“SCARFACE” – Al Capone famously had a scar on his face that he claimed was due to shrapnel while fighting with the Lost Battalion in WWI. Actually, he got it in a bar fight. Capone was the bartender at the Harvard Inn. He made some insulting remarks about a woman and her brother came across the bar and cut Al with a knife. Surprisingly, not only did Capone not exact revenge, but he later hired the brother as a body guard. Whitcomb p. 163
MAD BOMBERS – Terrorist bombings in America are not new. On April 29, 1919, a mail package was delivered to the residence of Sen. Thomas Hardwick. Hardwick was a hardliner on immigration. He was away from home when his maid opened it while Mrs. Hardwick saw to the other mail. The package exploded, blowing off the hands of the maid and seriously injuring both women. The next day a similar package with a return label of Gimbels (a department store) was delivered to Mayor Ole Hanson of Seattle. His recent denouncement of anarchists had led to death threats and made him suspicious of packages. The package turned out to be a carefully constructed bomb. A postal employee remembered other packages with “Gimbels” that had been held up for lack of sufficient postage. In all, 34 bombs were found in postal offices. They were addressed to celebrities like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Attorney General Mitchell Palmer. Palmer had publicly vowed to end the “Red menace”. In June, a bomber accidentally blew himself up on Palmer’s lawn as he tried to place a bomb on his doorstep. The bomb destroyed the front of the house and wrecked the room Palmer had been in only moments before. He used the bombs to launch his Palmer Raids which resulted in the arrests of anarchists, communists, and socialists. Many immigrants were deported without just cause. Mail bombings ceased, but on Sept. 16, 1920 a horse cart was parked in front of the J.P. Morgan building. The ensuing explosion was massive. 35 were killed and numerous were injured. No one was arrested for the crime. Ayres pp. 119-121
THE 82nd MAN – Charles Lindbergh was not the first person to fly across the Atlantic. He was the 82nd. In 1919, Lt. Commander Albert Reed and a crew of five flew the US Navy flying boat “Lame Duck” from Long Island to Lisbon. They spent most of their time floating on the ocean fixing engines. The same year Capt. John Aycock and Lt. Arthur Brown flew a WWI bomber from Newfoundland to England. It was a hairy flight that included a fog-induced plunge to the waves before Aycock could pull the plane up. Another problem was a snow storm that forced Brown to crawl out on the wings to chip off ice to keep the plane airborne. Also in 1919, a military dirigible piloted by Maj. G. Scott took four days to go from Scotland to Mineola, New Jersey. The airship carried 30 crewmen, some government officials, and one stowaway. In 1924, two US Army Air Service piloted by Lt. Lowell Smith and Lt. Erik Nelson flew around the world from Seattle. The planes were amphibious and made 57 stops during the 26,100 mile trip. That same year, a German zeppelin (called the “Los Angeles” for good will), carrying 34 landed in Lakehurst, New Jersey. In 1926, Spaniard Ramon Franco and two others flew a twin-engined flying boat from Spain to Buenos Aires. In 1927, Italian Francesco Marquis de Pinedo and a crew of two flew a seaplane from Italy to Brazil. Later that year, Lindbergh became the first to fly alone, nonstop across the Atlantic and all the others became footnotes in history. Ayres p. 204-
MOUNT RUSHMORE – John Gutzon Borglum was a sculptor who began work on Mount Rushmore in 1927. He chose a 6,000-foot high mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He chose Washington because he won independence and established the republic, Jefferson for writing the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln for preserving the Union, and Teddy Roosevelt for being such an energetic force. Each face was about 60 feet from chin to top of the head. The project involved 6 ½ years of sculpting (using pneumatic drills and dynamite) and 7 ½ years of getting funding to finish the project. It cost $990,000, with $800,000 coming from the federal government. Borglum was paid $170,000, but didn’t finish the job. He died in 1941 and his son finished it. By the time they were done, 450,000 tons of stone were moved. Frank p. 14
