In the 1920s, American culture was increasingly becoming more secularized, creating tensions between modernity and traditional religious values. The first “Miss America” pageants embodied these conflicts, as it became both a target of religious resistance and a reflection of a callback to older ideas. Americans struggled to balance adapting to modernity while preserving their traditional beliefs and values. Religion was losing its influence on Americans with many standards straying away from the strictness of Victorian attitudes. Religion and Protestantism was no longer a dominant force in cultural norms and in efforts to maintain religion, urban churches started programs that created places of worship alongside spaces for social, recreational, and educational purposes. However, many religious leaders, including Protestant ministers and Jewish leaders, faced declining attendance and decreasing support for missionary efforts. These leaders viewed the popular culture of the 1920s, dominated by materialism and the pursuit of wealth, as a decline in religious values. Religious fundamentalists and Evangelical Christians also feared that the country was experiencing a moral and spiritual decline.¹ The first “Miss America” pageants of the 1920s serve as an example of an event that religious groups sought to oppose through protests, aiming to dismantle what they considered a moral decline. The “Miss America” pageant included a bathing suit competition, which many religious groups opposed. They sought to combat the rise of swimwear in the 1920s, particularly for women, viewing it as immoral and immodest. Moral outrage from clergymen contributed to the censorship of physical appearances on public beaches, as they insisted that women cover their knees.² This influenced the “Miss America” pageant because of its emphasis on “bathing beauties”. The pageant was met with further resistance with religious groups claiming it damaged the good choices, reputation, and morals of young women. Groups like Southern Baptists and the “Atlantic County Federation of Church Women”, joined in resistance and protest. Not only did they believe it damaged women’s morals, but they also viewed it as the exploitation of women for financial gain and corrupting them by encouraging rivalry among themselves.³ These protests are credited as having an important role in why the pageant was temporarily paused in 1928 through the early 30s.

Ironically, while traditional religious groups opposed the pageant for being “immoral”, it was an event that eagerly promoted a “traditional” and “conservative” idea of femininity. The “Miss America” pageant aimed to uphold the image of a more traditional woman, distancing itself from  the “New Woman,” represented by women in politics and flappers. Before the “Miss America” pageant was established in 1921, suffragettes held suffrage pageants. They dressed up as influential women in history, seeking to raise public awareness and funds for their political efforts.⁴ However, the “Miss America” pageant focused only on beauty, based on what men and the audience viewed as beautiful. In addition, the pageant strived to distance itself from the flapper image. Flappers were young, single women who strayed away from Victorian constraints by wearing bobbed hair, shorter and less shaped skirts, darker makeup, and smoked. In contrast, the “Miss America” pageant praised “non threatening” women who had conservative hairstyles such as longer hair, were more subservient, viewed beauty as an important goal, and demonstrated capability of being a good wife, homemaker, and mother.⁵ Contestants who had longer hair were more often praised than those with bobbed or bobbed-like hair. It was an important characteristic for “Miss America” to have, especially in the earlier competitions. Pageant organizers also tried to portray the event as “above alcohol” or other habits such as smoking. Overall, the pageant wished to portray its winners as symbols of what a 1920s American woman “should be and look like”. While religious traditionalists viewed it as immoral, the pageant still sought to revive a more traditional ideal of Victorian-like femininity and virtue.

Bibliography

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.

Riverol, Armando. Live from Atlantic City: The History of the Miss America Pageant Before, After, and in Spite of Television. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1992.

Latham, Angela J. “Packaging Woman: The Concurrent Rise of Beauty Pageants, Public Bathing, and Other Performances of Female ‘Nudity.'” Journal of Popular Culture 29, no. 3 (1995): 149–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1995.00149.x.

Watson, Elwood, and Darcy Martin. “The Miss America Pageant: Pluralism, Femininity, and Cinderella All in One.” Journal of Popular Culture 34, no. 1 (June 1, 2000): 105–26. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.2000.3401_105.x.  

Watson, E., ed. “There She Is, Miss America”: The Politics of Sex, Beauty, and Race in America’s Most Famous Pageant. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Bettmann Archive. Policewomen Checking Length Violations. Chicago, Illinois, 1921.

Bettmann Archive. 1924 Miss America from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ruth Malcomson. 1924.

Thomas, Bob. Cinema Personalities, 1923, American Actress Colleen Moore. Popperfoto/Getty Images, 1923.

Featured Photo: Atlantic Foto Service. Contestants of the 1925 Miss America Pageant. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1925.

Citations

1. Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995), 169-186. ︎
2. Angela J. Latham, “Packaging Woman: The Concurrent Rise of Beauty Pageants, Public Bathing, and Other Performances of Female ‘Nudity,’” Journal of Popular Culture 29, no. 3 (1995): 158, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1995.00149.x. ︎
3. Armando Riverol, Live from Atlantic City: The History of the Miss America Pageant Before, After, and in Spite of Television (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1992), 24. ︎
4. Elwood Watson, ed., “There She Is, Miss America”: The Politics of Sex, Beauty, and Race in America’s Most Famous Pageant (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 28-29. ︎
5. Watson, “There She Is, Miss America”, 32. ︎

grlynn

Grlynn is a Ramapo College senior majoring in history

Kansas City

While most people associate the beginnings of Disney with cartoons such as Steamboat Willie, the journey of the studio actually began over 5 years prior to the creation of Mickey Mouse in 1928. It is well known of the founding date of the Disney Brothers Studio on October 16, 1923, but if any person were asked about it, the details of it event and what occurred would be lost. Not only that, but this event’s relation to the entertainment industry in the 1920s plays an important role in the growth of the Disney company far into the future. From technological advancements by combining cartoons and live-action film, the optimism and drive to follow any opportunity that came about, and social details regarding who would be working in the industry at the time, the founding of the Disney company gives more insight into the 1920s than many are aware. Starting in 1923, the road to Disney’s success was just beginning. In the midst of the 1920s with increased production and growth in the entertainment industry, it was almost too perfect of a time for Walt and Roy Disney to start their own studio that would become beloved for years to come. 

Twenty-one year old Walt and four-year old Virginia Davis in a scene from Alice’s Wonderland in 1923.

“We have just discovered something new and clever in animated cartoons! The first subject of this distinctly different series is now in production, and will require a few more weeks more for completion. It is a new idea that will appeal to all classes, and is bound to be a winner, because it is a clever combination of live characters and cartoons, not like “Out of the Inkwell” or Earl Hurd’s, but of an entirely different nature, using a cast of live child actors who carry on their action on cartoon scenes with cartoon characters. These new subjects will be a full reel in length, and can be released in regular intervals of two weeks or a month. However, before you go any further into the matter, we desire that you see some of our former work, so you may appreciate the quality the same. We ask that you get in touch with Mr. W.R. Kelly, of Pictorial Clubs Inc., 350 Madison Ave., New York City, and he will gladly screen several of our [Laugh-O-gram fairy tale] subjects for you. We will not try to explain to tell you any more about this new idea; instead, we will send you a print upon completion of the first one, if you so desire.” (Letter from Walt Disney to M.J. Winkler, from Walt Before Mickey, Disney’s Early Years 1919-1928, Timothy S. Susanin)

Margaret J. Winkler, played a key role in the foundation of the Disney company. She started her own company at 26, becoming established in the animation industry and one of very few female film distributors. Winkler handled press releases, promotional campaigns, advertising, and distributing animations. She was an important figure in animation history as the first woman to produce and distribute films. 

Despite her initial interest in the animation, Walt pulled back, having not completed the series to send out, and his company struggled even further until it was eventually bankrupt. Nonetheless, the film was completed and ran for twelve minutes and twenty-five seconds. 

However, even after completing the film with Virginia Davis, many of the deals and work he was getting kept falling through. It seemed to prove that all the opportunities in Kansas City were exhausted. Even his brother Roy suggested that he move to Los Angeles, and in the summer of 1923, Disney decided to go to Hollywood when he was just twenty-two years old.

Los Angeles

Walt was satisfied with his decision to move to Los Angeles stating that “the pull toward Hollywood became strong. Animation was big there, and if [he] couldn’t be successful at that, [he] wanted to be a director or a writer.”¹ L.A. was an obvious choice for opportunities in film and animation as it quickly became the film capital in the United States. After arriving in L.A., Walt did not have his own place to stay and work on his animations. He instead moved in with his uncle, Robert Disney. 

“In the past, all cartoons combining live characters have been produced in an amateur manner with cartoonists doing the acting, photographing, etc. It is my intention to employ only trained and experienced people for my casts and staff that I may inject quality humor, photography, and detail into these comedies. I would appreciate an interview with your representative here that I may screen several comedies and explain my new idea.” (Letter from Walt Disney to M.J. Winkler, from Walt Before Mickey, Disney’s Early Years 1919-1928, Timothy S. Susanin)

The Staff of Disney Brothers Studio, taken outside the Kingswell Avenue location.

Walt almost immediately accepted this deal, even reaching out to Margaret Davis, the mother of Virginia Davis, to star her in the series and that it would be an opportunity for her to work in Hollywood. He offered her a one-year contract, one in which she accepted very promptly as she planned to go to Hollywood in the first place for more opportunities for Virginia. The first short produced in Los Angeles was Alice’s Day at Sea in November, shortly after Virginia Davis and her parents made the move to California in 1923. 

The Alice Comedies after being distributed by Winkler.

Significance in the 1920s

The period of the 1920s had a significant impact on Disney’s studio being established. Around the 1920s animation had many issues with being distributed. Movie theaters were mostly focused on showing live-action films and did not want to spend money on preliminary animations that would be shown before the featured film. The entire film industry in the U.S. was very quickly changing and growing, not just the animation industry. Animation studios primarily stayed in the New York area, but meanwhile the rest of the film industry was moving west towards California, especially Hollywood. Many studios made the move in the early 1900s due to good weather conditions, good natural light, and inexpensive costs. By the 1920s the Hollywood area became the capital of the U.S. film industry. Animation did become a part of the Hollywood film business shortly after though. Walt Disney was not immune to the urge to go to Hollywood with this quick rise in business in California. Especially since at the time, the rise of popularity in leisure and watching movies grew within American culture. 

The 1920s show the emergence of America as a consumer culture. It highlights the way in which people turned to leisure and consumption to find satisfaction in life, which included going to see movies in theaters. This turn towards leisure activity is what Walt Disney was also able to capitalize on at the time with starting his business in animation. Hollywood also rapidly turned into a cultural symbol along with being the center of entertainment. It was considered glamorous, exciting, and with new emerging technological advancements in film and animation, was considered the place to go for aspiring directors, writers, and actors. The Alice Comedies series, as a part of Disney’s work at the time, shows not only the progression of technology and entertainment by combining live-action and animation, but also the appeal of said entertainment to the public as it grew in popularity. 

