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18th Ammenedment Ratafied
After being vetoed by the president, Congress passed the 18th ammendment, which banned the consumption and production of alchahol. Congress was essentially peer pressured into passing this ammendment by very strict religious people who felt that alchahol was detremental to our country. -
Bootleggers Emerge
Shortly after the ammendment got through, bootleggers (alchahol smugglers) began selling alchahol to people who wanted it. They would go into canada or carribean, where alchahol was legal, and would resell it for a hefty profit. Many gangs got involved with the dealing, and helped them grow. -
Famous Bootleggers
Joe Kennedy: The father of JFK and RFK, and one of the most famous bootleggers. Joe Kennedy would go across the border to canada, buy a lot of booze, and flip it on the American side. Joe Kennedy started out as an irish immigrant and ended very wealthy. He used his money to fund his son's campaigns. Al Capone: Based out of Chicago, he ran one of the largest bootlegging rings in the country. Using violent methods and powerful connections in the mafia, he rose to the top and became infamous, -
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald wrote the book "The Great Gatsby", which is a story about the wealthy, frivalous spending, and the thin veil that hides sadness. He talks about these grand partes that Gatsby throws, but it's just a cover up for his lonlieness and sadness. And at the end, Gatsby is murdered by a poor man. It was a reflection of America and the direction we were headed in. Everyone was spending there money as soon as it was printed, almost like they were compensating for something. And not much later, -
F. Scott Fitzgerald Cont.
the entire US economly collapsed. Fitzgerald was trying to show the bad side of being rich. When you make stupid decesions, you get grave consequences. Just like how gatsby died in the book, the US econonmy died in real life. -
Scopes Trial
In the state of Tennessee, they made it illegal to teach evolution in science class. Many people opposed it, and it was funded by radical fundementalists. As a result, the ACLU said that anyone who opposed the law, and taught it anyway would get there top laywers to help fight the law. John Scopes, a young biology teacher taught evolution. He was arrested and convicted. Later, the supreme court overturned his conviction, but the law was still put in place. -
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh was a pilot, who was the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic. He flew from New York to Paris in about 33 hours. On his return, he was idolized by America. He seemed to have represented the honestly and bravery that America had lost. -
Black Tuesday
Black Tuesday was the offical day that the great depression began. It really started weeks before when Americans were making poor investing decesions. The new credit system made the average american feel like they were much weallthier. And most Americans would borrow money from the banks, and spend it on things they usually could not afford. At one point, people started taking this borrowed money, and putting it into the stock market. 2 out of every 5 dollars borrowed from banks was in the -
Black Tuesday cont.
the stock market. People were trading so fast that the machines could not keep up. Eventually, the stocks began falling becuase the banks ran out of money and people lost all there savings. People started taking there stocks out and the value decreased. Black tuesday was the day when over night they lost a lot of money, and most americans were broke or had lost there jobs. -
Shanty Towns
After everyone lost there jobs, people could not afford there rent or home payments. People became homeless. There were so many people without homes, that they created these "towns" that were made up of poorly constructed homes. They were made up of looose metal, wood, cardboard, relly anything the people could get ther hands on. They were also called "Hoovervilles" becuase the people blamed Herbert Hoover for losing there jobs. -
Lindbergh Trial Cont.
convicted, and was executed, even though he pleaded not guilty to all of the chargers. He claimed that he was holding the money for a friend who had recently died. The Lindbergh trial was very important becuase even the legends of the world were affected by the depression. Everyone was a target. Everyone was losing. -
Lindbergh Trial
Unfortunetly for Charles, his first born son was kindnapped. All that was left was a ransom note asking for $50,000. Once the media got hold of this, it was all over the news. America was waiting for news of the baby.They paid the ransom, and were given false information about the baby's location. They told banks to follow the serial numbers. But sadly, the baby turned up deceased around the same time. The banks eventually tracked the money to a German man in the Bronx. He was prosecuted,