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT – President Hoover described National Prohibition as a “great social and economic experiment – noble in motive”. Although large parts of the country were already “dry” because states and counties had passed laws, the 19th Amendment made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol illegal nationwide. The “experiment” was supposed to reduce wife beating, child abuse, gambling, bankruptcy, and prostitution. It was also supposed to reduce the consumption of alcohol. Organized crime was already handling gambling and prostitution, so it was easy to move into bootlegging. The profits were enormous. Al Capone’s organization made $60 million per year. Bootleggers would deliver “hootch” to businesses and homes in things like baby carriages and fruit crates. Illegal drinking establishments called “speakeasies” (you had to whisper a password for entry) opened in all major cities. NYC, which had 15,000 saloons before Prohibition, had 32,000 speakeasies during Prohibition. Plunges Again pp. 72-74
MARATHON DANCING – Dancing to see how long you could dance began in Britain in 1923. An American named Alma Cummings was inspired to break the record. She danced 27 hours with six partners. The record did not stand for long. An enterprising dance hall owner in Texas started to host competitions and charge admission. The popularity of the contests spread and led to opposition by church groups and movie theater owners. The deaths of some participants caused reforms like rest breaks. You still had to eat while dancing, but chest-high buffet tables were set up. Dancing by couple replaced individual competitors. One partner could hold up the other while they slept. Some contests lasted for weeks. To weed out competitors, a ten minute run or sudden fox-trot or tango might be thrown in. As time went on crowds expected more, so vaudeville acts were added. Some dance halls brought in professional dancers who masqueraded as average couples. Some played the role of villains like in a modern day wrestling match. Some dances lasted weeks, but you could win over a thousand dollars. The dances retained their popularity going into the Great Depression and the prospect of prize money, or at least a free meal, attracted participants. However, as the Depression continued, the public began to view the contests as acts of desperation and thus too depressing to watch. Plunges Again pp. 102-104
CAR NAMES –
Chevrolet – Louis Chevrolet was a race car driver and co-founder.
Oldsmobile – Ransom Eli Olds was an early car developer who started Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897
Rolls-Royce – Sir Henry Royce and Charles Rolls started the company in 1903.
Mercedes-Benz – Karl Benz may have invented the car in 1879. Mercedes was a young girl who was the daughter of one of his investors.
Dodge – John and Horace Dodge made car transmissions for Olds. In 1914, they started their own company to offer a cheaper alternative to Ford.
Buick – David Dunbar Buick sold his failing car company to William Durant in 1908. Durant retained the name. Buick died broke.
Chrysler – Walter Chrysler was a large man so he built cars for big people.
QUEEN OF HEAVEN – Aimee Semple McPherson was the most famous evangelist in America in the 1920s. She was known as “the Queen of Heaven” and had thousands of followers. Her International Church of the Foursquare Gospel opened a huge temple in Los Angeles. It could hold 5,000 worshipers. They would be serenaded by an 80 piece xylophone band. On May 18, 1926, she disappeared while swimming in the Pacific. There were several ransom notes. On June 23, she crossed the Mexican border into Douglas, Arizona and told a tale of escaping kidnappers. Suspicions arose immediately, partly because of her unscuffed shoes. Reporters uncovered evidence of a rented cottage (“the honeymoon cottage”) where she stayed with a married ex-employee for ten days in May. An employee at the temple reported that the kidnapping was a cover-up for the affair. In September, McPherson was arrested for “conspiracy to commit acts injurious to public morals”. Before the trial, the temple employee was arrested for bad checks. It also was discovered that he had spent time in a mental hospital for telling big lies. The D.A. dropped the charges. McPherson went on a “Vindication Tour” on the East Coast, but the publicity had ruined her reputation. She died at age 53 from an accidental barbiturate overdose. Uncle 4 pp. 90-91