Many movies were made to appeal to the general public as an audience, this included animated cartoons and films. Audiences were often made up of both adults and children, and the themes shown in films were aimed at both older and younger viewers. Especially as changes in the film and animation industry shifted as social attitudes, context, and events occurred in the U.S. With societal changes that film themes followed, the workers and distributors behind these films were relevant for the 1920s and Disney’s start. Margaret Winkler, as previously stated, was one of few female distributors and even went on to start her own company. Even after her involvement in her company declined after getting married, she still made important decisions that impacted the development of many animated series. Acceptance of women in this industry was not common and that they were a threat to their positions. As stated by The Boston Traveler, “one of the few remaining fields in which you have not had to face feminine competition is being invaded… by a woman distributor!”⁴ However Winkler considered the ambitions a woman may have to be in the film industry, the opportunities presented from these ambitions, and that “there is no reason why she shouldn’t be able to conduct business as well as the men.”⁵ At the time, while women were starting to make up more of the workforce slowly, they still only made up about 20%. Most of the opportunities that women did work were often “feminine”, had lower wages, and less opportunities to grow to a higher position of work. So Margaret Winkler playing such a key role by proposing the contract to Disney to distribute his work as an initial chance in Hollywood, sheds light on one of the women that was part of societal shifts in regards to gender inequality, specifically in the film industry.

Citations

Footnotes

1. Walt Before Mickey, Disney’s Early Years 1919-1928, Timothy S. Susanin ︎
2. Letter from M.J. Winkler to Walt Disney, from Walt Before Mickey, Disney’s Early Years 1919-1928, Timothy S. Susanin ︎
3. Walt Before Mickey, Disney’s Early Years 1919-1928, Timothy S. Susanin
   ︎
4. Margaret J. Winkler – Women Film Pioneers Project. ︎
5. Margaret J. Winkler – Women Film Pioneers Project. ︎

Bibliography

1. Arnold, Gordon B. 2017. Animation and the American Imagination : A Brief History. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger.
2. J Michael Barrier. 2008. The Animated Man : A Life of Walt Disney. Berkeley ; London: University Of California Press.
3. Susanin, Timothy S. 2014. Walt before Mickey : Disney’s Early Years, 1919-1928. Jackson: University Press Of Mississippi.
4. Walt Disney Archives. n.d. “Disney History.” D23. Disney. https://d23.com/disney-history/.
5. Magazine, Smithsonian, and Kat Eschner. n.d. “Walt Disney’s First ‘Princess’ Was a Spunky Four-Year-Old.” Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/walt-disneys-first-princess-was-spunky-four-year-old-1-180967392/.
6. Dumenil, Lynn. 1995. The Modern Temper : American Culture and Society in the 1920s. New York: Hill And Wang.
7. “Margaret Winkler: First Female Film Distributor | the Walt Disney Family Museum.” Www.waltdisney.org, www.waltdisney.org/blog/margaret-winkler-first-female-film-distributor.
8. “Margaret J. Winkler – Women Film Pioneers Project.” Wfpp.columbia.edu, wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/margaret-j-winkler/.
9. Sohrab. 2023. “Here’s How a Four-Page Contract Started the Walt Disney Company – D23.” D23. October 16, 2023. https://d23.com/heres-how-a-four-page-contract-started-the-walt-disney-company/.
10. Featured Image: “Take a Look Back at Disney in the Year 1923.” 2014. D23. March 6, 2014. https://d23.com/a-walk-with-walt-disney-1923/.

jbaham

Jordyn Baham is a senior at Ramapo College studying Photography with a minor in Museum and Exhibition Studies. She takes the Discovering Digital History class in Spring 2025.

The Cotton Club was the most popular nightclub in Harlem during the 1920s, emerging at the height of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance. Established in September 1923 by white American gangster Owen Madden after being released from jail, the Cotton Club remained a staple of Harlem’s nightlife until it changed locations in 1936.¹ Madden saw the club primarily as a place to distribute bootleg beer, but it held far more cultural significance than he could have anticipated. While it remained in Harlem, the Cotton Club  proved to be the most significant venue for jazz during the Harlem Renaissance, hosting iconic musicians like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Ethel Waters, and providing the stage by which artists could innovate, achieve fame and continue redefining the genre.² 

Opening of the Cotton Club

It all began with heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, who opened a supper club named Club Deluxe on 142 Street and Lenox Avenue in 1920. After only a few years of being open, Johnson handed over operations to famous white gangster Owen “Owney” Madden in 1923, although Johnson remained the manager of the club.⁴ Madden designed and ran the club from his jail cell in Sing Sing, where he was held for manslaughter, eventually transforming Club Deluxe into the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club quickly became an exclusive and popular jazz venue.⁵ Madden used the Club to sell his “#1 Beer” at the time of prohibition, and the Cotton Club’s illicit alcohol activities resulted in a brief closure in 1925. The Club soon reopened and continued to sell alcohol without interference from the police or other authorities.⁶ This is believed to be because of the political connections that the Club’s leadership possessed.⁷

Madden executed a particular vision for the Club centered around elegance and class, with waiters dressed in red tuxedos meant to emulate the typical look of butlers. The menu included such expensive and exotice dishes as Venison Steak and Chop Suey, which would be served to the patrons sitting in one of the two tiers of tables, organized in the shape of a horseshoe. Opening at 9:00PM and closing at 3:00AM, the Cotton Club was the premier place for the elite to take part in Harlem’s booming nightlife. However, Madden’s vision of class also involved segregation, as only white individuals were allowed to enter the Club. At the same time, he wanted talented African American jazz artists to supply the entertainment. The bandstand was located in front of a painted background of weeping willows and slave quarters, with tall white pillars on the stage to make it appear as if the African American artists were performing on the veranda of a plantation mansion.⁸ Despite the clearly racist undertones of the Club, many black artists took advantage of the platform offered them at the Cotton Club, achieving fame along the way.  

Duke Ellington and Other Legendary Performers

Duke Ellington is undoubtedly the most important musician to have received his start in the Cotton Club, where he had a residency from 1927 to 1931.⁹ Before bringing his talent to the Cotton Club, Ellington began his career in Washington, D.C., which had been the hub for “American Negro civilization” until around the 1920s. The band he formed in D.C., the Washingtonians, moved to Harlem and, by the mid 1920s, the band’s jazz performances made it so they were already gaining local popularity. Upon becoming the Cotton Club’s primary band, Ellington’s 10-piece ensemble became an integral part of the Club’s success, and vice versa, as they gained popularity for their ability to sound like an “African Jungle.” Amongst the antebellum plantation decor of the Cotton Club, Ellington’s band performed songs such as “Jungle Nights in Harlem,” where famous trumpet players like Cootie Williams and Bubber Miley mimicked growling and other animal sounds with their instruments. Ellington struggled to come to terms with his accommodation of harmful stereotypes of African-Americans for many years, but he was able to take advantage of the “jungle” sound to experiment with dissonant harmonies and “speaking” brass. Furthermore, his popularity allowed him to perform at venues that welcomed black audiences in the 1930s, like the Savoy Ballroom and Apollo Theater.¹⁰ 

The radio exposure afforded to Duke Ellington and his ensemble supported the popularity of Duke Ellington, and jazz as a whole. In the 1920s, the radio was a modern marvel, particularly amongst teenagers after World War I. It was through this medium that nightly Cotton Club broadcasts of Ellington’s “jungle music” reached the ears of many listeners all across the United States.¹¹ This provided significant exposure for Ellington and jazz music on a national level, as well as increased popularity of the Club itself.¹² He used his growing platform to advocate for the significance of black music, writing in the British magazine Rhythm that “The music of my race is something more than the American idiom. It is the result of our transplantation to American soil, and was our reaction in the plantation days to the tyranny we endured. What we could not say openly, we expressed in music.¹³” In this way, Ellington countered the commodification of jazz music and brought to light its connections with black resistance to oppression.

Duke Ellington was not the only musician to perform at the Cotton Club. Indeed, throughout its time based in Harlem, the Cotton Club attracted the skills of many different talented jazz musicians. One such example is Johnny Hodges, a saxophonist who performed in Ellington’s ensemble during the 1920s. An influx of soloists into his band in 1929, such as Cootie Williams and Juan Tizol, showcased their improvisation skills in the Club’s musical scene. This was particularly important, as solos were and continue to be a staple of the genre. After the 1920s, Cab Calloway replaced Ellington as band leader, and he became famous for his scat-jive vocals, bringing a new element to the music of the Club.¹⁴ The Jimmie Lunceford Band also performed at the Cotton Club.¹⁵

Despite the many groundbreaking black musicians that performed and gained fame through performing at the Cotton Club, they were not actually able to enjoy the music as an audience member. Indeed, the Cotton Club only permitted white patrons to enter. This made the Club a great moral contradiction for black artists who played their uniquely African-American music at the Club.

The Cotton Club as Segregated Leisure

As leisure proliferated as a common pastime in the United States in the 1920s, Harlem became known as the “great playground,” known for its proliferation of amusing activities, with much of this being tied to its importance as a hub for jazz music and artists. The image of Harlem as “thrilling, bizarre [and] sensuous” that was cultivated during this era frequently brushing aside the more wretched aspects of Harlem’s cultural explosion. Despite being home to primarily African American cultural innovations, white subversion of African American communities was pervasive. In fact, the Cotton Club was one of a number of nightclubs in Harlem that only allowed for white patrons, while having predominantly African American performers. This occurred in conjunction with the phenomenon of “white slummers,” in which wealthier white individuals took part in Harlem’s vibrant nightlife, doing dances like the Charleston and listening to jazz, both of which were originated by the African American community. It is thus no coincidence that there was a racial divide between the white audience and African American entertainers.¹⁷ In the problematically named Cotton Club, the existence of African American individuals and blackness became a performance, and created a socially acceptable platform for white patrons to reaffirm the subservience of African American performers. That is to say, the fact that the African American artists were performing and entertaining for white spectators ensured that racial inequalities were maintained in the leisure sphere.¹⁸ Even the advertising products distributed by the Cotton Club reinforced these divisions by featuring caricatured African American performers alongside the more elegantly depicted white patrons.¹⁹ The Cotton Club was, therefore, a product of and proponent of the racism of the 1920s. 

Despite this, many did not accept this segregation without putting up a fight. In fact, The Afro-American, a Baltimore-based newspaper, reported on July 16, 1927, that a Mrs. Geraldine Dismond sued the Cotton Club for denying her and James G. Cotter entrance into the Cotton Club. Dismond and Cotter were elites, she was the wife of a “prominent local physician” and he was an assistant district U.S. Attorney. The act of suing the club itself was defiant as they rejected the tradition of segregation. The authors of this news clipping also took part in resisting the racist policies of the Cotton Club, as they clearly wished to emphasize the hypocrisy of the Cotton Club having “race bands” for all white audiences. The title of the clipping is particularly biting, as the club is referred to as a “Jim Crow Cabaret,” drawing attention to how, although northern states like New York did not have official segregation policies like the South, segregation was still customary. 

