Politics of the 1920's

The KKK

     The KKK was one of the most violent organizations in the history of America and was popular in the 1920's. The beginning members of the KKK settled in the south of America. Wearing the infamous white hoods, the KKK would usually go around in large groups burning churches of the black race, while murdering, raping and causing violent distruction to people who weren't of there race. They called there race "WASPS,"  which stood for White Angelo-Saxon Protestants. It is said the KKK only went after blacks, but they also killed Jews, Cathiolics and liberals.

     The first member of the KKK was Nathan Bedford forest. The klan kept growing with new members until eventually a new group of klans was created in 1915. The head of the new Klan was William Jospeh Simmons. In the 1920's the klan expanded from 5,000 to about 40,0000. In 1924 they reached a large number of 100,000 people, and strolled through the streets of Washington D.C. People wondered what made the Klan grow so large in number. Some say that the increase of immigrants was the main reason. The members of the KKK felt that they were in competition with the immigrants for jobs, for that members of the KKK worked a normal job.

     Change was becoming big in the 1920's. For example, women recieved the right to vote, the cities were growing in the north from blacks coming from the south, and immigrants were arriving from Europe. During the time these cities had problems with race and class. A number of white people were afraid of the change. At first nobody knew the KKK was commiting such horrible acts of violence. The group was thought of an "organization" that represtneted traditional values and moral ritousness. Congress investigated the KKK which gave them somewhat of a bit of fame that made them look honorable. This made many amercians join the KKK and the group became very large during the 1920's. The truth eventually came out when it was found out that the leadership took part in many violent acts including murders, and other acts of violence. This casued the power of the KKK to slowly weaken near the end of the decade.

     The KKK still exsists today and is still active in violent behavior. The belief of the KKK today is very similar to white supuremeists groups, for example the neo-nazi's. Some kkk members today, might be seen holding cross burnings in the bleach white robes and hoods, but today's younger kkk men are similar and look like the average skin head, or hard-core neo-nazi.

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Post World War I Reaction

     The "Great War" was a global military conflict which involved two major alliances. The living conditions where horrific durring the war, but the fighting conditions where even worse. ^[3]Diseases plagued soldiers that where in trenches and parisites where brought by the deplorerable condtions. The war took place from 1914 to 1918, and it was mostly fought in Europe.  The Allies also known as the "Entente powers" were led by British Empire, France, the Russian Empire, Italy and the United States. The Central Powers consisted of Germany, Aurtria-Hungary, The Ottaman Empire and Bulgaria.^[4]

     The war took place mainly in Europe. Post world war reactions around the world where quite different and indifferent in many ways. For some anger and rage emerge, while for others guilt and a profound disbelief that the ^[5]world events that are happening around them is not true. The total estimate of human losses in WWI was roughly fourty million people, most of which where civilians.         

Immigration In The 1920's

   In the 1920's immigration was a huge promblem. Before the 1920's there was no real law that provented immigration to the U.S.A. The people that really pressured the goverment to make a law for immigration is more of the western states and the Native Americans. The anti-immigration laws really targeted Asians the law that they made was called Chinese Exclusion. In the early 1920's the population wanted to make a law to test literacy of the immigrats that where coming over. When the first world war came around not that many immagrants came over to the untied states. Anthor act that slowed down immigration during the world war was the Emergency Qutoa Act that law came in to affect in 1921. What this law was it limited immigrants from any country to less then 3 percent from each country. ^[6]

The Red Scare

     The period of time between 1917-1920 became known as the Red Scare.  During this time, a fear of communism had spread throughout America as a rsult of fighting in WWI against the "Huns" and an extreme patriotism built up in America.  Many people were contributing to the war, and those who didn't express patriotism were often thought to be communists.  The Red Scare would be known for its many raids, attacks, and radical treatment to communists and those who were believed to be communists.^[7] 

     The American governement set up laws that forbid people to interfere with military actions and disrespect the government.  People who were believed to be communists were wrongfully imprisoned and others were abused by the rest.  The Red Scare caused major social issues and the rise of anarchism made it even worst.  Many groups performed attacks or were attacked.  Attempts to harm government officals were made such as the anarchists attack on important figures through enveloped bombs.  Despite being targetted, the government fought back, the most notable counter being the Palmer Raids which attacked multiple anarchist, communist, and socialist groups.  The government caused surges of patriotism, resulting in capturing many hundreds of arrests and even the deportment of 249 Russians on what they called "the Red Ark." ^[8]               

     The Red Scare ended quickly, and soon the people forgot about it.  Another Red Scare would rise as a result of the Russian Revolution after WWII and the rise of the Soviet Union later on.