ELIOT NESS – In 1929, the 26 year-old Eliot Ness was charged by the Justice Department with taking down Al Capone in Chicago. He created a ten man team of incorruptible agents known as “The Intouchables”. In the first six months, his team shut down 19 of Capone’s distilleries and 6 breweries. This crippled Capone’s organization, but it was tax evasion that sent Capone to prison. After Chicago, Ness became director of public safety for Cleveland. He got rid of police corruption, arrested dozens of gangsters, and reduced juvenile crime by 2/3. In 1942, at age 39 he hit another car and left the scene. Witnesses claimed he was drunk, which he disputed. Public pressure caused him to resign two months later. He spent the rest of his life failing in various businesses, losing his marriage, and failing in politics. He died of a heart attack in 1957, owing $8,000. Uncle 4 pp. 136-137
SHIPWRECK KELLY – In 1893, thirteen year old Alvin Kelly ran off to sea. Some said he became known as “Shipwreck” Kelly because he was on several ships that wrecked. More likely he got it from his boxing days. He was not very good and fans would yell: “Sailor Kelly’s been shipwrecked again!” In 1920, he got a job constructing skyscrapers and discovered that he was not afraid of heights. He started balancing on rooftops, climbing walls, and high diving. In 1924, at age 31, he was hired to sit on a flagpole at a Los Angeles movie theater as a publicity stunt. The act drew big crowds and soon he was being paid $100/day for similar stunts. He sat on a 13” wooden disc. He would take 5 minute naps with his thumbs in holes bored into the pole. Food and drink were raised by rope in a pail. For bathroom breaks, a wash basin would be raised with a covering blanket for privacy. Sometimes he stood on a smaller 8” platform. He would stand for hours, not days. . He became so popular that there were numerous imitators and many called themselves “Shipwreck Kelly”. Children began to sit in trees and on poles. In 1930, he set the record of 49 days. He sat on a 125’ mast in Atlantic City. He spent time answering fan mail and broadcasting on radio. He withstood thunderstorms and hail. Before he came down, a girl was pulled up to shave him and cut his hair. 20,000 people gathered for his descent. He continued to sit into the 1940’s, but his fame faded. He died in 1952 of a heart attack. He had a scrap book full of old news clippings under his arm. Uncle Great Big pp. 270-273
1920’s JOKES – In the 1920’s, a popular joke took the form of “She was only a ___, but she ___”.
– telephone operator’s daughter, had bad connections
– milkman’s daughter, was the cream of the crop
– waitress’ daughter, could really dish it out
– moonshiner’s daughter, but I love her still
– poet’s daughter, but I’ve seen verse
– doctor’s daughter, knew how to operate
LINDBERGH’S FLIGHT – There was a $25,000 prize for the first to fly the Atlantic. Six men had died and three had been badly injured trying. The 25 year-old Lindbergh had helped design the plane which he named the “Spirit of St. Louis” in honor of his financial backers. Lindbergh took off in a rainstorm and barely cleared trees at the end of the runway. He did not carry a parachute because he didn’t want the added weight. He had to use a flashlight to read the instrument panel and a periscope to look outside the plane. He had not slept for some time, but whenever he would nod off the plane would immediately become unstable and it would wake him up. By the end of the flight, he had not slept in 55 hours. When he landed in Paris after a 3,600 mile journey that took 33 ½ hours, it was his first night landing. He carried a letter of introduction, but he didn’t need it because France had been waiting for him and he was met by a mob at the air field. President Coolidge sent the USS Memphis to bring him back. He received a twenty-one gun salute when he arrived back in America – an honor usually reserved for heads of state. He had the first ticker-tape parade in New York City. He was the first Time magazine Man of the Year. maroon p. 60 / Strange 234-5
1920’s KNOCK-KNOCK JOKES –
– Knock, knock/ who’s there/Cigarette/Cigarette who?/ cigarette life if you don’t weaken
– Knock, knock/ who’s there?/ Amos / Amos who? / a mosquito bit me
– Knock, knock / who’s there?/ Max / Max who?/ Max no difference
– Knock, knock / Who’s there?/ Sarah / Sarah who?/ Sarah doctor in the house?
– Knock, knock / who’s there? / Yule / Yule who? / Yule never know
– Knock, knock / who’s there? / Eileen / Eileen who? / Eileen down to tie my shoe
– Knock, knock / who’s there? / Window / Window who? / window we eat?
– Knock, knock / who’s there? / Avenue / Avenue who? / Avenue a baby sister?
– Knock, knock / who’s there? / Tarzan / Tarzan who? / Tarzan stripes forever
– Knock, knock / who’s there? / Cargo / Cargo who? / Cargo honk, honk
maroon
PROHIBITION SONG
Mother’s in the kitchen
Washing out the jugs;
Sister’s in the pantry
Bottling the suds;
Father’s in the cellar
Mixing up the hops;
Johnny’s on the front porch
Watching for the cops.