The Sexualization of Women and Colorism in the Cotton Club

With the new approach to entertainment that came with the 1920’s new consumer culture also came significant implications for the African American women by creating new forms of labor. One is the ‘commercial model,’ which includes such models who took part in entertainment performances. Such a job, which had employed African-American individuals in the Cotton Club, was part of a new movement to commodify aesthetics and the creation of a particular ‘feel.’ At the Cotton Club, those working in this capacity were meant to model their African American identity as a particular cultural type for their all-white audiences.²¹ The costumes presented both racial and sexual stereotypes, using “exotic” designs that presented the women in an exposing manner. 

Those employed in this position at the Cotton Club, and other nightclubs, were mainly women of color. Such a ‘model showgirl’ did not have to truly perform through song or dance, but would pose on stage in costume.²³ This is deeply tied to the new emphasis on women’s sexuality in the 1920s, which proved to be greatly problematic for African American women. African American women reformers found the sexualization of African American to be a form of dangerous exploitation. In fact, women writers in the Harlem Renaissance steered away from the emphasis on “primitivism” that their male counterparts took part in. This was because, when tied to sexuality, such a philosophy could contribute to undesirable stereotypes about African American women, which were at least in part shaped by white societal expectations.²⁴ The Cotton Club’s presentation of African American chorus line women as visual and sexual ‘objects’ contributed to these stereotypes.

Being viewed and used as primarily “sexual objects,” the black women that performed for elite white New Yorkers in the Cotton Club were measured up to strict physical standards that demonstrate the intersectionality of gender and race during the 1920s. The Cotton Club Girls, otherwise known as the Copper Colored Gals, had to be at least 5 feet and 6 inches tall, under 21 years of age, and pass what was known as the “paper bag” tests. According to this test, the performer had to be lighter than a brown paper bag. This test was not unique to the Cotton Club at all; it was used to determine the acceptance of black individuals, inside and outside their community, to elite institutions such as fraternities, universities, and even churches.²⁶ The practice is typically associated with institutions based in the southern city of New Orleans, but its use in the Cotton Club demonstrates that such colorist practices pervaded northern communities as well.²⁷ Complexion tests were quite popular in the United States, as white people attempted to prevent fair-skinned black individuals from entering what they deemed to be their spaces. Tests included looking at the nails and hair roots of people to determine if they were black. From the 1920s-1940s, “spotting” was a particularly popular form of ensuring that African-Americans were excluded from entering white-only institutions by having a black individual stand at the entrance and “spot” any white-passing African-Americans, subsequently preventing them from entering.²⁸ 

The Legacy of the Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was the premier jazz venue for black musicians, and a hotspot for wealthy white elite to enjoy top jazz performances during the Roaring Twenties. The Cotton Club called itself “the Aristocrat of Harlem,” and this proved to be true through its economic and racial exclusivity. While the Cotton Club’s legacy continues to be remembered as a launching pad for the career of many jazz artists through stage and radio exposure, the legacy of the Cotton Club is also marred by its history as a racist and segregated institution that exploited black art and artists for white enjoyment. This is particularly evident in how the aesthetics and name of the Club were reminiscent of the slave south, and the hypocritical policy that allowed for black performers but hardly any black patrons.²⁹ The Cotton Club in Harlem closed in 1936 after the Harlem Race Riot of 1935, as it was no longer considered to be a safe place for whites.³⁰ Soon after, they opened a new location in Midtown. Interestingly, the new, and short-lived, Cotton Club was open to black audience members, in a (failed) last-ditch attempt to obscure its problematic racial history.³¹ 

Significance to the 1920s

The Great Migration started in the 1870s within the context of social and economic frustrations that plagued many African-American communities in the South. Due to this, many moved to the North and West to receive respite. Motivation to migrate increased exponentially after World War I, as more African-Americans were drawn to the factory jobs in the cities. In the 1920s, 750,000 African Americans fled the conditions of the South, mainly relocating in cities.³³ 

Throughout the Great Migration, which ended during the Great Depression, 2 million African Americans moved out of the South to northern cities like New York City, which was particularly popular. The North was particularly attractive as an apparent refuge from racial violence where they could have more opportunities to work and vote without being threatened. Despite the apparent improved standard of living through better wages for menial jobs, the benefits were offset by the high cost of living and racial discrimination continued as African-Americans were subject to redlining and forced to live in slums. At the same time that this mass exodus was occuring, Harlem was experiencing an explosion of new cultural expression known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Great Migration actually supported the Harlem Renaissance, as the black population in New York City doubled during the 1920s. With this stream of black emigrants also came a number of artists that became key to this cultural phenomenon. For this reason, Harlem became the site of “New Negro” art and politics, with pride in black culture being the center of this cultural boom.³⁴ 

Jazz became the defining music and soundtrack of the Harlem Renaissance and “New Negro” movement. ³⁵The African-American population often viewed music as a symbolic release from the physical and economic bondage that they were subjected to by white slave-owners in recent history. Now able to obtain instruments, the African-American community was given the opportunity to experiment with a far broader range of musical styles. The result was jazz, which combined the fluid syncopation techniques customarily used in West African music with European ragtime piano.³⁶ 

It was in the context of the emergence of many skilled artists from the South through the Great Migration and the creation of Jazz as part of the Harlem Renaissance that the Cotton Club was established. The club soon became extremely popular and provided the platform for many legendary jazz musicians that continue to define the genre. 

Citations

Footnotes

1.  Maureen Maryanski, “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club,” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016, https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. ︎
2. Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021), 149. ︎
3. Cotton Club 1930, Wikimedia Commons (The New Movie Magazine, 1930), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotton_Club_1930.jpg. ︎
4. “The Cotton Club (NYC) Opens,” African American Registry, December 4, 2024, https://aaregistry.org/story/the-cotton-club-opens/. ︎
5. Margaret Moos Pick, “A Night at the Cotton Club: Music of Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen & Cab Calloway,” Riverwalk Jazz, 1997, https://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/night-cotton-club-music-duke-ellington-harold-arlen-cab-calloway. ︎
6.  “The Cotton Club (NYC) Opens.” ︎
7.  Elizabeth Winter, “Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- ),” BlackPast, December 17, 2007, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/cotton-club-harlem-1923/. ︎
8.  Moos Pick, “A Night at the Cotton Club.” ︎
9.  Aaron J. Johnson, “A Date With The Duke: Ellington on Radio,” The Musical Quarterly 96, no. 3–4 (November 19, 2013): 369–405, https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdt014, 375. ︎
10.  Daniel Matlin, “‘Something Part, Yet an Integral Part’: Duke Ellington’s Harlem and the Nexus of Race and Nation,” Cambridge University Press, February 8, 2021, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-intellectual-history/article/something-apart-yet-an-integral-part-duke-ellingtons-harlem-and-the-nexus-of-race-and-nation/46B58AEB337443073C1A7D3102E259A1. ︎
11.  Johnson, “A Date With The Duke,” 369-370. ︎
12.  Johnson, “A Date With The Duke,” 380. ︎
13.  Laura Townsend, “How Duke Ellington Used His Appearance to Subvert Racist Stereotypes, and Other Ways He Fought Racism,” PBS, July 12, 2022, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/how-duke-ellington-used-his-appearance-to-subvert-racist-stereotypes-and-other-ways-he-fought-racism/17385/. ︎
14.  Gioia, The History of Jazz, 150-154. ︎
15.  Gioia, The History of Jazz, 156. ︎
16.  The Famous Cotton Club Presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and His Famous Cotton Club Orchestra., JSTOR (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Photographs and Prints Division, 1925), https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31816453. ︎
17.  Gilbert Osofsky, “Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered,” American Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 229–38, https://doi.org/10.2307/2711356, 235. ︎
18.  Malcolm Womack, “Harlem Holiday: The Cotton Club, 1925-1940,” University of Washington University Libraries (dissertation, 2013), http://hdl.handle.net/1773/23357, 102. ︎
19.  Womack, “Harlem Holiday,” 110-111. ︎
20.  “Sues Harlem Jim Crow Cabaret,” The Afro-American, July 16, 1927, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1134157240/?match=1&terms=%22Louis%20Armstrong%22%20%22cotton%20club%22. ︎
21.  Elspeth H. Brown, “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling: Race, Sexuality, and the 1920s Stage Model,” Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 65–97, https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2014.0003, 65-68. ︎
22.  Maude Russel At The Cotton Club, Getty Images (Michael Ochs Archives, 1929). ︎
23.  Brown, “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling,” 89. ︎
24.  Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s, ed. Eric Foner (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1995), 139. ︎
25. Fan from the Cotton Club., Curationist (National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1923), https://www.curationist.org/works/work-smith-nmaahc_2013.223.40. ︎
26.  “Colorism During the New Negro Movement: Cotton Club,” CUNY Academic Commons, 2025, https://colorism.commons.gc.cuny.edu/cotton-club/. ︎
27. Audrey Elisa Kerr, “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism,” Journal of American Folklore118, no. 469 (June 2005): 271–89, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2005.0031, 283. ︎
28. Audrey Elisa Kerr, “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism,” Journal of American Folklore118, no. 469 (June 2005): 271–89, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2005.0031, 277-279. ︎
29. Maureen Maryanski, “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club,” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016, https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. ︎
30.  Meher Tatna, “The Cotton Club,” Golden Globes, February 16, 2023, https://goldenglobes.com/articles/cotton-club/. ︎
31. Colony Little, “A Tale of Two Harlems: The Legacy of Jazz and Racism at the Cotton Club,” Curationist, July 2022, https://www.curationist.org/editorial-features/article/a-tale-of-two-harlems:-the-legacy-of-jazz-and-racism-at-the-cotton-club. ︎
32. The Scott Arthur Family ca. 1920, 1920, Wikimedia Commons, 1920, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_Arthur_Family_1920.jpg. ︎
33.  “Moving North, Heading West: African Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History,” The Library of Congress, accessed March 19, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/african/moving-north-heading-west/. ︎
34.  “The Great Migration and The Harlem Renaissance,” Press Books, accessed March 19, 2025, https://open.baypath.edu/his115/chapter/the-great-migration-and-the-harlem-renaissance/. ︎
35.  Rachel Farebrother and Miriam Thaggert, A History of the Harlem Renaissance (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 345. ︎
36.  Farebrother and Thaggert, A History of the Harlem Renaissance, 351. ︎

Bibliography

Brown, Elspeth H. “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling: Race, Sexuality, and the 1920s Stage Model.” Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 65–97. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2014.0003. 

