ARGUMENT 1: A Time of Oppression?
1. Supremacism and routine racism
• WASPs believed they were genetically superior, harder-working, and more civilised than other races, supported by eugenicist 'science.'
• Discrimination was embedded in US society against immigrants, African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexicans.
2. Hostility to Immigrants
• Linked to the 'Red Scare.'
3. American Government and laws
• Govt refused to ban lynching or give Black Americans the vote.
• CORRIGAN V BUCKLEY (1926) upheld segregation in housing via racial covenants.
• Police targeted minorities with discriminatory enforcement and harsher court sentences.
• Unions like the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR excluded non-white workers.
4. Jim Crow Laws
• SEGREGATION laws in the South denied Black Americans equal education, voting rights, and civil freedoms.
• Banned interracial marriage (MISCEGENATION).
5. Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
• By 1925, 5m members supported WASP supremacy, targeting Black Americans, Jews, Catholics, and ‘immoral’ groups like alcoholics.
• Members, mostly middle-class whites, wore white hoods and marched with burning crosses. They spoke with each other in secret KLONVERSATIONS.
• Used violence (e.g., intimidation, lynching) but also advocated local improvements.
• Reasons for growth (1920–24):
Anglo-Saxon racism & nativism / Post-WWI disillusionment / Immigration-driven economic instability
/ social networks (‘Klavern’s) / Anti-modernism & cultural backlash / Media promotion of their activities
/ Support for prohibition and anti-Catholic & anti-Jewish sentiment / Local political influence
6. Lynchings
• White mobs (often ignored by police) lynched Black Americans they suspected of crimes.
7. Even in the North
• Most Black Americans were stuck in low-paid jobs (e.g., janitors, waiters, dishwashers).
• Racial violence occurred; in 1919, CHICAGO riots after a Black man drifted into a whites-only swimming area.
ARGUMENT 2: A Time of Flowering?
1. Role models
• Figures like JESSE OWENS (sprinter) and JOSEPHINE BAKER (dancer) inspired hope and pride.
2. HARLEM RENAISSANCE
• Cultural flourishing in Harlem focused on jazz, poetry, art, and architecture.
• 'ARTISTIC ACTION' aimed to win equality by proving Black talent and equality.
3. Identity
• Alain Locke's THE NEW NEGRO (1925) urged Black Americans to reject stereotypes like 'Uncle Tom'.
• Black newspapers/magazines spread the idea that 'Black is Beautiful.'
4. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
• The NAACP (1909) fought for civil rights.
5. One-and-a-half million Black Americans moved North
• The Great Migration from the South to the North created a new Black middle class.
• Many gained university educations despite often being stuck in low-paying jobs.
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