A Divided Society

II – The 'Red Scare' and the 'Monkey Trial'

Why was there a 'Red Scare'?  [ALARM]

The early years of the 1920s saw a 'Red Scare' that terrorist radicals were going to take over America.

The panic was caused by the following factors:

1. Anti-immigrant sentiment, Nativism and Isolationism

   WWI caused a surge in patriotic and nationalist sentiments, and hatred of ideologies perceived as un-American.  People feared that immigrants, especially those from Southern and Eastern Europe, were communists and anarchists. 

2. Labour Unrest

   Economic Instability and inflation after WWI led to 3,600 strikes in 1919 alone, including the Seattle General Strike and the Boston Police Strike. 

3. Anarchist Bombings

   A series of bombings carried out by anarchists in 1919, including one on Wall Street, attempts on the lives of government officials and businessmen, intensified fear of radical leftist violence. 

4. Russian Revolution and International Communism

   Probably the main cause was the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, and the formation of Comintern in 1919 to promote worldwide communist revolution, whch caused widespread fear in the United States that a similar revolution might occur on American soil. 

5. Media sensationalism

   Newspapers spread fear by exaggerating the threat of communist infiltration and danger.  The government and private organizations distributed propaganda that depicted radicals as dangerous and un-American, reinforcing public fears. 

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

Basic accounts from BBC Bitesize on the Red Scare and Sacco & Vanzetti

'Reds' and 'Americans' - extensive resources on the Red Scare

YouTube

The Red Scare - short documentary

Sacco and Vanzetti - 1920s Channel

AQA-suggested Interpretation of Sacco and Vanzetti:

Eugene Lyons on Sacco & Vanzetti

Results of the Red Scare

1. Government agencies, such as the FBI, conducted extensive surveillance of suspected radicals and infiltrated radical groups. 

2. Palmer Raids: Led by Attorney General A.  Mitchell Palmer, these raids took place in 1919-1920 and arrested – mostly without warrants— 6,000 trade unionists, Jews, Catholics and black people suspected of being radicals, anarchists, and communist, across 36 US cities. 

3. Treason laws: The Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918: were used to prosecute individuals deemed a threat to national security. 

4. Deportations: Thousands of people suspected of radical activities were deported under the Immigration Act of 1918, the government deported numerous immigrants., including the anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. 

5. High-profile Trials: High-profile cases such as the Centralia Massacre Trial, the Sacco and Vanzetti case and the Bridgman Trials, though hoping to reassure the public, in fact just made the scare worse and heightened anti-radical sentiment. 

6. Immigration Quotas: the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Reed-Johnson Act of 1924: imposed strict quotas on immigrants from certain countries, reflecting fears of radical ideologies entering the U.S. 

7. Americanisation: the government organised programme aimed at Americanising immigrants. 

8. Employers used the Red Scare to justify anti-union activities and to fire ‘troublemakers’.  Immigrants experienced discrimination, especially from landlords. 

9. Civil Liberties: The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 to challenge the violations of civil liberties during the Red Scare, though it met with little success during the 1920s. 

Source E

This 1919 cartoon by the American artist Harry Grant Dart is titled: 'And in the Meantime the Lady Drowns'. 

 Click here for the interpretation

The Scopes 'Monkey Trial', 1925

Fundamentalism

In the early years of the 20th century there was a move – notably in the Presbyterian Church – to re-establish what it called the fundamental truths of the Christian Faith – including beliefs such as the Virgin birth and the account of creation in the book of Genesis. 

In 1925, the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act, making it illegal to teach evolution in Tennessee schools.

The Scopes Trial

To challenge this, John Scopes, a Tennessee high school science teacher, agreed to be tried for violating the Act. He was defended by Clarence Darrow, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a layer famous for his defence of trade union causes. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, a former Secretary of State.

The trial was a national sensation, and was remarkable because Darrow called Bryan as a witness, where he argued with him about the historicity of the Bible.

At the start of the trial, the judge quoted Genesis and instructed the jury that the issue was not about the law, but simply to decide whether the law had been broken. Darrow did not challenge a guilty verdict, but argued that "we have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States."

Scopes was found guilty and find $100, which was later overturned on the technicality that the jury should have set the amount, not the judge.

Results

• The Butler Act remained law in Tennessee until 1967.

• Mississippi and Arkansas passed anti-evolution laws.

• Science textbooks in American schools generally avoided evolution, and included Bible quotes until 1968, when the Supreme Court ruled that such teaching bans were against the Constitution of the USA.

• The journalist HL Mencken called it the ‘Monkey Trial’ and mocked the evolutionists as ‘yokels’ and ‘morons’, and Bryan’s speeches "theologic bilge".

• Urban, cosmopolitan areas generally rejected fundamentalism; outside the cities, modernism continued to be regarded with suspicion.

'Religion' and 'Science' - extensive resources on the religion-science debate 

The 1960 film, Inherit the Wind (see the trailer) was loosely based on the Scopes Trial.
Although it never claimed to be historically true, and included inaccuracies and fictions, and was a polemic designed to mock fundamentalism, many people at the time believed it to be a true account of the trial.

Source F

A 1922 cartoon used by William Jennings Bryan to support fundamentalism.