“Colorism During the New Negro Movement: Cotton Club.” CUNY Academic Commons, 2025. https://colorism.commons.gc.cuny.edu/cotton-club/. 

“The Cotton Club (NYC) Opens.” African American Registry, December 4, 2024. https://aaregistry.org/story/the-cotton-club-opens/. 

Cotton Club 1930. Wikimedia Commons. The New Movie Magazine, 1930. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotton_Club_1930.jpg. 

Dumenil, Lynn. The modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Edited by Eric Foner. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1995. 

Fan from the Cotton Club. Curationist. National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1923. https://www.curationist.org/works/work-smith-nmaahc_2013.223.40. 

Farebrother, Rachel, and Miriam Thaggert. A History of the Harlem Renaissance. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 

The Famous Cotton Club presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and his famous Cotton Club Orchestra. JSTOR. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Photographs and Prints Division, 1925. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31816453. 

Gioia, Ted. The History of Jazz. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021. 

“The Great Migration and The Harlem Renaissance.” Press Books. Accessed March 19, 2025. https://open.baypath.edu/his115/chapter/the-great-migration-and-the-harlem-renaissance/. 

Johnson, Aaron J. “A Date With The Duke: Ellington on Radio.” The Musical Quarterly 96, no. 3–4 (November 19, 2013): 369–405. https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdt014. 

Kerr, Audrey Elisa. “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism.” Journal of American Folklore118, no. 469 (June 2005): 271–89. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2005.0031. 

Little, Colony. “A Tale of Two Harlems: The Legacy of Jazz and Racism at the Cotton Club.” Curationist, July 2022. https://www.curationist.org/editorial-features/article/a-tale-of-two-harlems:-the-legacy-of-jazz-and-racism-at-the-cotton-club. 

Matlin, Daniel. “‘Something Part, Yet an Integral Part’: Duke Ellington’s Harlem and the Nexus of Race and Nation.” Cambridge University Press, February 8, 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-intellectual-history/article/something-apart-yet-an-integral-part-duke-ellingtons-harlem-and-the-nexus-of-race-and-nation/46B58AEB337443073C1A7D3102E259A1. 

Maryanski, Maureen. “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club.” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016. https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. 

Maude Russel At The Cotton Club. Getty Images. Michael Ochs Archives, 1929. 

Moos Pick, Margaret. “A Night at the Cotton Club: Music of Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen & Cab Calloway.” Riverwalk Jazz, 1997. https://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/night-cotton-club-music-duke-ellington-harold-arlen-cab-calloway. 

“Moving North, Heading West: African Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History.” The Library of Congress. Accessed March 19, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/african/moving-north-heading-west/. 

Osofsky, Gilbert. “Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered.” American Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 229–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711356. 

The Scott Arthur Family ca. 1920. 1920. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_Arthur_Family_1920.jpg. 

“Sues Harlem Jim Crow Cabaret.” The Afro-American. July 16, 1927. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1134157240/?match=1&terms=%22Louis%20Armstrong%22%20%22cotton%20club%22. 

Tatna, Meher. “The Cotton Club.” Golden Globes, February 16, 2023. https://goldenglobes.com/articles/cotton-club/. 

Townsend, Laura. “How Duke Ellington Used His Appearance to Subvert Racist Stereotypes, and Other Ways He Fought Racism.” PBS, July 12, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/how-duke-ellington-used-his-appearance-to-subvert-racist-stereotypes-and-other-ways-he-fought-racism/17385/.

Womack, Malcolm. “Harlem Holiday: The Cotton Club, 1925-1940.” University of Washington University Libraries, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/23357. 

Winter, Elizabeth. “Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- ).” BlackPast, December 17, 2007. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/cotton-club-harlem-1923/.

stefanieviera

Stefanie Viera is a 3rd year History and Humanities & Global Studies double major who is taking the Discovering Digital History course in the spring of 2025. She currently work at the Jane Addams Papers Project as an Editorial Assistant.

Introduction

Jazz music, flappers, and enough money to fill everyone’s pockets with gold. At first glance it appears that everything was great during the 1920s. American culture took a major leap forward, the stock market soared, and Americans were able to reap the benefits of an urbanized and industrialized nation. However, this era of extravagance and wealth was underscored by a much darker side as corruption within America ran rampant. Insider trading was prevalent throughout the flourishing stock market. Corporate greed fostered poor working environments within industrial complexes. And corruption took place even within the highest levels of government. 

Bribery became a major component of corruption within America during the 1920s. Scandals such as prohibition and bootlegging led to widespread bribery. Immigration quotas were often ignored by officials as they were often secretly paid to turn a blind eye at illegal entries or forged paperwork. However the most significant form of bribery within America occurred during the Teapot Dome Scandal where the American Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall leased oil reserves to the highest bidder. The Teapot Dome Scandal saw corruption occurring at the highest level of government. This infamous moment would serve as one of the first major political schemes which inevitably created a sense of distrust amongst the American people and their government. The Teapot Dome Scandal provides a comprehensive understanding of the emergence of political corruption within the broader tapestry of the 1920s.

The Roaring 20s

The Upswing in the Economy

The economic boom of the 1920s was fostered by rapid and sustained growth, marking one of the most prosperous periods within American history. Key elements such as industrial growth, a growing consumer culture, pro business policies, and the stock market boom all played a pivotal role in this upswing.

The explosion of the industrial revolution allowed for efficient manufacturing processes. Materials such as steel, rubber, and glass saw a major increase in production due to rapid industrialization. Assembly lines drastically increased production and technologies such as electricity, the radio, and the telephone further stimulated economic activity¹. Improved communication and an increase in economic activity eventually led to the growing consumer culture which triggered even more growth in the economy. The consumer culture of the 1920’s is considered to be the birth of the modern consumer culture seen in America today. This consumer culture was able to prompt a boom within the stock market. Americans all over the nation invested in the stock market as optimism and prosperity were at an all time high. On top of all of this, Presidents during the 1920s such as President Harding and President Coolidge promoted pro-business policies in order to sustain this economic growth. Businesses and wealthy industries were able to receive tax cuts and deregulations. These laissez-faire policies allowed for major industries to rise rapidly.²

Greed and Corruption

However amidst all of this economic prosperity came greed. With money flying everywhere, everyone was looking for the quickest way to become rich. This “get-rich-quick” mentality was adopted by everyone, and as a result it created a culture of greed and corruption in America. As mentioned earlier, this greed and corruption made its way to the highest levels of government including members of the presidential cabinet. Albert B. Fall’s scandal is indicative of the idea of corporate greed spreading within America as Fall utilized his bureaucratic power as the Secretary of the Interior in order to amass more wealth through undocumented bribes.

Teapot Dome Scandal: Overview

Who was Involved in The Teapot Dome Scandal?

As the Secretary of the Interior and member of President Warren G. Harding’s presidential cabinet, Albert B. Fall was the central figure behind the Teapot Dome Scandal. Prior to his career as a cabinet member, Fall was a U.S. senator from New Mexico who advocated for pro-business policies. As a senator, Fall built close ties with the oil industry as he built strong relationships with large oil corporations such as Mammoth Oil and Pan American Petroleum.³

In March 1921, Fall was appointed by President Warren G. Harding to become the Secretary of the Interior, a role which is responsible for managing and conserving federal land and natural resources. Fall’s political views and pro-business mindset coincided with President Harding’s agenda. It is important to note that President Harding filled his administration with political allies. Amidst President Harding’s term, many of his political adversaries were involved in their own scandals and became so infamous that historians refer to Harding’s corrupt administration as the “Ohio Gang”. The Ohio Gang utilized their political power to influence industry leaders for fraud and corruption. Several members of the Ohio Gang were eventually convicted for their crimes.⁴

Fall’s greed and corruption fits right into the scandalous environment within President Harding’s cabinet and the Ohio Gang. Oil companies such as Mammoth Oil and Pan American Petroleum benefited greatly from Fall’s schemes. Meanwhile, Fall’s acceptance of bribes allowed him to acquire vast amounts of money in exchange for unfair and lucrative oil leases.

Corruption Unfolds

Secretary Albert Fall’s corruption started when President Harding transferred supervision of the oil reserves located in Teapot Dome, Wyoming as well as two other reserves located within California. These oil reserves were initially under the management of the U.S. Navy through the Taft administration. President Taft gave the Navy control over oil fields in order to ensure that the Navy had enough fuel in reserve. However, in 1921 Fall was able to convince President Harding that the Department of the Interior was better suited to manage these reserves. Once Secretary Fall secured control over the oil reserves in 1922, Fall set up secretive deals with his contacts Harry F. Sinclair from Mammoth Oil and Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum.⁵ The bidding process for oil was not competitive as Fall granted exclusive rights to these two oil companies. Mammoth Oil and Pan American Petroleum were both already major corporations within the oil industry, and as a result they utilized their wealth to provide substantial gifts and bribes to Albert Fall. In addition, during these lucrative deals, Fall received bribes totalling up to over $400,000 (roughly $6.5 million today when adjusted for inflation). In order to avoid suspicions, these cash payments were disguised as loans. These unsecured loans were paid in cash and held zero interest for Albert Fall.⁶

Albert Fall further covered his tracks utilizing his political ties. In 1921 another oilman, Col. James G. Darden claimed ownership of the oil reserves in Teapot Dome. Fall was able to employ his ties with President Harding in order to cease Darden’s drilling operations at Teapot Dome. In another instance, the Denver Post managed to capture evidence of Fall’s corruption in Teapot Dome. The Denver Post threatened to publicize Albert Fall’s schemes with the Teapot Dome reserves. However it is speculated that once again, Albert Fall’s leverage with President Harding led to the suppression of the Denver Post publishers through additional bribing.⁷

Map Detailing the Teapot Dome Scandal

The Investigation

Despite the fact that Albert Fall did his best to disguise his bribes as leases, he quickly drew suspicion from other officials. Through these bribes Albert Fall became a rich man and his standard of living improved drastically. So much so that the Senate immediately began conducting an investigation in April 1922. Led by Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana and the Senate Committee on Public lands, this investigation encountered several suspicious elements including missing documents, the evasion of key witnesses, and several other roadblocks set up by the legal teams of Mammoth Oil and Pan American Petroleum.⁸ Despite these challenges, Walsh remained persistent for over two years. Eventually Walsh was able to find evidence of Fall accepting bribes from Edward L. Doheny which helped unravel more evidence for the case. During the investigation, Doheny admitted to loaning an interest free cash loan to Albert Fall so that Albert Fall could purchase a ranch in New Mexico. Doheny revealed he had sent his son to deliver several black parcel bags filled with about $100,000 in cash.⁹ This discovery set forth a civil and criminal trial in which the Supreme Court ruled against Albert Fall and his scandals. In 1927 the Supreme Court transferred the oil reserves back to the U.S. Navy. In 1929, Fall was officially found guilty of accepting bribes from Doheny and Pan American Petroleum. During his testimony, Fall claimed his secrecy was vital for protecting the location of the U.S. oil reserves. However his testimony fell short as the court refused to believe his statement. Fall was charged with jury tampering and was sentenced to prison for one year.¹⁰

The Impact of the Scandal

The Teapot Dome Scandal held lasting effects on American politics as Americans became weary and suspicious of American politicians. Along with Albert B. Fall, many other politicians throughout all levels of bureaucracy were found guilty of corruption. This public distrust garnered movements and reforms in government policies and practices.