Lawrence 166
IZZY EINSTEIN – Izzy Einstein was the most famous “dry agent” (a policeman who enforced Prohibition). He and his partner Moe Smith took down many speakeasy owners. Izzy’s first arrest occurred when he knocked on a speakeasy door and when asked who he was, he proclaimed that he was a Prohibition agent. The owner thought this was so funny, he let him in and gave him a drink, and got arrested. Tactics included dressing up to fool the bartender. Once they dressed as football players and came in for a victory drink. If it was a hangout for musicians, Izzy would show up with a trombone. Another time Moe stood outside a speakeasy on a wintry night in little clothing. When he had turned a nice shade of blue, Izzy carried him into the establishment begging for a drink to help revive this poor fellow. The empathetic bartender gave him the drink and got arrested. Because of press coverage, the pair became famous. Once, followed by a pack of reporters, they raided 71 speakeasies in twelve hours. Some speakeasy owners put a picture of Izzy up on the wall so he could not fool their bartenders. One day Izzy went into a speakeasy and saw his picture above the bar, undeterred he ordered a drink. The bartender told him he never sold booze to anyone he didn’t know. Izzy responded: “But I’m the famous dry agent Izzy Epstein. Look, there’s my picture.” Bartender: “You don’t even look like that guy and besides, his name is Einstein.” Izzy: “I should know my own name, it’s Epstein”. They proceeded to argue over the name until it was decided to put it to a vote of the other patrons. Izzy lost the vote and was forced to buy a round of drinks for the bar. He then arrested the bartender.
Lawrence 170-172
PROHIBITION – The temperance movement was fighting a long tradition of drinking in America.
– the Mayflower carried lots of beer
– the Puritans brought 10,000 gallons of wine
– Washington offered voters free liquor when he campaigned for the House of Burgesses
– Continental Army soldiers were given a daily rum ration
– hard cider was very popular in early America and even kids had it for breakfast before going to school
– in the early 1800’s, the average consumption of liquor was 5 gallons per person per year (today it is around 2)
– saloons were very common in the Wild West, e.g. Dodge City had 19 for its 1,200 people
– in the Gilded Age, patent medicines were loaded with alcohol (some up to 47%)
THE BLACK SOX SCANDAL – The Chicago White Sox were the best team in baseball in 1919. They were the clear favorites to win the World Series. But they didn’t. Because some of the players cheated. It all started when infielder Chick Gandil contacted some gamblers and offered to fix the games. The gamblers agreed to pay any participating players $100,000 total. Gandil recruited 29 game winner Eddie Cicotte. Six other players were implicated, including “Shoeless Joe” Jackson. Jackson was one of the best hitters in baseball and a future hall of famer. Their motivation was the fact that the White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey, was a notorious skin-flint and underpaid his players unfairly. Although they did not receive the full $100,000 (Gandil got $35,000 and Cicotte $10,000), the White Sox lost enough games suspiciously to lose the World Series. Rumors of corruption led to the arrest of the eight players on charges of conspiracy to defraud the public and injure the American League. Although some of the players testified that they knew of the fix, none were found guilty due to lack of evidence. However, before the eight could return to the field, Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all of them for life. He did not care about the not guilty verdict. He probably got most of it right, but Buck Weaver almost surely only knew about the plot and did not participate in throwing any games. Many also believed this about Jackson, who batted .375 in the series with six RBIs and no errors. Unfortunately for his defenders, he apparently did pocket $5,000, even though he did not throw any of the games. No Hall of Fame for him. “Say it ain’t so, Joe” a little boy supposedly said to him. Amazing 183-184
LIFE IN 1920
– population = 106 million
– people who live on a farm = 30%
– life expectancy = men – 54 / women = 55
– average household = 4.6 people
– average salary = $1,236
– lynchings = 61
– strikes = 3,411
FIRSTS
– 1920 – public radio broadcast (1920 election returns) / Tommy Gun (John Thompson) / the word “jazz” / pogo stick / water skiing / Baby Ruth candy bar
– 1921 – Rorschach ink blot test / Eskimo Pie / Betty Crocker / table tennis / Miss America pageant / Band Aids / Wrigley’s chewing gum
– 1922 – insulin
– 1923 – marathon dancing / flagpole sitting / Ouija board / Zenith / Milky Way candy bar / Butterfinger
– 1924 – Chrysler / IBM / Kleenex / Wheaties / Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade / “Little Orphan Annie”
– 1925 – National Spelling Bee / motel / Bugs Bunny
– 1926 – Pontiac
– 1927 – car radio / Gerber’s baby food
– 1928 – Peter Pan peanut butter / Rice Krispies / Mickey Mouse
– 1929 – Popeye / 7-Up
THE RISE OF CAPONE – Al Capone’s parents immigrated from Italy to Brooklyn where he was born in 1899. A B-student, he dropped out of school in sixth grade. Growing up in a rough neighborhood, he joined two gangs – the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves. He did jobs like pinboy in a bowling alley, but discovered that he could make more money as a criminal. He went to work for a gangster and got his famous scar while tending bar in his establishment. By 1918, he had murdered two men and he had to flee to Chicago. There he hooked up with Johnny Torrio and eventually moved up to his number two man after he killed Torrio’s boss. He ran Torrio’s bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling operations. When Torrio moved to Italy after being shot several times in an assassination attempt, Capone took over. Lists p. 10-11
THE PERFECT CRIME – Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were rich boys attending graduate school at the University of Chicago. Having lived a pampered life, they came to the conclusion that they were superior to regular people. To prove it to themselves, they decided to pull off the perfect crime. In 1924, they picked up a boy named Bobby Franks. Franks, a distant cousin of Loeb, was the son of a Chicago millionaire. He was hit over the head with a chisel and suffocated to death. The body was stripped, dosed with acid, and dumped in a culvert at Wolf Lake, Indiana. Unfortunately for perfection, Loeb left an expensive pair of eyeglasses at the scene and they were traced to him. Leopold and Loeb were arrested and under questioning admitted to the crime. The most famous lawyer in the country, Clarence Darrow, was hired for the case. He shocked everyone by having his clients plead guilty, knowing they had a better chance for leniency with the judge than with a jury. For the sentencing, he brought in psychiatric experts to argue the two were immature and were emotionally “diseased”. After twelve hours of closing arguments by Darrow, they were sentenced to life plus 99 years. They were model prisoners, including hosting a school for inmates. Loeb was murdered by another convict in 1936. Leopold was paroled in 1958. He moved to Puerto Rico and worked in a hospital. He dreamed of coming up with a medical breakthrough that would change him from a villain to a hero. That dream went unfulfilled. Lists 146-7
A DOZEN HOT DOGS – Babe Ruth had a great appetite for everything. Once, before a game, he consumed a couple of sandwiches, a dozen hot dogs, ten bottles of soda pop, and an apple for dessert. Midway through the game, Ruth got a terrible stomach ache and had to be taken to the hospital. Later, he told reporters: “I should have never eaten that apple.” Humes 49
MISS AMERICA – Atlantic City was a popular destination for families wanting to enjoy a beach vacation, but after Labor Day, tourism dropped off drastically. H. Conrad Eckholm, owner of the Monticello Hotel, was looking for a way to keep tourists coming. He came up with the idea of a festival called “Fall Frolic” that was held in late September of 1920. It was a hit. The next year, a newspaperman suggested a beauty contest be added. Newspapers would solicit photos of women, choose one, and send her to Atlantic for a paid vacation. The contest winner was called “The Most Beautiful Bathing Beauty in America”. By 1925, the winner was being called “Miss America”, but it was not until 1941 that it became official. There were only seven contestants the first year. The winner was fifteen year-old Margaret Gorman who did not even know she was entered until reporters told her while she was playing marbles. In 1922, there were 57 contestants and the pageant had taken off. It had to overcome opposition from women’s and religious groups and scandals involving married contestants. The pageant ceased to exist from 1928-1935 because of bad publicity. It was revived under the leadership of Lenora Slaughter who cleaned it up. She de-emphasized the swimsuit competition and added evening gowns and the talent competition. She insisted on an eighteen year-old minimum and instituted strict rules like no contact with any men (including fathers) and no contact with alcohol. It first appeared on TV in 1954 and became enormously popular. The late-60’s brought more problems as feminists protested and there was increased criticism of the lack of African-American participation. Reforms were made. Miss Congeniality was dropped in 1975 and the pageant stopped mentioning the women’s measurements in 1986. Uncle 8 49-51, 112-114, 152-154, 202-203, 257-259, 296-298
CARTER WOODSON
The Father of Black History was born on Dec. 18, 1875. Carter Woodson was born to illiterate former slaves in Virginia. His family was so poor that he had to work in the coal mines and did not attend high school until age 20. He graduated in two years and started teaching high school. He graduated from Berea College and went on to get his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912. He was the second African-American (after W.E.B. DuBois) to get a doctorate. In 1915, he co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to foster the study of black history. He felt the subject was being neglected by white historians. Although a member of the American Historical Association, he was not allowed to attend the meetings. They did not see blacks as participants in their country’s history. Woodson argued that black historians “had the advantage of being able to think black.” Woodson viewed the job of historians as to interpret historical facts and put them in context. In 1916, he started The Journal of Negro History, which he edited for the next thirty years. In February of 1926, he came up with the idea of Negro History Week. He decided on the week based on the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. (It was expanded to Black History Month in 1970 through the efforts of black students and educators at Kent State University.) Woodson often said he looked forward to the day when a special week for black history would be unnecessary. Woodson was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Howard University for many years. By the time he died in 1950, he had inspired many black teachers, scholars, and historians.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carter-G-Woodson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson
PROHIBITION FACTS
- There was a Prohibition Party and its symbol was the camel because it doesn’t need to drink much. The party still exists. In California it works to get winemakers to switch to a different crop from grapes.
