POSTWAR TENSIONS
After World War I, many Americans grew alarmed at a possible spread of revolutionary ideas from Russia, focusing their suspicions on these radical socialists.
Who were communists?
He was the U.S. attorney general who sparked fear that radicals planned a violent overthrow on May Day 1920.
Who was A. Mitchell Palmer?
A system in which corporations replaced formal union recognition with paternalistic workplace benefits such as pensions and health services.
What was welfare capitalism?
When the United States extended loan guarantees to nations it deemed unstable, it often backed them militarily to ensure repayment.
What was dollar diplomacy?
This nationwide ban on the manufacture and sale of liquor was intended to enforce moral discipline but instead fueled a rise in speakeasies.
What was Prohibition?
Millions of African Americans served in the war, but they returned home to discrimination and waves of mob violence.
What was postwar racial strife?
In the aftermath of World War I, federal authorities created this new investigative bureau to gather intelligence on suspected subversives.
What was the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)?
This short-lived but intense conflict started when a New England city’s police force went on strike, prompting a strong gubernatorial response.
What was the Boston police strike?
The Harding administration championed a cooperative approach whereby business leaders gained more policy-making influence with government support.
What was the associated state?
This New York–based burst of African American creativity encompassed writers, painters, and jazz innovators.
What was the Harlem Renaissance?
Deadly anti-Black clashes erupted in multiple cities; this especially notorious event in Illinois left dozens dead in 1919.
What were the Chicago race riots?
Thousands of alleged radicals—often immigrants—were rounded up in 1919–1920 raids authorized by the Justice Department.
What were the Palmer Raids?
Worried that new strikes would disrupt economic progress, many employers began actively dissuading workers from joining these organizations.
What were labor unions?
Corruption tarnished Harding’s presidency when an interior secretary accepted bribes for illegal oil-reserve leases at this site.
What was the Teapot Dome scandal?
Restricting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, this 1924 measure also nearly halted arrivals from Asia.
What was the National Origins Act?
U.S. workers enjoyed official union recognition during the war, only to see that status reversed once peace returned as this occurred.
What was the erosion of labor rights?
General suspicion of foreign-born residents ran high because of rumors that communists would overthrow the government. This panic of 1919–1920 was widely known by this name.
What was the (post–First World War) Red Scare?
The economic boom of the early 1920s clashed with worker demands, leading owners to use African American and Mexican replacements during this massive steel walkout.
What was the 1919 steel strike?
This international association pushed for social-justice legislation worldwide, but came under Red Scare scrutiny because it had socialist members.
What was the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)?
When a biology teacher introduced Darwin’s theory in Tennessee, the resulting 1925 court case symbolized a national clash between science and religion.
What was the Scopes Trial?
This 1923 Supreme Court ruling struck down a minimum wage for women, reversing gains once guaranteed by earlier labor protections.
What was Adkins v. Children’s Hospital?
The Justice Department sometimes deported foreign nationals without trial during this crackdown on “dangerous” political beliefs.
What was the expulsion of suspected radicals (or deportations of foreign-born alleged subversives)?
Despite earlier momentum, this mainstream labor federation lost membership throughout the 1920s as companies fought unionization.
What was the American Federation of Labor (AFL)?
Passed in 1921, this measure became the first federally funded healthcare legislation, providing funding for maternal and infant care.
What was the Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity and Infancy Act?
Led by a Jamaican-born activist, the Universal Negro Improvement Association advocated Pan-African solidarity and an eventual return to Africa.
Who was Marcus Garvey (and the UNIA)?