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Prohibition & Fundamentalism · Saberian History Lectures

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  So when I talk about the reactionary 20s, remember
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  I said that World War I and afterwards is a period
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  of abrupt and decisive change. So you've got
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  a couple of things going on. First, you have...
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  So when we talk about the reactionary 20s, you
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  have reaction to what? Well, you have the reaction
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  to the incoming immigrants. And so when I talk
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  about reaction to the immigrants, immigration
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  brings in a number of things. First of all, the
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  immigrants have different customs than American
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  nativists. So when I'm thinking about that, they're
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  different religious, so they're Catholics, they're
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  Jews, and they're Orthodox. But also, in addition
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  to Catholic, Jews, and Orthodox, what other type
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  of people might be coming from Eastern Europe?
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  Communists and socialists. So you have communists
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  and socialists coming in, political dissidents
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  coming in. Now, if you're an American native,
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  you identify yourself, your idea of the American
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  national identity is white, Anglo -Saxon, Protestant.
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  And your idea of ethical behavior is what? Drinking
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  or not drinking? Not drinking. Catholics, Jews,
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  and Orthodox Russians, there is nothing in their
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  religious doctrine against drinking. Okay. Now,
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  and I'm going to speak in the broad strokes and
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  then I'm going to get to the particulars. The
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  other thing you've got is new intellectual currents.
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  So when I'm talking about intellectual currents,
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  I'm revolting against the idea of the flapper.
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  I'm revolting against Darwin's idea of evolution
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  and I am revolting against the drinking that
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  comes in with the immigrants and also changes
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  in the theology. And so these feed into religious
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  fundamentalism that makes an interesting comeback
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  in the 1920s. So I kind of want to run roughshod
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  over this very quickly, and then we'll get to
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  it. So you've got 800 ,000 immigrants coming
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  to the United States, largely because the immigration
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  doors were closed during the war, both to people
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  going out from their countries of origin and
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  to the United States receiving new people. Also,
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  the fact that German U -boats were prowling the
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  Atlantic probably didn't make sea travel that
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  safe. Okay, so 800 ,000 immigrants come in 1920
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  to 1921. There is a consensus to restrict immigration,
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  and the new Klan comes out in 1915. So, a couple
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  of things, kind of interesting. You've got a
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  new Klan and an old Klan. Who's the old Klan?
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  Well, yes, they both appropriate the same title,
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  but when is the old Klan and where is the old
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  Klan? Post -Civil War South, Confederate war
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  vets and their sons. And if I look at the old
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  Klan, the 1865 -1866 Klan, I look at it as an
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  instrument of oppression for the maintenance
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  of Southern customs when it came to segregation
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  through capricious and arbitrary violence. And
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  then after that it becomes a paramilitary arm
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  of the Democratic Party in the South enforcing
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  white rule. Okay? This new clan takes on a northern
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  flavor, not because it's following the African
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  American populations up to the northern cities,
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  but rather people in the cities appropriate the
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  clan's idea of... keeping American values the
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  way they were, and then taking out, so it takes
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  on 4 million new members throughout the United
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  States, and so it was anti -Jew, anti -Catholic,
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  and anti -Darwin. By the way, why would the Klan
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  be anti -Darwin? What does Darwinian evolution
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  propose, not Darwin himself, but what does evolution
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  propose about the origins of man? That they come
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  from the same apes and that we somehow came out
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  of Africa. Now, by the way, if you're a white
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  supremacist, saying that you come out of Africa
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  means that everyone is related in some way. By
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  the way, we take it for granted that everyone
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  is related, yes? Because we can look and find
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  out that between you and I is less than 1 % difference
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  between one another in DNA. And we share something
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  like 90 % of our DNA with chimpanzees and 80
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  % of our DNA with bananas. Now you don't feel
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  bad when you eat a banana, do you? But DNA is
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  1950s, so have we seen DNA yet? Okay, so there
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  we go. Just sort of as an aside. So you've got
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  the Klan. They're drawing in new members. It's
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  sort of a secret society, but as you can see
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  from the parade picture I just showed you, it
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  was kind of an open secret. Those people didn't
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  even bother to wear masks. And one of the things
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  that kind of drives the resurrection of the Klan
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  is a film that comes out right around this time.
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  It's called The Birth of a Nation. It's a silent
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  film. It was one of Woodrow Wilson's favorites.
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  So, fundamentalism. Okay, so you have in the
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  face of new intellectual current... So you have
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  in the face of new intellectual currents a revolt
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  by American traditionalists. And so one of the
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  expressions of that revolt is that religious
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  fundamentalists start to concern themselves with
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  what had previously been the purview of progressives,
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  and that is education. And so one of the... Ladies.
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  One of the things that happens is in Tennessee
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  and other southern states, they pass laws prohibiting
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  the teaching of evolution in schools. Now, what's
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  interesting about it is people fight that law.
