Age Of Intolerance Of The 1920s

The Jazz Age, Age of Intolerance, Age of Wonderful Nonsense, and the Roaring

Twenties is known to be in reference to the 1920s. Likewise, the Roaring Twenties contributed

to the “rebirth of the people”, as a scholar from the 1920s would put it, to which was associated

with the new found strength in the voices of the African-Americans. Consequently, the public

would popularly state, “The 1920s was the time of great prosperity,” however; there is a

substantially massive amount of evidence that show there was much dissatisfaction. For instance,

there were inflations, growth in organized crime, and many racial conflicts that took place. The

extravagance of this generation was recognized for the involvement of the Harlem Renaissance
and The Great Gatsby, but in all actuality was just a façade, an illusion, to a very “unmistakably

outstanding” time period.

Furthermore, the inflation of the Jazz Age is proven to have happened because of

increase in products and/or money and descending cost, which created low wages amongst the

unions. Due to low income, an anticipated one thousand strikes and more appeared in unions,

this as well brought about the fear of violence and the panic of another revolutionary war. As

time went on, the people were overwhelmed by the fear of communism attacks, recognized as

The Red Scare. The inflation affected not just the low income families, but as well as farmers.

During World War 1, America supplied food for the European countries. Considering this, many

farmers were left with the surplus of food, which was accompanied by the falling of prices.

Simultaneously, this resulted in both the bankruptcy of farmers, which was estimated to about six

hundred thousand farmers, and the selling of farms to meet financial responsibilities,

approximately one in four farms were sold, while families migrated into urban areas. Now

seeing, the farmers most likely suffered the most collateral damage of the 1920s into the Great

Depression. On behalf of losing most of the population of farmers, the government passed the

Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, which subsidizes farmers to make sure they have the

support that is needed to go on with their profession. As of now, the Grain Futures Act of 1922,

Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 “help”

pay over twenty billion dollars per year for farmers as subsidies.

In addition, as much as there were struggles financially, there were exceedingly

heightened numbers of organized crime being incorporated within the city of New York, as well

as surrounding cities.
During the Age of Intolerance, as many as five hundred thousand Italians

traveled to America in search of higher quality jobs and living. This migration managed to bring

about the Italian Mafia families, spreading within the country, about five in New York alone and

at least one in each country. In the time of the 1920s, because of the 14th amendment, there was

an abolishment of alcohol. Within this time frame, the Mafia began to make immeasurable

amounts of money by smuggling in alcohol from foreign countries; this considered them to be

bootleggers, and as well, was known for the bribing of police officers and public officials. The

magnitude of violence was so great; it started a war between New York’s two biggest crime

bosses, the war was called Castellammarese War and was specified to be a bloody power

struggle. Salvatore Maranzano came out the winner and boasted stating he was the bosses of all

bosses, in Italian. Later that same year, Salvatore was murdered by Lucky Luciano, the founder

of a central organization named Commission. Commission served as a kind of Mafia

organization appointed to organize other Mafia organizations. As time went on, police
strengthen

their forces and passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allowed

officials to go after high-ranking members of the Mafia. The development of the Mafias was

crucial to the way of living; the citizens were terrorized by mobsters and shared bloodshed and

warfare with Mafias. There was not just a power struggle between officials and the Mafia, but

was also with the people, it was a continuous effort to not be confronted in such situations.

Moreover, there were many racial conflicts, as well as constant battles in relation to

segregation. As the Harlem Renaissance was going on in the North, meanwhile in the South,

many African-Americans risked persecution amongst the Whites. These persecutions that were

given by the Whites to the Blacks were called lynching, a type of torturous hanging given by a

mob without any legal authority. Many Whites superiority over the African-Americans did not

just become a way of thinking, but a way of living, to which point it was allowed to put pictures

of a lynching in the back of the post-cards and to be sent with a “Happy Birthday” behind the

card. Almost all lynching was not based off of the truth, many of which was based upon rumors,

as well as, the “over steeping of boundaries”. There was one incident, that you can say started an

argument, at the beach, there was a “Whites” side and a “Colors Only”, and an invisible line to

prove it. Well, on one side there were African-American boys playing on a raft in the water,

within time it drifted over to the “Whites” side. Of course the Whites noticed, but instead of

acknowledging and telling them they were on the wrong side, they began to throw rocks, which

hit one the boy’s head, then within that instant, he drowned to his death.
They told the police of

what had happened, in which he ignored and did not report it, this sparked a feud within the

boys, later resulting in the first hint of a riot. Another incident would be of a riot, were there were

allegations of the African-Americans arming themselves, later, it was told to not be true, but with

the Whites not knowing and the tension raising the Whites began to bear arms. The riot ended

with a hundred to two hundred dead, mostly being of African-Americans. Within the 1920s, the

African-Americans weren’t the only people known to be racially oppressed. The Palmer Raids

was said to be started because of the bombing of Alexander Palmer’s, a prosecutors, house. The

Palmer Raids were known to be the raiding of immigrants, where they were forcibly deported to

their home countries. Because of fear of outside influences, this led to the restrictions on

immigration, but also worried people into The Red Scare due to Palmer’s extreme efforts to

deport immigrants.

The 1920s might have been perceived as a prosperous time era, but the truth to the
matter

is, the government was greatly prejudice and established its foundations off of the hard labor of

different minorities. Many obstacles were placed in the 1920s, inflation included, the increase of

cost of living plummeted many people to a level of dissatisfactory. Although, Mafias may have

helped economically with bootlegged alcohol, the reputation that was built upon violence did not

justify what they did in the 1920s as right. As for racial conflicts, the brutal labor given and the

unjustifiable inequality between Whites and other nationalities were cruel and inhuman. As

much as we’ve seen economy, crime, and society reshape before our eyes, ultimately, everyone

is fixated in their perpetual ways, there are still many advancements waiting to be made but

within time our misconceptions of individualism will be comprehendible.