Al Capone and Prohibition

Earned huge amounts ($60 million a year) from the illegal trade of alcohol.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1929)

Al Capone killed 7 members of a rival gang, increasing street violence.

Prohibition corruption

1 in 12 prohibition agents were sacked for taking bribes from gangsters.

Flapper lifestyle

Urban middle/upper-class women who wore short skirts/hair, smoked, and wore makeup.

Women's suffrage year

Women got the right to vote in the USA in 1920.

Women's employment (1929)

10 million women had jobs, giving them greater financial independence.

Depression in farming

Overproduction due to new technologies (like combine harvesters) caused prices to fall.

Agricultural crisis (1924)

Over 600,000 farmers lost their homes after struggling with loan repayments.

Hire purchase ('buy now, pay later')

Enabled consumers to buy goods; 8/10 radios and 6/10 cars were bought this way.

Cycle of prosperity

Higher employment and wages led to consumer spending, stimulating industry and job growth.

Jim Crow laws

Segregation laws in Southern states that discriminated against African-Americans.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) membership (1925)

Reached 5 million members as a prominent white supremacist organization.

KKK violence (1919-1925)

Attacked African-Americans and immigrants, resulting in about 300 lynchings.

1920s Entertainment (Cars & Radios)

26 million cars and 10 million radios were sold by 1929, boosting leisure time.

Cinema popularity (1930)

100 million tickets were sold a week, with Hollywood producing 500 films a year.

Decline of cotton and wool industries

Suffered and wages fell due to competition from manmade fibres like rayon

Decline of coal mining

Coal mines closed as oil, gas, and electricity became alternative home fuels.

Henry Ford's mass production

Used standardised parts and a moving assembly line to reduce car assembly to 93 minutes.

Model T Ford price drop (1928)

Prices fell from $1200 to $295 due to efficient mass production methods.

Industries stimulated by car manufacturing

Rubber, electrical, glass, leather, and steel industries.

Immigration restriction acts

The 1921 Emergency Quota Act and 1924 National Origins Act reduced immigration levels.

Red Scare & Palmer Raids

Led to 6,000 Communists being arrested, imprisoned, or deported.

Sacco and Vanzetti trial

Controversial conviction of two immigrants for armed robbery and murder despite weak evidence.

The Great Migration

2 million African-Americans left the Southern states for northern industrial jobs.

Harlem Renaissance

New York district that became a celebrated centre for black culture, poetry, and art.

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, campaigning for civil rights.

Wealth inequality (1927)

The richest 5% of Americans owned 33% of all wealth, with 15,000 millionaires.

Poverty in 1920s America

42% (6 million families) lived on less than $1000 a year.

Republican economic policies

Cut taxes for rich people and companies, helping wages increase by 11%.

Fordney McCumber Tariff Act

Put high taxes on imports so American goods were cheaper and more in demand. Republican economic policies - Cut taxes for rich people and companies, helping wages increase by 11%.