Leading up to the 1924 election, the Democratic party attempted to pin the blame on the Republican party for their corruption and involvement with the Teapot Dome Scandal. However, it was later revealed that the Teapot Dome scandal was not so black and white as members of both parties held some involvement. The Teapot Dome Scandal was complex as it became evident that major Republican and Democrat leaders were beneficiaries of this scandal.¹¹ This political dynamic further highlights the idea that corruption ran throughout all forms of government. Both political parties were involved in corrupt schemes. Additionally both parties had politicians at every level accepting bribes or turning blind eyes. With this growing trend of corrupt politicians, American citizens everywhere called for change.

Damage to President Harding’s Legacy

Following World War 1, President Harding’s administration began with a call to “return to normalcy”. However despite the optimism that Harding’s campaign initially started with, his reputation began to deteriorate following various scandals with the Teapot Dome Scandal being the most notorious form of political misconduct during Harding’s term as president.

Although there is no evidence pointing to Harding’s involvement in bribery and corruption, Harding’s laissez-faire attitude had set the stage for government-business scandals. As the government began to form relationships with various businesses, it became easy for members of Harding’s administration to participate within this corrupt environment. With the rise of the “Ohio Gang” and the fallout following the Teapot Dome Scandal, it is clear that Harding had a poor choice in appointees and lacked oversight and judgment within his political administration. After Harding’s death in 1923, revelations of corruption and greed became increasingly more known in public, thus further tarnishing President Harding’s legacy. Public perception of Harding’s presidential term changed from one of optimism and progressivism to one of corruption, greed, and mismanagement.¹²

Public Trust in Government

The Teapot Dome Scandal held a profound impact on the public view of American politics and government. Americans became increasingly skeptical of the political ties between big corporations and the government. Furthermore, the idea that high-ranking officials held control over the nation’s resources created more distrust amongst American citizens and the government. The Teapot Dome Scandal eroded the trust between the people and government which manifested itself in public scrutiny. American citizens and the public press criticized the government and demanded for transparency from their elected officials. Within the newspaper article depicted below published by The Daily Worker, the author claims that Americans as a whole must utilize their “anger” and “indignation” for “the political education of the masses, and at the same time lead the masses to political action”. ¹³ As newspaper articles and the public press rallied Americans and publicized the Teapot Dome Scandal, more Americans united in order to call out the corruption in American politics. This call for accountability from government officials set the stage for more strict policies and reforms.

Reform Efforts

As previously mentioned, public outcry following the Teapot Dome Scandal triggered significant reform efforts with the intention of preventing more political corruption. These reforms focused on accountability and transparency from public officials. One of the outcomes from this reforms movement was the establishment of rigorous guidelines and rules for leasing government property. A stricter set of codes and regulations ensured that the bidding process behind government purchases/leasing would remain fair, competitive, and transparent. Additionally, Congress passed new legislation which further regulated campaign finances and lobbying. Acts such as the Federal Corrupt Practices Act placed stricter checks and balance processes on campaign funds and reportings. These trends would eventually foster the establishment of agencies and regulations such as the Securities and Exchange Commision leading into the 1930s.¹³ As America began to plummet following the stock market crash in 1929, regulatory processes became more stringent following the reform trends of the 1920s.

Conclusion

The 1920’s is a decade which often holds an optimistic stigma when people recall back to this time period. Nicknamed the “Roaring 20s”, this period is often remembered for the jazz culture and the flappers. This decade is also known for its economic prosperity and consumer culture following the rapid industrialization and urbanization trends of this time. However, hidden behind all of the prosperity is corruption and greed. As more Americans fell to the get-rich-quick mentality, greed and corruption grew rapidly. The Teapot Dome Scandal serves as a stark reminder of the corruption which cultivated during the Roaring 20s. As corruption revealed itself at the highest levels of government, citizens and the press called for transparency and accountability from public officials. While the Teapot Dome Scandal happened about a century ago, its legacy lingers in American politics and history as this scandal sparked the trend of government oversight and reform.

Bibliography

• Bates, J. Leonard. “The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Election of 1924.” The American Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 2, 1955, pp. 303–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1843188. Accessed 7 May 2024.
• “Teapot Dome Scandal”. HISTORY. June 10, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
• “Teapot Dome Scandal.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal. 
• “Constitutional Law. Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Congressional Control over Elections of Presidential Electors.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 1934, pp. 765–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1115680. Accessed 7 May 2024.
• Ruthenberg, C E. “Workers Party Throws Whole Strength into Focusing Eyes of Labor on Teapot Scandal.” The Daily Worker, p. Page 4. 
• Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Hill and Wang, 2007.

Footnotes

1. Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Hill and Wang, 2007. ︎
2. Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Hill and Wang, 2007. ︎
3. “Teapot Dome Scandal”. HISTORY. June 10, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2020. ︎
4. “Constitutional Law. Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Congressional Control over Elections of Presidential Electors.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 1934, pp. 765–67. ︎
5. Bates, J. Leonard. “The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Election of 1924.” The American Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 2, 1955, pp. 303–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1843188. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎
6. Bates, J. Leonard. “The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Election of 1924.” The American Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 2, 1955, pp. 303–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1843188. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎
7. “Teapot Dome Scandal”. HISTORY. June 10, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2020. ︎
8. “Teapot Dome Scandal.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal. ︎
9. “Constitutional Law. Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Congressional Control over Elections of Presidential Electors.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 1934, pp. 765–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1115680. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎
10. “Constitutional Law. Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Congressional Control over Elections of Presidential Electors.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 1934, pp. 765–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1115680. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎
11. Bates, J. Leonard. “The Teapot Dome Scandal and the Election of 1924.” The American Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 2, 1955, pp. 303–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1843188. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎
12. “Constitutional Law. Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Congressional Control over Elections of Presidential Electors.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 1934, pp. 765–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1115680. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎
13. Ruthenberg, C E. “Workers Party Throws Whole Strength into Focusing Eyes of Labor on Teapot Scandal.” The Daily Worker, p. Page 4. ︎
14. “Constitutional Law. Federal Corrupt Practices Act. Congressional Control over Elections of Presidential Electors.” Columbia Law Review, vol. 34, no. 4, 1934, pp. 765–67. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1115680. Accessed 7 May 2024. ︎

The Rosewood Massacre occurred from January 1 to January 7, 1923. This week of terror took place in Rosewood, Levy County, Florida, United States. It was a race riot that occurred in a black rural community.

The town of Rosewood was established in 1847 near the Gulf of Mexico. In its early beginnings, it relied on the timber industry. Cedarwood trees were fruitful there, and due to the reddish color of the wood, the town was there by named Rosewood. There were originally both black and white residents, but when most of the cedar trees were cut down for profit, the economy decreased, and most whites moved to other towns, such as Sumner. Sumner was a predominantly white town, and by the year 1900, Rosewood was now a predominantly black community. Sumner and Rosewood were generally friendly towards each other, that is, until the beginning of 1923.¹

Rosewood was a pleasant town. They had a school, different types of mills, three churches, two general stores, and a baseball team called the Rosewood Stars. There were about a dozen houses where some families even owned middle-class goods such as pianos and organs. About eighteen to twenty-five families were living in Rosewood.² The general consensus was that Rosewood was that it was a nice place to live and had nothing negative to say. Robie Mortin, a survivor of the Rosewood Massacre, said, “Rosewood was a town where everyone’s house was painted. There were roses everywhere you walked.”³

Before the week-long massacre, Rosewood was a nice, beautiful, quiet, and primarily black town. It was a whistle-stop on the Seaboard Air Line Railway, where people traveling would go to fill up on necessities. No one would stay long at whistle stops, and they were deemed to be swift and unimportant visits.⁴

The massacre started when a white woman accused a black drifter named Jesse Hunter of assaulting her in Sumner. The woman was Frances “Fannie” Taylor. She was twenty-two years old, married to a thirty-year-old man named James, and had two children. Neighbors and people living in the town stated that Taylor was very aloof, not well known, and very peculiar overall. Taylor’s face was indeed bruised when she made her claim, and she asserted she was not raped by the man, only beaten. Her neighbors, who arrived when they heard her screaming, could not find anyone else in the house despite Taylor saying there was a black man present. Sarah Carrier, a black woman living in Rosewood, worked for Taylor the day of the alleged attack. Carrier and her granddaughter Philomena Goins said they both saw a white man leave the Taylor house on the morning of January 1, 1923. This opposes what Taylor’s neighbors said. Carrier’s words meant very little, though, and she was shot dead and burned in her house during the massacre.⁵ In spite of being beaten, rumors spread that Taylor was raped and robbed, which fueled anger among the white mob at an exponential rate.⁶

Jesse Hunter, the accused man, was a Rosewood resident and was lynched by several white men from neighboring towns after Taylor’s claims were made public. These men hunted for him, and after his lynching, a mob consisting of several hundred white individuals started to reign down in the countryside to hunt for more black people, where the Rosewood massacre soon transpired.⁷

Every building in Rosewood was burnt down or demolished, tragically with people still inside. During the massacre, the citizens of Rosewood either hid in their houses, tried to run, fought back, and ran to adjacent swamps. Those who hid in the swamps were there for days until they were rescued and sent to different towns for hospitalization for hypothermia and wound care.⁸

The impact the Rosewood Massacre had was not only physical but mental and emotional, especially for the women and children. Minnie Lee Mitchell Langley, just nine years old at the time, witnessed her uncle almost being lynched, her great-grandmother killed, her cousin kill and injure others in order to save the family and to run and hide in the woods and swamp until the massacre ended. Minnie Lee, who was eighty years old at the time of her story being told, can still feel how cold the nights were when she saw the enormous flames of the Rosewood buildings being burned from the swamp. Minnie Lee recounted her story in 1993, at age 79. She was one of five women who survived the massacre who were willing to testify.⁹