- Large parts of the country were “dry” already.
- Economists argued for the amendment arguing that it would get rid of “Blue Mondays” which was a reference to workers not showing up for work because of hangovers from the weekend.
- Some supporters were anti-immigrant. So was the KKK, thus the Klan benefited from the push for Prohibition.
- Pres. Wilson actually vetoed the Volstead Act, arguing it attempted to regulate “personal habits and customs.” He was overridden.
- The amendment did not make drinking alcohol illegal. It made the making, transporting, and sale illegal.
- Prohibition was a step forward for women in society because women could now drink with men as speakeasies allowed women in.
- Tipping became accepted. Before Prohibition, it was not popular because Americans associated it with European upper classes. During Prohibition, restaurants had to cut corners by cutting servers’ salaries. Customers were encouraged to help out by tipping.
- Breweries switched to selling malt extract for making bread. But very few people actually bought it to make home made bread.
- Winemakers sold bricks of dried grape juice. It came with detailed instructions on how NOT (wink wink) to soak it and allow it to ferment.
- Pres. Harding hosted meetings of his Poker Cabinet where liquor was sold. Bootlegger George Cassaday brought bottles of booze to Capitol Hill and estimated that 70-80% of Congressmen and Senators drank.
- Every other amendment to the Constitution has been ratified by the state legislatures. The 21st Amendment is the only one ratified by state conventions. South and North Carolina’s conventions rejected the repeal. Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and North and South Dakota all refused to even hold a convention. The most dry state has to have been Kansas. When it first became a state in the 1850’s it had put prohibition in its state constitution and did not remove it until 1948!
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/603956/prohibition-facts
THE ROSEWOOD MASSACRE
The recent 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre has brought a lot of coverage of this forgotten event. You would assume it will now be covered in high school classrooms in the future. But that is not guaranteed. A similar incident that occurred two years later and was uncovered in the 1980’s was soon forgotten again.
Rosewood, Florida was a small town that was all-black except for the husband and wife who ran the local general store. On Jan. 1, 1923 a white woman in nearby Sumner was found bruised in her home. 22 year-old Fannie Taylor did not claim she was raped, but she did claim she had been assaulted by a black man. (It is likely that it was actually a white lover who had beaten her when her husband was off at work.) Sheriff Robert Walker learned that a Jesse Hunter had escaped from a chain-gang and he became the leading suspect. Walker went to Rosewood, but so did a white mob led by Fannie’s husband. Dogs targeted the home of Aaron Carrier (nephew of Sarah who did laundry for the Taylors). Carrier was tied to a car and dragged to Sumner. There he was beaten before Walker intervened to rescue him and ship him off to a jail in Gainesville. The mob continued the search. Blacksmith Sam Carter was tortured. He claimed he knew where Hunter was hiding and led the whites into the woods. When no Hunter was found, Carter was shot and hung from a tree. 25 blacks took refuge in the home of Sarah Carrier, including many children. The night of Jan. 4, a group of whites surrounded the house thinking Hunter was there. Shots were exchanged. Sarah was hit in the head and her son Slyvester was killed, too. But not before he killed two whites trying to break in. Eventually, the mob got in, but the kids escaped to the swamp. Newspapers reported the standoff and morphed it into a mob of armed blacks launching a race war. This increased the number of whites rushing to the area, including many KKK members from a recent rally in Gainesville. Churches were burned, houses were set afire and fleeing blacks were shot. By this time, most blacks had taken refuge in the swamps. When James Carrier (son of Sarah) returned, he was captured, forced to dig a grave, and was killed. Not all whites were villains. John Wright and his wife hid blacks at their general store. John and William Bryce, who owned their own train, used it to rescue women and children. Sheriff Walker tried to reign in the mob with limited success. It returned on Jan. 7 to finish the burning, leaving only the store. After it was only ashes, the black community refused to return and the town ceased to exist. The story also died. Officially 6 blacks and 2 whites were killed. Some historians, based on eyewitness accounts, estimate the actual figure was closer to 27. The story was rediscovered in the 1980’s and John Singleton made a highly fictionalized movie about it, but it was soon forgotten again. Share this so it won’t happen again.
