US-C+Chapter+22

- The racial discrimination was continuously increasing with the demobilization going on in the United States. The racial tensions seemed have reached the peak when the Red Scare hit the Americans with the fear that the workers’ revolution might take place. The discrimination was getting worse in the south and African Americans were migrating northward in search for freedom from the racial discrimination. However, even though the discrimination was not as popular in the north, when the unemployment rate started to rise, the African Americans were one of the first ones to loose their jobs. These racial tensions resulted many violence acts and race riots all around the nation. One of the major incidents was when a white man threw rocks at an African American teenager who was swimming in the lake, causing the teen to drown. The police had refused to arrest anyone and that resulted a fight between blacks and whites. The fight spread to a riot and by the time order was restored, around forty people had been killed and about five hundred people had been injured.
 * Examine rising racial tensions, the great northward migration of African-Americans, the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, and the emergence of Garveyism.**

The growing racism could be also noticed with the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. However, the new KKK did not only target African Americans from the south, but also Catholics, immigrants, Jews, and suspected radicals. The Klan grew slowly but membership soared when the Red Scare hit the United States. However, as fast as the Klan grew into power in the early 1920s, it declined as quickly in the end of the 1920s. The decline of KKK’s popularity started with the hysteria caused by the Red Scare dying out and the uncontrolled violence by certain KKK groups in small towns.

Under all the violence and lynching that the African Americans had to bear with, they had started to organize themselves to fight back. A movement that appealed the African Americans was the idea brought up by Marcus Garvey. Garvey supported the movement called Pan-Africanism, which aimed to unite people of African descent and create a new political state for African Americans in Africa. Garvey also founded organizations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association that hoped to foster African Americans’ economic independence through the establishment of black-owned businesses and to establish an independent black homeland in African. He also founded the Black Star Steamship Company in 1919 to encourage economic independence among African Americans and urged them to invest with a promise of huge returns. However, the company never turned a profit as Garvey was jailed in 1925 for mail fraud in connection with his fund-raising activities and was ordered depart when President Coolidge pardoned him in 1927.

- The political instability and hostility toward foreigners and radicals were all consequences of demobilization. The workers responded with organized strikes to improve their working conditions and it made many Americans fearful of possible workers’ revolution similar to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. It is understandable that the public was anxious during the Red Scare, considering the fact that the Communist International was established to threaten capitalism and free enterprise. Besides, the Marxist-influenced Socialist Party was formed, supporting the collective ownership of industry. Then, there existed some radicals backing the Bolsheviks and the Marxist ideas. However, there seemed to be some biased reaction against foreigners (immigrants) and radicals. Most of the radicals arrested during the Palmer raids were poor immigrants, and despite being charged with no real evidence, they were expatriated. Moreover, the case for two Italian immigrants who were sentenced to death just for their radical political attitudes and not serving their military (service) clearly proves to be a too extreme punishment. I think the political impact of the Red Scare went too far, suppressing the civil liberties.
 * Assess the political climate of the Red Scare and the hostility toward foreigners and radicals.**

- The process of demobilization altered the lives of many women, factory workers, and farmers. Because of the soldiers returning to the workforce, women were forced to lose their jobs; the recession caused the factories to decrease their productions and fire workers, resulting in the unemployment of almost 12% of the entire work force; the workers suffered bad working conditions; due to revival of European farm production, farmers lost their markets there and had to give up their farmland, unable to manage their debt.
 * How did the process of demobilization alter the lives of many women, factory workers, and farmers?**

As a result, many workers responded to the negative consequences of demobilization, protesting by means of strike. In the year 1919 alone, there were 4 major strikes – the Seattle general strike, the Boston Police Strike, the Steel Strike, and the United Mine Workers’ Strike, and the majority of the strikers aimed for approval of their union as well as the improvement of their working conditions such as wage increase and shorter working hours. Unfortunately, the workers involved in strikes were criticized on newspapers, received harsh public opinion, and failed to meet their demands.


 * Analyze the factors that lead to Mexican immigration, immigration restriction in 1924, and the closing of the “Golden Door.”**

- After the World War I, the economy of Europe was collapsed. The United States became more powerful nation. Many people in the world wanted to move to the United States to obtain economic success. From 1870 to 1920, nearly 25 immigrants, who were from southeastern Europe, Italy, Russia and Poland, moved to the United States. There were more immigrants from Asia such as China, Japan, and Korea. By 1920, nearly 25 percent of the nation’s populations was foreign born or non-white. This dramatic growth of immigrants made some problems to native-born Americans. Native-born Americans thought that many immigrants took away their jobs and gave the great economic loss. Therefore, native-born Americans discriminated the immigrants and restricted the immigrants. In 1921 congress passed a law limiting the number of immigrants from each country allowed into the United States. The law stated a quota of 3 percent for each nationality already in the country by 1910 except for Asians. The Immigration Act of 1924 reduced this quota to 2 percent of the 1890 population figures for each nationality. In 1925 these restrictions reduced the total number of new immigrants from Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe to some 153,000.

The restrictive legislation of the 1920s did not affect Mexicans. Employers in the Southwest needed many workers to fill low- wage jobs. As a result, during the 1920s, 500,000 immigrants arrived from Mexico. Also many Mexicans were struggling with poverty, jobless and political disorder from a revolution persisted. Therefore in the 1920s, economic hardship causes many Mexicans to migrate to the United States. Many of them took agricultural jobs in the Southwest with low wages. Some Mexican immigrants took well-paying factory jobs in cities such as Chicago and Detroit. Many people in the world wanted to move to the United States to achieve economic success.


 * How did the Republicans pro-business policies affect the U.S. economy?**

- The Republican pro-business policies affected the U.S. economy by contributing to its growth and prosperity. With many policy changes, President Harding’s administration sought to achieve two major economic goals: to remove the national debt by reducing spending and by increasing the tariff rates on factory produced goods through the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, and to accomplish economic growth by cutting the high taxes levied on the wealthy people. As a result, the postwar recession was defeated and the overall economy was improved. Industry boomed with surplus capital resulting from tax cuts; great number of mergers appeared with federal support making great profits. However, while most businesses prospered, others suffered. Workers had to deal with pay cuts and unemployment; farmers also had hard times with diminishing markets, low prices, high interest rates, and unbearable debt; the organized labor suffered low union membership due to “Yellow-dog contracts” supported by Federal courts and the American Plan promoted by business leaders.


 * Analyze how the emergence of the “New Woman” challenged Victorian values.**

- The Victorian era was the period from 1837 to 1901. The status of Women in the Victorian Era illustrated pure and clean. The role of women was to have children and take care of the house. The women could take a job such as a teacher, a nurse, or a domestic servant. Some women worked in the factory.

On the other hand, the new women in 1920s are much different from Victorian Era. the statues of the "new women" in 1920s were rising. They wanted equal treatment with men in society. The nineteenth amendment granted women the right to vote. They could have more freedom so they could join the variety activities and political interest. Divisions in the women’s movement emerged in the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Equal Rights Amendment stated, “ Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” The “new women” had some changes in women’s behavior and fashion. “New women” was stylish adventurous independent, and often career-minded. Some young women tried new freedom in how they dressed. They stopped wearing heavy corset and started wearing shorter skirts and transparent silk hose. Some young women began to wear bobbed, or short hair. They also drove cars and participated in sports. They also wanted economic independence. In 1920s, American women worked in a wider variety of occupations such as driving taxis, flying airplanes, and stenographers.