After the Rosewood Massacre, the town was abandoned. No one, either black or white, moved back. The site was officially cleared, and the empty site remained a painful memory. There is now a plaque to commemorate the atrocity.¹⁰

The death tolls are debated. According to officials, at least six black and two white people were killed, with numerous people injured and traumatized. Some survivors claim that twenty-seven black residents were murdered and that the number of white deaths was also higher. Minnie Lee stated that she stepped over many white bodies, which is contradictory to the official death records. Perhaps the public did not want to say there were more white deaths. In 1984, a newspaper estimated that one hundred fifty people died, which others claim to be an exaggeration and misinformation.¹² 

However, very few official records and documents about the Rosewood Massacre exist. Even the survivors and their descendants, as well as the perpetrators, did not speak about the Rosewood Massacre. It was not until the 1980s, sixty years after the event, that it started to gain publicity, and there was a demand for an investigation. Since so much time has passed, many survivors are too elderly or have passed away to testify or hear their stories, meaning there is little to confirm or deny the many claims.¹³

There were attempts to receive justice for the Rosewood Massacre. First, there was a pursuit to sue Florida for the failure to protect the black community in Rosewood. Then, in 1993, the Florida Legislature had finally commissioned a report on the Rosewood Massacre. In its findings, Florida gave the survivors and their descendants financial compensation for the physical damages that occurred due to the racial violence. However, many do not think this was enough. In 1997, there was a feature film dedicated to the Rosewood Massacre, directed by John Singleton, called Rosewood. It is an excellent film and stars Don Cheadle, Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, and Esther Rolle. Minnie Lee served as help in the set design. The film does have mixed reviews, as it offers a fictional story amidst the panic and there is a “happy ending.” In 2004, Florida designated the site where Rosewood was as a Florida Heritage Landmark, where people can visit a plaque and pay their respects.¹⁴

Minnie Lee testified in the 1994 Florida House of Representative hearing In The Matter For Relief Of Arnett T. Goins, Minnie L. Langley, et. al, Claimants vs. State of Florida, Respondent. The other four women were Robie Robinson Mortin, Mary Magdalene Hall, Margie Hall Johnson, and Dorothy Goins Hosey.¹⁵ Each woman got $150,000 but will never be the same.¹⁶

Dr. Carolyn Tucker said that those who testified exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and that the massacre had a negative impact on their parenting, social, and economic skills.¹⁸ When they were children, the survivors dreamed of being pianists, singers, and politicians, yet those dreams were crushed, and they all became maids, domestic servants, cooks, and other low-paying jobs. Richard Hixson, the hearing officer, said to establish a scholarship fund for the Rosewood families and descendants. The Florida House of Representatives passed the Rosewood Compensation Bill on April 4, 1994, in which two million dollars were given to the Rosewood survivors and descendants.¹⁹ 

Significance

In the 1920s, the United States was experiencing a time of rapid social change, and people today typically think of the richness and exuberance of The Great Gatsby when picturing the 1920s. Flappers, gangsters, and lavish parties take up the mind. However, in reality, for black people in the South, things were terrible. Blacks were losing political power, were in dire economic struggles, and were subject to lynchings and terror caused by white residents on a consistent basis.

At this time, other race riots different from the Rosewood Massacre were generally reported. Lynchings also increased exponentially in the 1920s. For example, Florida’s history included the highest records of lynchings against black men in this decade. Just one year before the Rosewood Massacre, in 1922, the Perry Massacre occurred, where whites killed four black men and destroyed Perry, a black community. Charles Strong, a victim of the Perry Massacre, was lynched and burned at the stake.²⁰

Black women were not excused from lynching. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in 1916, two black women named Stella Long and Mary Dennis, both mothers, were lynched. Long had four children, and Dennis was pregnant with her third at the time of their deaths.²¹ 

White supremacy started to be very active, and southern states started to decrease black voters as a way to keep the South white. In the middle of the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had a peak in membership in Southern states and the Midwest. The KKK had a revival around 1915 due to the influx of black people settling in towns, and society’s views started to change towards social issues and rapid industrialization. The KKKs main targets were African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants before its ultimate demise in the mid-1920s.²² The KKK supported and executed many white mobs throughout black communities, such as Rosewood, where the authorities did little to nothing. Rosewood is just one of many unfortunate communities terrorized and abandoned by white supremacists and racists.²³

To contextualize, the 1920s was also when prohibition started. Prohibition was not just about alcohol, but it gave power and dominance to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in American society. These whites controlled the law through prohibition against the ever-growing consciousness of change.²⁵ Working-class citizens, typically African Americans, were more boisterous regarding alcohol consumption. Saloons were popular, as was bare-knuckle fighting, where African Americans and other minorities were able to let loose and have alcohol as a point of leisure and outlet.²⁶ 

In addition to working-class leisure, attractions like amusement parks were taken by storm in the 1920s. African Americans and other minority groups were able to express themselves, yet were frequently appropriated by white entertainers.²⁷ Blackface was popular at the time. The Modern Temper talks about Jack, an Americanized Jewish entertainer who performed in blackface. The Jazz Singer helps to see how African American and immigrant performers influenced the new culture that the 1920s is known for. One reason people did blackface was because they offered whites a mask to be more expressive than their Victorian norm.²⁸

The Petersburg Index published a newspaper on January 12, 1923, that focused on the whites who died rather than the atrocious massacre that occurred. It stated that the result of the massacre was from the “brutal assault upon a young white woman,” which paints a different picture. In the newspaper article, it lists those who died and puts the two whites first instead of putting the black victims by age and gender. There is a section in the newspaper article titled “Two Whites Shot Dead” with no highlights on the racist reasons.²⁹ 

The Rosewood Massacre is significant for numerous reasons. Black communities before the 1920s, during the 1920s, and beyond have been threatened and destroyed due to racism. We can see repeats in history to current times, where the violence against BIPOC communities is ever-present.

Citations

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia contributors, “Rosewood massacre.” ︎
2. Maxine D. Jones. “The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It.” 194. ︎
3. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
4. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
5. Jones, 195. ︎
6. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
7. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
8. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
9. Jones. ︎
10. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Rosewood,_Florida_historical_marker_(1).jpg. ︎
12. Jones. ︎
13. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
14. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
15. Jones, 207. ︎
16. Jones, 208. ︎
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Sara_Carrier.jpg. ︎
18. Jones, 207. ︎
19. Jones. ︎
20. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
21. Jones, 193. ︎
22. Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang). 9. ︎
23. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Rosewood_1923_map_from_Tropic_Magazine.jpg. ︎
25. Dumenil, 9. ︎
26. Dumenil, 81. ︎
27. Dumenil, 81. ︎
28. Dumenil, 81. ︎
29. Newspaper ︎
30. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Rosewood_Florida_Highway_Marker.jpg. ︎

Bibliography

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang).

Jones, Maxine D. “The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 76, no. 2 (1997): 193–208. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30146346.

Wikipedia contributors, “Rosewood massacre,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosewood_massacre&oldid=1219583334.

More Resources

Asante, Molefi Kete. “Litany of Horror: A Survey of Newspaper-Reported Lynchings.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 43 (2004): 116–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/4133570.

Colburn, David R. “Rosewood and America in the Early Twentieth Century.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 76, no. 2 (1997): 175–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30146345.

Dye, R. Thomas. “The Rosewood Massacre: History and the Making of Public Policy.” The Public Historian 19, no. 3 (1997): 25–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/3379554.

Edward González-Tennant. “Intersectional Violence, New Media, and the 1923 Rosewood Pogrom.” Fire!!! 1, no. 2 (2012): 64–110. https://doi.org/10.5323/fire.1.2.0064.

Jackson, David H., and Kimberlyn M. Elliott. “African Americans in Florida, 1870-1920: A Historiographical Essay.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 95, no. 2 (2016): 152–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44955672.

Newman, Richard. “Rosewood Revisited.” Transition, no. 80 (1999): 32–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903166.

Photo Citation: Florida Memory. https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/photographs.

Isabella Apgar

History major and Human Rights and Genocide Studies minor at Ramapo College of New Jersey class of 2025.

The Irish Civil War started on June 28, 1922, and lasted approximately ten months, ending on May 24, 1923. Even though this war started in June 1922, the Irish had been fighting for their independence way before that. In reality, the Irish started fighting for their independence from Great Britain in 1919. Great Britain refused Ireland’s departure to leave the United Kingdom and to be an independent country. Ireland and Britain fought in over a two-year war, with many casualties and land destroyed. Despite the majority of Irish citizens wanting to leave the United Kingdom summit districts in Ireland, did not want to leave the United Kingdom. This created a separate territory, called Northern Ireland, that voted to remain in the United Kingdom and have close connections with Great Britain. However, England was unwilling to give up all of Ireland, and they suggested negotiating new terms to make Ireland an independent country while remaining in the United Kingdom. 

The Build-Up to the Civil War:

After the war against the United Kingdom, Ireland, in the majority of the population, didn’t want to give up the hopes of Ireland becoming an independent country. Even though there were a lot of lives lost, homes destroyed, and a lack of motivation, Ireland would not go back to the old rules the United Kingdom had under. So Ireland’s parliament and England’s parliament agreed to negotiate terms on how independent Ireland would be, what terms they no longer have to follow, and what terms they still have to follow. Despite Ireland’s resentment toward negotiating with Britain, they realized it was better to negotiate than have more bloodshed and damage to their country. Ireland brought their top-ranking officials in the military and in politics to negotiate the new terms for Ireland’s independence. However, Britain also brought its brightest and most highly ranked commanders to negotiate on behalf of the United Kingdom the terms of Ireland’s independence.