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/rosewood-massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE
The Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma was known as “Black Wall Street” going into the 1920’s. Black businesses had tapped into the oil boom and the crumbs were enough to create unusual prosperity for an African-American community in an area where Jim Crow and the KKK reigned. On the other side of the tracks, literally, whites were resentful of Greenwood. The kindling was there for a fire to break out. The spark came on May 30, 1921 when a black shoeshiner went to a white building to use the bathroom. He got onto the elevator, which was run by 17-year-old Sarah Paige. What happened next is unclear, but most likely a lurch by the elevator caused 19-year-old Dick Rowland to bump into the woman. She yelled and he fled. Rumor of a sexual assault spread rapidly and fuel was thrown on the fire by the Tulsa Tribune, which ran an inflammatory front page article under the title “Nab Negra for Attacking Girl on an Elevator”. Rowland was arrested the next day. When a white mob gathered at the court house, but Sheriff Willard McCullough refused to give him up to be lynched. At 9 P.M., 15 armed blacks, including WWI vets in uniform, came to guard the court house. McCullough convinced them he had the situation under control and convinced them to leave. One hour later, 75 armed blacks returned as rumors of a lynch mob alerted them. Sure enough, about 1,500 whites had gathered. One of them tried to disarm one of the blacks and a shot was fired. This was followed by fire fight. The blacks withdrew to Greenwood where they were determined to defend their community. During the night that defense was successful and things seemed to calm down. However, in the morning, whites organized to put down what they were told was a black insurrection. Police deputized members of the mob. In a military style assault, the mob moved through the area, looting, burning, and killing. Eyewitnesses reported that planes dropped incendiaries. 1,256 houses were burned and 215 were looted. Both newspapers were destroyed, and a school, a hospital, churches, and numerous businesses. It is estimate that between 100-300 people were killed. (Rowland was not one of them.) The was second only to the New York Draft Riot. By the time the National Guard arrived, the riot was over. The Guard was available to help with the detainment of 6,000 blacks in designated areas. Eventually, they were freed and most moved away. No one was held accountable and a cover-up kept the incident from becoming well-known. It made few history textbooks.
https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
THE LEOPOLD AND LOEB CASE
One “Crime of the Century” occurred on this day in 1924. Nathan Leopold (18-years old) and Richard Loeb (19) thought they had committed the perfect crime when they kidnapped and killed 14- year old Bobby Franks. They hadn’t, but they became the poster boys for the botched perfect crime. Leopold was a millionaire’s son who was a brilliant student and famous amateur ornithologist. Richard Loeb was the son of a retired vice president of Sears. He went to college at age 15 and graduated at age 17. Handsome and charming, he was also an alcoholic who believed in taking risks. It was his idea to commit the perfect crime to prove their intellectual superiority. Leopold was on board because as a disciple of German philosopher Nietzsche, he believed in the idea of the superman who was above the law. The two became lovers while attending the University of Chicago. They got their kicks with acts of burglary and arson, but were disappointed in the lack of news coverage. They hatched plan to kidnap and ransom a child. On May 21, 1924 they drove around looking for a victim. After two hours, they spotted Leopold’s cousin Franks walking home. They convinced him to get in the front seat of the car. Soon after, Loeb bludgeoned Franks with a chisel. The body was hidden in a culvert where it was found before the ransom scheme could finish. Although they tried to cover their tracks, Leopold had dropped his glasses at the culvert. It had an unusual hinge that was traced to him and the duo were arrested and confessed. Loeb opined that he was justified in his search for knowledge. Killing Franks was no different than pulling the wings off a fly to find that it would make it useless. Loeb’s father hired Clarence Darrow. Darrow was the most famous defense lawyer after his defense of labor union leader Eugene Debs for criminal conspiracy in the Pullman Strike. He was paid $70,000 ($1 million today). Darrow took the case because he saw it as a chance to oppose the death penalty. He believed crime was a mental problem and the solution was not punishment, especially the death. Knowing a jury would never declare innocence, he had the two plead guilty so Judge John Caverly would hear and decide the case. Caverly had a reputation for leniency. Both sides presented a team of psychiatrists. The defense focused on psychoanalysis and argued that both young men had been traumatized by their governesses (haven’t we all?). They lived in a fantasy world. The prosecution shrinks focused on neurology and proclaimed the two totally sane. The dueling psychiatrists were not a great moment for the public’s perception of psychiatry! Or of judges, as Cavelry decided the two men were too young to fry. He sentenced them both to 99 years in prison. In 1936, Loeb was stabbed in the prison shower. In 1958, Leopold was paroled and moved to Puerto Rico where he died in 1971.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leopold-and-loebs-criminal-minds-996498/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb
THE BATH SCHOOL DISASTER
I hesitated to research this event and then I pondered whether to post it. But American History teachers can not ignore the bad moments in our history. Not that I would pass this one on to your students. It is important that it is not forgotten, which it was even back then, partly being overshadowed by Lindbergh’s Atlantic flight.
May 18, 1927 was the last day of school for over 300 students in Bath, Michigan. Many of them would not live to enjoy summer vacation. At 8:45 A.M. a huge explosion collapsed the north wing of the three-story building. The K-12 school served the small farm community and the surrounding area. It seemed an unlikely target for terrorism. Andrew Keohe was no terrorist. He was just evil. Keohe, 55-years-old, was a farmer and treasurer of the school board. For several weeks he had been smuggling pyrotol dynamite into the basement of the building. He purchased the WWI surplus explosives in small amounts. He used some of it to help neighboring farmers blow up tree stumps, so the explosives did not appear suspicious. Before the school bombing, he murdered his wife and at 8:45 of the fateful day, he blew up his farm and barn. The explosives in the basement were timed to go off at the same time. Fortunately, 500 pounds of dynamite in the basement of the south wing failed to explode or it could have been much worse. It was bad enough and still ranks as the worst school disaster in American History. 38 students and 6 adults were killed. 58 were wounded. How evil was Keogh? He showed up a half hour later in his truck as rescue efforts were underway. Exiting from the truck with a rifle, two men wrestled with him. He set off the dynamite and pieces of metal in his truck. The explosion killed Keohe, the school superintendent, two bystanders, and Cleo Clayton. Cleo was an 8-year-old second grader who had survived the first explosion. Did I mention Keohe is burning in Hell? Why did Keohe do it? We will never know for sure. Although treasurer for the school board, he had a beef with having to pay taxes to support the school system. He owed $198 for 1926. He remarked once that the upcoming foreclosure of his farm was due to the tax bill. Some Bathians focused on his loss in the election for town clerk as his motivation. He left a note on a fence that read: “Criminals are made, not born.” Poor excuse, a-hole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
BUDDY, THE FIRST AMERICAN GUIDE DOG
Morris Frank grew up caring for his blind mother. When he was young, he lost sight in his right eye when he ran into a tree branch while horse-riding. At age 16, he lost sight in his other eye due to a boxing accident. At Vanderbilt University, he became frustrated with having to use young men as assistants. They were often lazy and inattentive. In 1927, his father read about a school in Germany that paired blinded WWI veterans with guide dogs. At age 19, Frank travelled to Dorothy Harrison Eustis’ dog training school in Switzerland. He was paired off with a female German shepherd named Kiss. Frank changed the dog’s name to Buddy. In 1928, Frank and Buddy returned to the U.S. to be greeted by newspaper reporters. Frank accepted the dare to cross a busy New York City street. Buddy was up to the task and the pair launched a publicity tour to highlight the needs of the disabled. One year later, Frank and Eustis founded The Seeing Eye to train guide dogs. Frank and Buddy traveled 50,000 miles in the next ten years to show the efficacy of seeing-eye dogs. A few days before Buddy died in 1938, he became the first guide dog to make a commercial airplane flight.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/morris-frank-and-buddy-statue
https://americacomesalive.com/buddy-the-first-seeing-eye-dog/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_dog