![]() While illness, economic hardship, and racial tensions all came from within, another destabilizing factor arrived from overseas. Read a Chicago newspaper report of the race riot, as well as a commentary on how the different newspapers-those written for the black community as well as those written by the mainstream press-sought to sensationalize the story. Americans thus entered the new decade with a profound sense of disillusionment over the prospects of peaceful race relations. Riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, turned out even more deadly, with estimates of black fatalities ranging from fifty to three hundred. This crime prompted a week-long riot that left twenty-three blacks and fifteen whites dead, as well as millions of dollars’ worth of damage to the city ( ). Police at the scene did not arrest the perpetrator who threw the rock. Among these was the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, where a white mob stoned a young black boy to death because he swam too close to the “white beach” on Lake Michigan. During the “ Red Summer” of 1919, northern cities recorded twenty-five bloody race riots that killed over 250 people. Meanwhile, southern lynchings continued to escalate, with white mobs burning African Americans at the stake. Black soldiers returned home with a renewed sense of justice and strength, and were determined to assert their rights as men and as citizens. ![]() White soldiers returned home to find black workers in their former jobs and neighborhoods, and were committed to restoring their position of white supremacy. The sporadic race riots that had begun during the Great Migration only grew in postwar America. In addition to labor clashes, race riots shattered the peace at the home front. In 1919 alone, more than four million workers participated in a total of nearly three thousand strikes: both records within all of American history. Workers, facing a shortage in wages to buy more expensive goods, and no longer bound by the no-strike pledge they made for the National War Labor Board, initiated a series of strikes for better hours and wages. By the end of the year, the cost of living in the United States was nearly double what it had been in 1916. As a result, inflation skyrocketed in 1919. Public demand quickly outpaced the slow production, leading to notable shortages of domestic goods. When the government’s wartime control over the economy ended, businesses slowly recalibrated from the wartime production of guns and ships to the peacetime production of toasters and cars. As discussed above, wartime production had led to steady inflation the rising cost of living meant that few Americans could comfortably afford to live off their wages. ![]() The flu pandemic that came home with the returning troops swept through the United States, as evidenced by this overcrowded flu ward at Camp Funstun, Kansas, adding another trauma onto the recovering postwar psyche.Īnother element that greatly influenced the challenges of immediate postwar life was economic upheaval. The result of these factors was that, rather than a celebratory transition from wartime to peace and prosperity, and ultimately the Jazz Age of the 1920s, 1919 was a tumultuous year that threatened to tear the country apart. ![]() Adding to these problems was the absence of President Wilson, who remained in Paris for six months, leaving the country leaderless. Racial tensions, a terrifying flu epidemic, anticommunist hysteria, and economic uncertainty all combined to leave many Americans wondering what, exactly, they had won in the war. Several unrelated factors intersected to create a chaotic and difficult time, just as massive numbers of troops rapidly demobilized and came home. Harding’s landslide victory in the 1920 presidential electionĪs world leaders debated the terms of the peace, the American public faced its own challenges at the conclusion of the First World War. Identify the challenges that the United States faced following the conclusion of World War I.By the end of this section, you will be able to: ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |