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A Divided Society
II – The 'Red Scare' and the 'Monkey Trial'
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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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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
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Results of the Red Scare
Government agencies, such as the FBI,
conducted extensive surveillance of suspected radicals and infiltrated radical
groups.
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.
Treason laws: The Espionage Act
of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918: were used to prosecute individuals deemed
a threat to national security.
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.
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.
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.
Americanisation: the government
organised programme aimed at Americanising immigrants.
Employers used the Red Scare to justify anti-union activities and to fire ‘troublemakers’.
Immigrants experienced discrimination, especially from landlords.
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.
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FACTFILE: SACCO AND VANZETTI
On 5 May 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested for an armed robbery at a shoe factory in Massachusetts, in which two people had died
Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants, and both anarchists
At their trial in May 1921, although 61 people identified them, 107 witnesses testified that they were elsewhere at the time; those witnesses were not believed because they were Italian
Ballistics evidence found that a gun found on Sacco had been used in the murders, but both the gun and bullet had been tampered with
There was no direct evidence connecting either of the men to the crime
They were found guilty and sentenced to death
In 1925 a man awaiting trial for murder confessed to the shooting, and stated that Sacco and Vanzetti were not involved; Judge Thayer denied a retrial
There were worldwide protests. Italian dictator Mussolini intervened in their defence. The IWW union called a 3-day strike.
Appeals for clemency were rejected, and they were executed in August
1927.
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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.
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'Religion' and 'Science'
- extensive resources on the religion-science debate
![](images/America_Inherit.jpg)
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
![](images/America_Descent.jpg)
A 1922 cartoon used by William Jennings Bryan to support
fundamentalism.
Consider:
Using Source F and your wider knowledge of the period suggest
reasons whysome Americans supported fundamentalism against science in the
1920s.
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