21-4 Critical Thinking #5

What did the Harlem Renaissance contribute to both black and general American history?

The Harlem Renaissance was a literary and artistic movement celebrating African-Americans. Many of these authors, actors and musicians were some of the most famous in their industry throughout general American History. A Jamaican immigrant named Claude McKay, who was a novelist and a poet, was a major figure whose militant Verses urged African Americans to resist prejudice and discrimination. One of the most famous writers of the movement was Langston Hughes. Many of his poems described the difficult lives of working-class African Americans. Paul Robeson, who performed in Shakespeare's Othello, became a major dramatic actor. As Jazz became popular in New Orleans, it came with a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong, who joined Oliver's group, which eventually became known as the Creole Jazz Band. His talent rocketed him to stardom in the jazz world.

21-1 Critical Thinking #5

Do you think the passage of the Volstead Act and the ruling in the Scopes trial represented genuine triumphs for traditional values?

Due to changes in city life, the little effect of prohibition and the events of the Scope trials, it would seam that the Volstead act had little influence on the people over "traditional values." In the early 1920's, city's became a common living area, the three largest being New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Foe small town migrants, they had to adapt to a world of competition and change. Common activities in the city included drinking, gambling and casual dating.
Drinking was such a common thing in the twenties that the idea of prohibition didn't even stand a chance. Although is caused the consumption of alcohol to declined, it still caused disrespect for the law and the growth of organized crime. Prohibition was what brought mobsters to the cities. The Scope trial was a fight over evolution and the role of science and religion in public schools and in American society. Steering away from traditional values, science won the trial.

20-1 Critical Thinking #3

Do you think Americans were justified in their fear of radicals and foreigners in the decade following WWI?

Americans had two problems to fear: the goals of the leaders of the Russian Revolution, and the challenges facing the United States. Both of these fears revolved around communism. These fears are commonly known today as "the Red Scare." The scare in the States started when the revolutionaries in Russia overthrew the Czar. After the Czar's death, Vladimir I. Lenin and his followers called the "Bolsheviks" established a new Communist State. In response to the events in Russia, a Communist party formed in America as well, with seventy-thousand members. The fear started to spread when the government started getting bombs sent by the Industrial Workers of the World, some of which were members of the communist party.
A challenge within the states itself, other than the formation of the Communist party, was the Palmer Raids. This gathered agents to hunt down any people suspected to be a communist, socialist and anarchists. This was difficult for the Americans because it gave these agents the ability to break people's civil rights. As a result of of the Red Scare and the anti-immigration feelings, many prejudice groups and bigots used it as an opportunity for creating groups to harass groups of foreigners and immigrants. The most frightening of these was the Ku Klux Klan.