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  And one of the classic cases was in 1925, John
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  Scopes, a 24 -year -old teacher from Dayton,
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  Tennessee, not Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Tennessee,
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  has all of the revolutionary audacity to teach
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  evolution, breaking the law, because he wanted
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  to, you know, he's one of those young teachers
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  with the not fully formed frontal cortex and
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  he wanted to make his point and to have his day
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  in the sun. And they ran a test case for the
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  ACLU in Dayton, Tennessee. So you have Clarence
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  Darrow, who is the lead attorney in... for the
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  ACLU representing John T. Scopes about whether
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  or not the state has the right to restrict this
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  teacher from teaching evolution, which was in
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  a published textbook. This is before states really
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  start intervening in state adoption of textbooks
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  and whatnot. It's actually in this period, 1910,
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  1920s, that you have in a lot of southern states
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  the creation of state boards of education. So,
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  for example, and I'd have just enough time for
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  this. In Texas, the educational apparatus until
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  1910 was not, the State Board of Education was
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  not TEA. This is kind of an interesting side
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  note. I actually did grad research on this. In
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  Texas, the primary governing body for education
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  in the Texan state was the University of Texas.
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  And so originally, the College of Education over
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  at UT was not to certify teachers, but it was
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  the accrediting agency for schools in the Texan
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  state, and they would send minors out. Now, what
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  happened in the case of Texas was the president
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  of UT, who was a... for lack of a better word,
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  a progressive Republican, runs afoul of Governor
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  Paul Ferguson, who was a reactionary conservative
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  Democrat. And so what happens is the Texan legislature
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  creates a state board of education and a Texas
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  education agency to... take control of the education
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  apparatus of the Texan state away from the university,
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  which is not democratic. And so, from 1910 on,
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  you've had a publicly elected state board of
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  education. Now, this might be kind of interesting
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  to my debate friends. So the university creates
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  the Interscholastic League to facilitate competition
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  between the high schools in sport and in academic
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  pursuits. And the gold medal for state is a free
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  ride to the Texas Public Education... UT, basically.
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  It's a free ride to UT. It's become a free ride
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  to UT A &M and all the public universities in
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  the Texas state. But the original idea was so
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  that the university could still have its hooks
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  and recruit talent to go to UT. But anyway, so
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  in Tennessee, you have a state board of education.
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  You have the legislature prohibiting the teaching
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  of evolution. Scopes teaches it. Darrow defends
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  Scopes. It's a show trial. It's the trial of
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  the century. It is a media spectacle brought
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  to you by radio. And here's the part that fries
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  my brain. Guess who the state of Tennessee gets
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  to represent them as the prosecution? winds up
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  being a show trial where he winds up defending
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  biblical creation and fundamentalism. Guess what
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  star of the Democratic Party is the first chair
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  for the state of Tennessee? William Jennings
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  Bryan. How many times... No, I mean, he puts
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  himself in the chair to try and make himself
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  still relevant. Actually, kind of interesting,
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  Brian, again, the guy who runs for president,
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  I mean, only Eugene B. Debs outdoes him for the
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  number of runs for the presidency. I mean, it's
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  really quite impressive. At some point, and I
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  forget if he's Wilson's Secretary of State or
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  if he's FDR's Secretary of State, he does that
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  as a warm -up chair for the presidency. Anyway...
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  Scopes is convicted. He is found guilty because
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  he did actually teach evolution because this
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  was a jury trial and essentially what they were
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  asking for was jury nullification. Jury nullification
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  is where a jury finds you not guilty of a crime
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  because they believe that the law is unjust.
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  Did he teach evolution? Yes. The jury finds him
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  guilty. He's given a $100 fine, but it's waived
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  because, again, the validity of the law was being
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  drawn into question. He goes on to grad school,
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  and he leaves the teaching profession. And so,
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  you know, you kind of wonder. I mean, I might
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  want to get myself arrested, too, if I taught
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  freshman biology. But anyway. Or I was going
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  to say poor Miss Owen. But anyway. Up next. And
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  then we'll call it a day. Prohibition. Okay,
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  and I know I don't have a lot on the slide. I'm
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  going to read off the script. So, progressives
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  and religious conservatives form a consensus
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  that liquor was part of many social ills. During
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  the war, both houses had passed legislation put
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  forward by the Anti -Saloon League and the Women
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  Christian Temperance Movement pushed the legislature
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  through. One of the hazards about... Prohibition
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  was difficult to enforce. First of all, you have
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  the government in the United States getting a
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  lot of money from liquor taxes that if you prohibit
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  liquor, guess what you don't get? Liquor taxes.
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  Also, in many ways, it's kind of unenforceable
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  because you don't have the law enforcement apparatus
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  capable of being in everybody's stuff. And then
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  also you had what was called the Folstead Act,
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  which grandfathered in booze that were previously
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  bought. So you have 1920 when Prohibition goes
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  into effect, but if you bought it in 1916, you
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  don't have to get rid of it. And also there were
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  loopholes for... medical conditions and whatnot.
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  And so one of the things that happens is the
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  drugstore becomes the new place for people to
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  get their alcohol fix. And you have organized
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  crime syndicates importing liquor from Canada,
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  from other places, and selling them in speakeasies.
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  And so it really does make for an unenforceable
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  law. The prohibition will eventually be repealed
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  by the 21st Amendment, which, unlike every other
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  constitutional amendment, went through a state
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  convention process rather than going through
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  the House and the Senate because nobody wanted
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  to be on record as being proboose. Alright, on
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  Monday, rather on Tuesday, on Monday I won't
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  see you, on Tuesday we will get into Harding's
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  return to normalcy.