Between 1920 and 1925 five million members joined the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was at its strongest in the southern states because there was a large population of black people there. During this period black people were beaten till bleeding, whipped with branches, left to catch pneumonia and flogged. The blacks would be beaten for reasons as little as not selling their land to a white woman, even white people were beaten, and this was because they were divorced. The Klan would be able to get away with such violent actions because most of the police force were in it and even if they weren’t they would just pretend it weren’t happening and turn a blind eye.
In 1920 approximately 150,000 Americans were communists or anarchists. They represented 0.1% of the population and as an American journalist wrote “ the whole lot were about as dangerous as a flea on an elephant.” Many Americans however were scared of communism.
There are four reasons for this:
- An Anarchist had assonated President McKinley in 1901.
- Russia had become communist in 1917.
- In 1919 trade a union strikes were seen to be organised by communists and anarchists.
- The Palmer incident in 1920, i.e., an attempt on the life of A. Mitchell Palmer the Attorney General which resulted in the death of the man who attempted to kill him. Consequently over 6,000 people were arrested, all of which were later freed. Such was the fear was of communists that few protested against the Palmer Raids.
Sacco and Vanzetti were from Italy, they were anarchists and they didn’t speak English very well. The crime they were accused of was robbery and murder. When Sacco and Vanzetti went to court the evidence they had against them was that both men had loaded guns when they were arrested, the bullets in Saccos guns were the same size as those who killed the guards, Sacco had leaflets in his pockets advertising an anarchists meeting and sixty-one eye witnesses of the wages robbery identified Sacco and Vanzetti as the killers. However this evidence didn’t prove anything accept for the sixty-one eye witnesses as if they had a licence to carry a loaded gun they could, also the bullets that were found in Saccos gun would have been the same as half the population of America and the leaflet advertising the anarchist meeting in Sacco pocket couldn’t prove anything as a lot of Americans were anarchists. Even the sixty-one eyewitnesses couldn’t prove that they were guilty as one hundred and seven witnesses saw Sacco and Vanzetti elsewhere. When the Sacco and Vanzetti went to court they were found guilty because the jury and judge were biased, the one hundred and seven witnesses that saw Sacco and Vanzetti elsewhere were communist and they were both anarchists. When they appealed they all failed as the same judge who found them guilty heard the appeals. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed.
Christian revivalism started in the 1920s because the number of church attendances was falling. Their aim was to bring more people into church and to revive the interesting the Christian faith. Sister Aimee better known as Aimee Semple McPherson was the best-known revivalist of the 1920s. She was head of the ‘Four Square Gospel Alliance’ and her church, the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, held 5,000 people for services. Sister Aimee often dressed as an angle and as she led her congregation in hymn singing she would beat in time with a tambourine. Every evening she baptised 150 people in a giant tank of water! She also healed incurably ill people and filled the ‘Miracle Room’ of the temple with discarded crutches and wheelchairs. Within five years she had built up a large fortune and was famous throughout the World.
Christian Fundamentalists believed that God took six days too create the World and one to rest. This theory they believed was questioned by a man called Charles Darwin who published a Book called ‘The Origin Of Species ’ and in this book it stated that life began millions of years ago and that our ancesesters could be apes. The Christian Fundamentalists said that the book was a lie and that God created the World.
They later protested to make the book illegal. This was the start of the ‘Monkey Trial’. The circumstances leading up to the ‘Monkey Trial’ were that the ‘Flying Fundamentalists’ toured America making speeches against Darwin. Gradually they began to succeed in their aim. Six states passed laws making it illegal for teachers to teach the theory of evolution.
As soon as the law passed, two teachers in the Drayton decided to put the law to the test. One of the men was a twenty four year old biology teacher called Johnny Scopes. He agreed to let his friend sue him for breaking the law by teaching his class the theory of evolution to one of his classes. Johnny Scopes taught a class the theory of evolution and was promptly arrested.
In the trial, William Jennings Bryan, was called into be a prosecutor at Scope’s trial and a lawyer called Clarence Darrow was hired to defend Scope’s. Darrow questioned Bryan about his fundamentalist beliefs. Johnny Scope’s was fined $100 for breaking the law.
My conclusion is that I think America did become less tolerant in the 1920s.
By David Sleigh
