More National Guard and tanks sent
– Strikers attached strike-breakers
– 10 strikers injured, many arrests
• 1900- 1933 – more than 70 strikes in railroad industry in KY
– 1922 – railroad strike in Paducah
– 1923 – policeman and railroad worker killed in Corbin
• Strikes in coal industry
–
–
–
–
1900 - strike in Madisonville; State Guard was sent
1901 – strike in Hopkinsville
1906 - strike in Sturgis
1030 – airplane dropped bombs on Providence mine strike
Harlan County Coal Wars
• 1922 – 1929 – wages rose from $578 to $1,235 for
miners
– But labor was in disarray because
• Failed strikes in 1922 and1924
• Plenty of strike-breakers
• Unfriendly courts
• By late 1920s – coal industry in decline
–
–
–
–
1927 – 1932 – 1/3 of Harlan County’s mines closed
United Mine Worker membership declined
1929-1931 – wages fell 60%
Company towns decayed, declined
• Jobless miners & families evicted
Harlan County Coal Wars
•
Became “Bloody Harlan”
–
–
–
–
•
Coal companies hired special deputies (gun thugs) to guard mines
1932- of sheriff’s 170 deputies – all but 6 were paid by coal company
Commonwealth’s attorney and circuit judge controlled by coal companies
Governor always willing to send in National Guard
1931 – wages cut again
–
–
–
–
Relief efforts for unemployed decreasing
Everyone that attended a UMW rally in Bell County was fired
Gunfire, arson, dynamite closed a mine entrance
May 5, 193 – Battle of Evarts – in 30 minutes 3 company men killed, 2 wounded and a miner
was killed
– Governor sent in National Guard
•
•
•
•
•
Mass arrests of labor leaders
Story covered by many national reporters
Violence continued
1937 – national passage of Wagner Act – guaranteed collective bargaining rights,
outlawed blacklists, yellow dog contracts
By 1945 – violence had declined
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
By Florence Reece from Kentucky - 1930s
–
–
–
–
–
–
•
•
Come all you good workers,
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.
CHORUS:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My dady was a miner,
And I'm a miner's son,
And I'll stick with the union
'Til every battle's won.
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.
Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize.
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON - Florence Reece - Natalie Merchant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfWzLa1faLA
Kentucky tobacco in early 1900s
•
•
Late 1800s – more Ky farmers grew tobacco because price was high
1900-1902 – price fell to only 6 cents per lb.
– Sometimes lower in dark-tobacco areas
– 1904 – average price in Hopkinsville 3.5 cents per lb.
– Farmers forced to sell to a single buyer at price offered
•
Farmers blamed the “tobacco trust”
– 1890 - J. B. “Buck” Duke merged companies to create American Tobacco Company
– By 1910 – controlled up to 86% of American cigarettes, plug, smoking and sniff tobacco
markets
•
1904 – in Guthrie, Ky (west) - farmers created Planters’ Protective Association
– Farmers planned to “pool” their tobacco and hold off market until give a fair price
– Polititians and bankers supported farmers
– Seemed to be successful when 1905 crop sold for 7 cents per lb.
•
But everyone did not join – called “hillbillies”
–
–
–
–
the tobacco companies offered the “hillbillies” 10 cents per lb.
Many farmers had to sell because needed money now; couldn’t afford to hold off the market
Some farmers didn’t trust the wealthy planters who ran the Planter’s pool
Result – “Night Riders”
Night Riders
•
1906 – “Silent Brigade” or “Night Riders” formed
–
•
At first, focused on the “hillbillies” outside the pool
–
•
Beatings, barn-burnins, “scraping” young plant beds
Politicians ignored or approved it
–
•
Members joined lodges, took oaths of secrecy, learned passwords, paid dues for trial experiences
Governor Beckham refused to act
Power of Night Riders grew
–
–
1905 – started burning tobacco warehouses of the companies
Dec. 1907 – biggest attack on Hopkinsville
•
•
300 – 500 masked, armed raiders
Nearly burned down the town
–
1908 – Russellville and Eddyville attacked
–
Raids spread to burley belt
•
•
started to also attack black people
1908 - Raids in Bath, Owen, Fleming, Woodford, Scott, Kenton counties
–
•
1907 - New governor, A. E. Willson, elected
–
–
–
–
http://www.kyhistory.com:2010/cdm4/item_viewer.p
hp?CISOROOT=/PH&CISOPTR=2106&CISOBOX=1&REC
=8
Called out the state militia – approx 300 served
Encouraged groups to set up “Law and Order Leagues” to protect from Riders
•
•
•
•
•
Destroyed warehouses and thousands of lbs. of tobacco
1920 - Black burley tobacco farm, Graves County
Community support was declining for the Riders
Offered pardons to those that killed a Rider
Courts began to convict the Riders
Federal tobacco tax ended (helped farmers)
1911 –Supreme Court (Sherman Anti-trust law) ruled against the tobacco company monopolies
Prices rose and new loose-leaf warehouse sales helped farmers
Fiction account –Robert Penn Warren – Night Riders, 1939
Tobacco after the Night Riders
•
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 & 1938
– first commodity price support legislation
– (1938) established a supply control and price support program for tobacco
•
•
Carried out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency
(FSA).
The federal tobacco price support program limited and stabilized the quantity of
tobacco produced and marketed by farmers.
– achieved through marketing quotas
•
2004 - About 94% of U.S. tobacco production was flue-cured and burley (both
being cigarette tobacco types)
– North Carolina (where flue-cured is grown)
– Kentucky (where burley is grown).
– Together, these two states produce 66% of the total U.S. tobacco crop
•
The 2004 tobacco crop was the last crop eligible for federal support
– the program was terminated by the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004.
– http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/95-129.pdf
•
•
Beginning with the 2005 tobacco crop, there were no planting restrictions, no
marketing cards and no price support loans.
Farmers signed up for the Tobacco Transition Payment Program (TTPP)
– the final and only opportunity to receive federal payments related to tobacco marketing
quotas
Violence In Kentucky
• 1900-1945 – Kentucky’s homicide rate
consistently in top 10 nationally
• 1933 – percent of convicts in Ky jails for
murder and manslaughter (27%0 was 2nd
highest in nation
• Ky murder rate for 1933 was 8th in nation
• But decline in violence began in late 1940s
• By 1976 – Ky was 45th in overall crime index
Sources:
– “The ‘New Woman’. Star personas, and cross-class
romance films in 1920s America” by Stephen Sharot in
Journal of Gender Studies Vol.19, No. 1, March 2010, 73-86
– From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in TwentiethCentury America by Beth L. Bailey, 1989
– Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the
Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz, 2007
• Kentucky History
– Madison County: 200 Years in Retrospect
• by William Ellis, H. E. Everman, Richard Sears (1985)
– Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900 – 1950
• By James C. Klotter, 1996