In November 1921, negotiations started with Britain and Ireland on what would ultimately determine how much control the United Kingdom would have over Ireland. Negotiations were held at 10 Downing St. in London. The people who were negotiating on Ireland’s behalf were people like Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and Robert Barton. The people negotiating on behalf of the United Kingdom were people like David L George, Lorn Birkenhead, Authen Chamberlain, and even Winston Churchill. To this day, we still do not know what the negotiations were like in what specific topics either side we’re fighting for. A lot of it was to remain confidential and were to be announced when Ireland reached their homeland. Ultimately, the treaty was finally signed on December 6, 1921, with all members in the room signing their names on the document. The treaty was called the “Anglo-Irish Treaty,” which gave the United Kingdom less control of Ireland, but still stayed in power, uncertain things the country did. The United Kingdom parliament and members ultimately agreed to the new terms; however, it would be quite different in Ireland. Now the people who negotiated these terms have to convince the Irish citizens and parliament that Ireland is finally gaining its independence.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was finalized and now just has to be passed in the Irish parliament. The negotiators had to convince the Irish parliament of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which would ultimately prevent another war or conflict with Britain. Some of the terms and regulations that Irish citizens and government must obey are the following:

• Recognized parliament for non-imperial affairs: The Irish parliament can make decisions on behalf of its citizens, but not from a broad perspective. 
• Financial Autonomy: the British would only have some control of Ireland’s finances.
• Small Military Force: Ireland could have only a limited number of military troops. However, British troops would ultimately leave Ireland.
• Ireland State remains within the British Empire: Ireland will remain in the United Kingdom and must swear allegiance to the British monarchy for any person in elected office. 
• The Royal Navy would patrol Irish Waters: the British controlled the waters around Ireland
• Ulster’s Six Counties can choose to join or not: Give counties the option to remain completely in the control of the United Kingdom. (Northern Ireland)¹

The treaty finally reached the public and the Irish parliament, and there were many different opinions about the treaty. Some members of parliament didn’t like all the terms in the treaty but ultimately agreed, and some parliament members agreed to the treaty not because they liked it but because they didn’t want more conflict or division with Britain. However, there was a group of parliamentarians who were completely outraged by the terms they had to follow and obey. Some members stated that this was the opposite direction of Irish independence and believed that the negotiators just applied to anything that England said. Ultimately, the Anglo-Irish Treaty went up for a vote on January 7, 1922. It passed the Irish parliament 64 to 57 in favor of the treaty. This sparked a whole new division in Ireland, no longer with the United Kingdom, but now between their own citizens.

This image represents the 1922 election and what parties held what seats. As well as how the outcome of the Anglo-Irish Treaty passing happened. Red: Labour Party 17 seats, Green: Anti-treaty party 36 seats, Light Green: Pro-treaty 58 seats, Yellow: Farmer’s Party 7 seats, Blue: BPG 1 seat, White: Independent 9 seats. (Irish general election 1922)

The passing of the treaty raised high tensions in Ireland, not just in parliament, but around the whole country. Due to the passage of the treaty, some ministers of parliament started resigning. On January 14, 1922, Éamon de Valera, Cathal Brugha, and Austin Stack resigned from their post. From January to June, tensions rose throughout Ireland on the treaty and the new rules they must obey. This tension created two sides in Ireland: the Irish Free States (also called pro-treaty forces) and the Anti-Treaty IRA (also called anti-treaty forces). Ultimately, the forces of the two sides would become a reality when a man named Michael Collins and his forces attacked the Four Quarts, which ultimately would be the start of the Irish Civil War. 

The Two Sides in the War:

At the beginning of any war, there are always multiple sides that become frustrated and take action, which ultimately results in fighting and battles. In the Irish Civil War, there were two sides to the war, and one of the sides was the Pro-Treaty Forces. The people who aligned with these forces agreed with the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the rules that came with it. They believe this is one step forward to Irish independence and the country being an independent nation. Some members did not even agree with every measure and term in the treaty but did not want to raise conflict or more bloodshed with the British Empire. Some of the leaders of the pro-treaties forces were people like Arthur Griffin, Richard Mulcshy, Elon O’Buffy, and most notably Michael Collins. Collins is an important figure, being a high-ranking politician and military officer, as well as being the commander and chief of the Irish free state forces. He was also the cause of the start of the Irish Civil War when he directed an order to bombard the Four Quarts in Dublin, which anti-treaty forces had taken control of two months prior. This side also had the support of the United Kingdom and its military forces.

“Deputies have spoken about whether dead men would approve of it, and they have spoken whether children yet unborn would approve it, but few have spoken of whether the living approve it.”

-Michael Collins, Dáil debate, Christmas 1921.³

On the other side of the Civil War was the Anti-Treaty IRA. The anti-treaty for us is that they will do anything in their power—even go to war again with the United Kingdom—to finally have Ireland as an independent nation. They believed that the British Empire was keeping Ireland from doing great things economically and self-governing their citizens. They believe the Anglo-Irish Treaty favors England more than it does Ireland. The leaders of the anti-Treaty forces were people like Liam Lynch, Frank Allen, and most notably Éamon de Valer. Valera was one of the first ministers to speak out against the treaty and was the first to resign from parliament when the treaty passed. He could not plan on behalf of the anti-treaty and got Irish citizens to volunteer in the army to fight the pro-treaty forces. However, his charisma and popularity would ultimately get him in trouble with British forces being in prison for speaking against the Anglo-Irish Treaty and fighting for complete independence from the British Empire.

Beginning & End of the War:

The Four Courts were occupied by anti-treaty forces that took control of Dublin in the beginning of April. Michael Collins and pro-treaty forces were starting to exert pressure on the UK and their own forces about the anti-treaty forces’ control of the Four Courts. Winston Churchill told Michael Collins that if he did not get control of Dublin by August 10, he would inevitably have to send British troops to Ireland to stop the conflict. Michael Collins ultimately made the decision to bombard the courts on June 28, 1822, to get control back and push the anti-treaty forces out of Dublin. This is considered the start of the Irish Civil War and the first battle.

The first battle of the Irish Civil War was called the Battle of Dublin. Where pro-treaty forces and anti-treaty forces fought for control of the four courts and Dublin as a whole. The battle started on the 28th of June and lasted until the 5th of July, when, ultimately, pro-treaty forces got control back of the four quarts and Dublin from the anti-treaty forces. Ultimately, 44 soldiers were killed, a couple hundred were wounded, and 35 citizens were killed and over 100 wounded as well. Despite the bloodshed and people injured during this battle, it still did not stop both forces from fighting for what they ultimately wanted. Both sides continued the fight despite the bloodshed, injuries, and destruction in their own countries; there were no signs of them slowing down in the early months of the war. July, August, and September are where the most bloodshed happened, as well as destruction and battles. However, the war would take a dramatic turn at the end of August when news broke out about a certain man.

On August 22, 1922, about two months into the war, the commander-in-chief of the pro-treaty forces, Michael Collin, was killed in battle. This brought a new wave of supporters to the pro-treaty forces, who supported the treaty and even joined the fight. Ultimately, the man who replaced Collins as commander-in-chief was called Richard Mulcahy. Despite Collins’ death, the fighting did not stop, with both forces coming at each other from all angles and around the whole country. The Irish parliament, which was controlled by the pro-treaty forces, tried passing legislation to stop the fighting and prevent more bloodshed and destruction in their country. 

However, on May 24, 1923, over 10 months into the war, a man named Frank Aiken, told the anti-treaty forces to “dump their arms” and surrender. This decision ultimately got the approval of Éamon de Valera, knowing that this war would not go anywhere and that innocent people were dying because of it. This officially marked the end of the Irish Civil War. Despite the war being over, there was still conflict between the pro-treaty forces and the anti-treaty forces, with some people being killed and assassinated after the end of the war. Months later, the anti-treaty forces finally accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The treaty was ultimately put into law on March 31, 1922, and stayed the same for a couple of decades until the Irish attempted a second try to gain their independence in 1949 from the United Kingdom, and that battle had a different outcome than this one.

Significance:

The reason why I picked this topic was because of the interest I have in the United Kingdom and the empire they have built throughout the centuries. The United Kingdom or the British Empire was one of the biggest empires in the world controlling over 90% of the world at one point. But since 1776, the British Empire has been losing its colonies and countries for years, and there is a reason for all of them many of them are quite different. Sometimes the British Empire was OK with giving up some countries or negotiating with them for partial independence. Despite the British going easy on other countries, that was not the case with Ireland with the British fought tooth and nail to keep Ireland part of the United Kingdom. It always interests me how the Irish got into a Civil War with their people, and how different it was compared to the American Civil War. Hence the reason why I picked the Irish Civil War was to understand how desperate the Irish were to gain independence and how powerful/influential the United Kingdom was trying to keep them in their empire.

 Bibliography

1. The Great War. 2021. “Treaty That Caused Irish Civil War – the Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 (Documentary).” Youtube. November 26, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4h8XTRj6Oc. ︎
2. “File: Michael Collins 1921.Jpg.” n.d. Wikimedia.org. Accessed March 26, 2024. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Collins_1921.jpg. ︎
3. “‘They’ll Never Shoot Me in My Own County’ — Famous Quotes from Michael Collins.” 2022. Irishexaminer.com. August 20, 2022. https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-40942814.html. ︎
4. “File: Eamon de Valera c 1922-30.Jpg.” n.d. Wikimedia.org. Accessed March 26, 2024. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eamon_de_Valera_c_1922-30.jpg. ︎
5. “30 Best Eamon DE Valera Quotes with Image.” 2023. Bookey.App. September 4, 2023. https://www.bookey.app/quote-author/eamon-de-valera. ︎
6. joekilgobinet. 2009. “The Irish Civil War 1922 1923.” Youtube. May 31, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ayLHPLROg. ︎
7. “Timeline of the Irish Civil War.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. March 26, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_the_Irish_Civil_War&oldid=1215710689. ︎

The first connection this book brings to the Irish Civil War, or its whole independence attempt is corporate lobbying. In America, a lot of corporations had many politicians in their pockets by striking down certain legislation and rights that would harm or cost corporations money. So that meant for workers many of the rights that they needed or wanted were not being granted by the government because of corporations in politicians’ pockets. This situation could connect with the politicians in Ireland to the parliament in the United Kingdom. Before the Irish Civil War, the United Kingdom had major control of Ireland, and many of the decisions that were made for Ireland were made by the UK parliament. This meant the citizens of Ireland if they wanted rights or certain legislation to pass, would have to convince people that do not even live in their country to pass these rights or legislations. The author explains how corporations had control of the federal government in America and is the same as the UK’s parliament having complete control of Ireland’s government and the decisions they made.

The second connection the author brings up in the book that coincides with the Irish Civil War is the women’s rights movement. When comparing women’s rights in the Irish Civil War, countless things are different, but there are also major similarities. Like in America, women were fighting for the right to vote, and be represented in their government. However, in Ireland, they were fighting for the same rights but instead of just women, it’s all the citizens of Ireland. Ireland did get some representation in parliament, but not enough to make significant changes to its country. This involved a conflict in which Ireland wanted to be independent and not rely on Britain or the United Kingdom for self-governance. Women want their voices heard and participate in the act of voting and being able to represent. Ireland wanted the same thing of being represented equally under parliament and the British monarchy. Henceforth the reason the Anglo-Irish Treaty was developed. 

Overall when comparing America in Ireland’s problems these two events are pretty different in what they are fighting for. However, they are the same in the rights they are fighting for. One of them is the government which is supposed to represent them while not being controlled by someone else. (Corporations/UK’s government) As well as people fighting to have equal representation under their government in the voting process and self-representation. (women’s suffrage/Anglo-Irish Treaty) 

• Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.

Letter to the Congress I

I would urge strongly that at this Congress a number of changes be made in our political structure.

I want to tell you of the considerations to which I attach most importance.

At the head of the list I set an increase in the number of Central Committee¹ members to a few dozen or even a hundred. It is my opinion that without this reform our Central Committee would be in great danger if the course of events were not quite favourable for us (and that is something we cannot count on).

Then, I intend to propose that the Congress should on certain conditions invest the decisions of the State Planning Commission² with legislative force, meeting, in this respect, the wishes of Comrade Trotsky³– to a certain extent and on certain conditions.

As for the first point, i.e., increasing the number of C.C.⁴ members, I think it must be done in order to raise the prestige of the Central Committee, to do a thorough job of improving our administrative machinery and to prevent conflicts between small sections of the C.C. from acquiring excessive importance for the future of the Party.

It seems to me that our Party has every right to demand from the working class 50 to 100 C.C. members, and that it could get them from it without unduly taxing the resources of that class.

Such a reform would considerably increase the stability of our Party and ease its struggle in the encirclement of hostile states, which, in my opinion, is likely to, and must, become much more acute in the next few years. I think that the stability of our Party would gain a thousand-fold by such measure.

Lenin

December 23, 1922

Letter to the Congress II

Continuation of the notes.
December 24, 1922

By stability of the Central Committee, of which I spoke above, I mean measure against a split, as far as such measures can at all be taken. For, of course, the whiteguard⁵ in Russkaya Mysl⁶ (it seems to have been S.S. Oldenburg⁷) was right when, first, in the whiteguards’ game against Soviet Russia he banked on a split in our Party, and when, secondly, he banked on grave differences in our Party to cause that split.

Our Party relies on two classes and therefore its instability would be possible and its downfall inevitable if there were no agreement between those two classes. In that event this or that measure, and generally all talk about the stability of our C.C., would be futile. No measure of any kind could prevent a split in such a case. But I hope that this is too remote a future and too improbable an event to talk about.

I have in mind stability as a guarantee against a split in the immediate future, and I intend to deal here with a few ideas concerning personal qualities.

I think that from this standpoint the prime factors in the question of stability are such members of the C.C. as Stalin and Trotsky. I think relations between them make up the greater part of the danger of a split, which could be avoided, and this purpose, in my opinion, would be served, among other things, by increasing the number of C.C. members to 50 or 100.

Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General⁸, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution. Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, as his struggle against the C.C. on the question of the People’s Commissariat of Communications has already proved, is distinguished not only by outstanding ability. He is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present C.C., but he has displayed excessive self-assurance and shown excessive preoccupation with the purely administrative side of the work.

These two qualities of the two outstanding leaders of the present C.C. can inadvertently lead to a split, and if our Party does not take steps to avert this, the split may come unexpectedly.

I shall not give any further appraisals of the personal qualities of other members of the C.C. I shall just recall that the October episode with Zinoviev and Kamenev⁹ [See Vol. 26, pp. 216-19] was, of course, no accident, but neither can the blame for it be laid upon them personally, any more than non-Bolshevism can upon Trotsky.

Speaking of the young C.C. members, I wish to say a few words about Bukharin¹⁰ and Pyatakov¹¹. They are, in my opinion, the most outstanding figures (among the youngest ones), and the following must be borne in mind about them: Bukharin is not only a most valuable and major theorist of the Party; he is also rightly considered the favourite of the whole Party, but his theoretical views can be classified as fully Marxist only with great reserve, for there is something scholastic about him (he has never made a study of the dialectics, and, I think, never fully understood it).

December 25. As for Pyatakov, he is unquestionably a man of outstanding will and outstanding ability, but shows too much zeal for administrating and the administrative side of the work to be relied upon in a serious political matter.

Both of these remarks, of course, are made only for the present, on the assumption that both these outstanding and devoted Party workers fail to find an occasion to enhance their knowledge and amend their one-sidedness.

Lenin

December 25, 1922

Bibliography

“Письмо В.И. Ленина к съезду о сохранении единства партии, создании устойчивого ЦК, способного предотвратить раскол партии, с характеристикой некоторых членов ЦК (И.В. Сталина, Л.Д. Троцкого, Н.И. Бухарина, Г.Л. Пятакова, Г.Е. Зиновьева, Л.Б. Каменева), пр: Ленин.” Главная. Accessed May 03, 2021. http://lenin.rusarchives.ru/dokumenty/pismo-vi-lenina-k-sezdu-o-sohranenii-edinstva-partii-sozdanii-ustoychivogo-ck-sposobnogo.

Michael Kilduff

Michael Kilduff is a history major at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He is looking to become a high school history teacher after going to graduate school for history education.

Otherwise known as Annex VIII, part of the Treaty of Lausanne which ended the Greco-Turkish War, the Declaration of Amnesty addresses the atrocities committed by both sides during the war. The Armenian genocide was still ongoing during the war, and the Greeks enacted a scorched-earth policy on Turkish settlements at the end of the war. The more conservative estimates of the number of dead are in the hundreds of thousands, but it is more commonly believed that millions were killed. However, it would be more accurate to say that the annex lacks any addressment of the atrocities such as the Armenian genocide. Instead, the annex states that no one will be criminally charged for any acts that occurred during this time, on both the Greek and Turkish sides. This is a rather eye-opening document and shows off a trend that will continue of countries covering up their more despicable acts. This document is still relevant today, as Turkey still denies the Armenian genocide to this day and President Biden just recently formally recognized the Armenian genocide.

Document Text

The Powers signatory of the Treaty of Peace signed this day being equally desirous to cause the events which have troubled the peace in the East to be forgotten¹,

The Under-signed, acting in virtue of their full powers, have agreed to make the following Declaration:

I

No person who inhabits or who has inhabited Turkey, and reciprocally no person who inhabits or who has inhabited Greece², shall be disturbed or molested and reciprocally in Greece, under any pretext whatsoever, on account of any military or political action taken by him, or any assistance of any kind given by him to a foreign Power signatory of the Treaty of Peace³ signed this day or to the nationals of such Power, between the 1st August, 1914, and the 20th November, 1922.

II

Similarly no inhabitant of the territories detached from Turkey under the said Treaty of Peace shall be disturbed or molested either on account of his political or military attitude against or in favour of Turkey during the period from the 1st August, 1914⁴to the 20th November, 1922, or of the determination of his nationality under the said Treaty.

III

Full and complete amnesty shall be respectively granted by the Turkish Government and by the Greek Government for all crimes or offences committed during the same period which were evidently connected with the political events which have taken place during that period.

IV

Turkish nationals, and reciprocally nationals of the other Powers signatory of the Treaty of Peace signed this day who may have been arrested, prosecuted or sentenced by the authorities of the said Powers or by the Turkish authorities respectively, for reasons of a political or military nature previous to the 20th November, 1922, on territory which remains Turkish in accordance with the said Treaty of Peace, shall benefit from the amnesty, and, if they are detained, shall be handed over to the authorities of the States of which they are the nationals. This stipulation is similarly applicable to Turkish nationals arrested, prosecuted or sentenced by the authorities of the Powers who have occupied a portion of the above mentioned territory even for a transgression of the ordinary law committed before that date⁵, and even if they have been removed from Turkey, excepting those who have committed, against a person belonging to the armies of occupation, an assault which has entailed death or a grievous wound⁶.

V

All sentences pronounced for the above reasons shall be annulled, and any proceedings already instituted shall be stayed.

VI

The Turkish Government, sharing the desire for general pacification with which all the Powers are animated, declare their intent in not to contest the measures carried out under the auspices of the Allied Powers during the period between the 20th October, 1918, and the 20th November, 1922⁷, with the object of re-establishing families scattered owing to the war and or replacing legitimate proprietors in possession of their goods.

However, this intention does not exclude the possibility of any revision of the above-mentioned measures in the event of a request to that effect being made by the interested parties. Claims respecting persons and goods shall be examined by a Commission composed of a delegate of the Red Crescent and a delegate of the Red Cross. In the event of a dispute, these delegates will choose an umpire, if they are unable to agree as to such choice the umpire will be appointed by the Council of the League of Nations.

VII

The British, French, and Italian Governments, acknowledging the importance of the measure of pacification which forms the subject of Article 5 of the Agreement concluded on the 30th January, 1923⁸between the Greek Government and the Turkish Government relating to the return of interned civilians and to the exchange of prisoners of war, declare that they are prepared to adopt, subject to reciprocity on the part of the Turkish Government, the same measures for the benefit of such Turkish prisoners of war and interned civilians as may still be in their hands, with the exception of those who may have committed crimes and offences against the ordinary law since the 20th November, 1922⁹.

Done at Lausanne, the 24th July, 1923.

Horace Rumbold

Pellé

Garroni

G.C.Montagna

K.Otchiai

E.K.Veniselos

D.Caclamanos

Const.Diamandy

Const.Contzesco

………………..

M.Ismet

Dr.Ryza Nour

Hassan

Protocol

It is understood that, in spite of the terms of paragraph 1 of the Amnesty Declaration, the Turkish Government reserves to itself the right to prohibit sojourn in and access to Turkey to 150 persons included in the category of persons referred to in the said paragraph. Consequently, the Turkish Government will be entitled to expel from its territory such of the persons in question as may be there at the present time and to prohibit such as are abroad from returning. The names of these persons shall be annexed to the Amnesty Proclamation which, on the coming into force of the Treaty of Peace signed this day, shall be promulgated by the said Government in order to give effect, in so far as that Government is concerned, to the above-mentioned declaration. It is further understood that, in the event of the Turkish Government deciding, as it has expressed the intention, that the said persons must liquidate their property and other goods in Turkey, they shall be granted a period of nine months as from the date of the above-mentioned proclamation to effect this liquidation of their own accord, and in the event of liquidation by the Turkish Government after the expiry of this period the whole of the proceeds shall be paid to the said persons.

It is similarly understood that paragraph 1 of the Amnesty Declaration in no way affects the right of the Greek Government to prosecute non-Moslem Greek subjects belonging or having belonged to its army for acts which constituted failure in respect of their military duties during the hostilities between Greece and Turkey¹⁰.

Done at Lausanne, the 24th July, 1923.

Horaca Rumbold

Pellé

Garroni

………..

K.Otchaiai

E.K.Veniselos

D.Caclamanos

Const.Diamandy

Const.Contzesco

……………

M.Ismet

Dr.Ryza Nour

Hassan

Source

“VIII. Declaration of Amnesty”. Republic of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2011, https://www.mfa.gov.tr/viii_-declaration-of-amnesty.en.mfa.

More Resources

Full Treaty of Lausanne, World War I Document Archive.

Armenian Genocide, Armenian National Institute.

Nicholas Buonocore

Nicholas Buonocore is a student at Ramapo College who toke the Discovering Digital History course in the Spring 2021 semester. He was a junior at Ramapo studying history while taking this course.