ipl-logo

Essay On Life As A College Student In The 1920's

919 Words4 Pages

Life as a college student in Alabama in the 1920’s was very different from the previous generation and this cohort started the change that shaped the way college students are today. Three important changes that defined life for students during this time were dating, obtaining alcohol, and the interference of the Klu Klux Klan. Lisa Lindquist Dorr’s “Fifty Percent Moonshine and Fifty Percent Moonshine” describes the life of college students in Alabama from 1913 to 1933 compared to the generation. College students during prohibition rebelled against their parents’ generation and established the basis for “college life”. The dating scene at Alabama and Auburn during this time is very different then the dating culture we have today. There were …show more content…

The reading states that “one humorous comparison of male and female students noted that both drank, cussed, flunked exams, and got caught in autos.” Dorr stated that the women did not just politely sip, some would apparently get “tight.” “Tight” is a 1920’s euphemism for drunk (Dorr 60). Due to prohibition, alcohol was illegal so students would have to get it bootleg. Boys had a better change of getting a bid from a fraternity if their father was a bootlegger, so they could have easy access to alcohol. The alcohol consumption of the Alabama college students not only would get them in trouble, but it also caused problems for University of Alabama President George Denny and Auburn University President Spright Dowell. The reading states that “rumors about a drunken female student being carried into a fraternity house at Auburn caused such a scandal that they reached the governor’s office” (Dorr, 59). Students continued to drink even though they were repeatedly scolded for doing so, a group of students were publicly chastised for attending a dance visibly drunk and called it “a very offensive and disgraceful thing to do” (Dorr, 61). The illegal drinking and rowdiness of the Alabama college students of the 1920’s are not so different from the students in …show more content…

This “second” Ku Klux Klan was all about moral regulation. Dorr states that the KKK was “Concerned not only bootleggers, prostitution, and derelict husbands, the Klan also sought to put an end to new social practices taken up by middle-class white youth” (Dorr, 63). These KKK members were like moral police officers for the students and for Alabama youth in general, in 1926 and 1927 they raided couples parked on dates on the well-known lovers’ lanes in Birmingham (Dorr, 64). Alabama students feared not for the police but of being caught by member of the Klu Klux Klan. One member of the Klan said that “If the mothers of the town did not prepare to look after their daughters the Klan would” (Dorr, 64). Dorr stated that the Klan was “making their efforts to return to a time when men and women, blacks and whites knew their places all the more imperative” (Dorr, 64). We can only assume that the member of the second Klu Klux Klan was suck in the past, fearful of modern culture and social

Show More
Related
1110 Words | 5 Pages

As stated earlier, the second period of temperance began post-Civil War. During this time period, national organizations such as Woman’s Christian Temperance Union teamed with a new political party known as the National Prohibition party to take prohibition to the national political scene. In the past, many prohibition supporters, the ‘drys’ as they were called, believed the lack of political support undermined their efforts to nationalize the issues associated with alcohol use.

Read More
514 Words | 3 Pages

The KKK went after blacks in general and anybody who doesn’t support their views, even whites. Stories of African Americans being savagely beaten reported in the newspaper and hostile notices posted for the public to send the message throughout the city to demonstrate what will happen if they don’t follow through the KKK’s plan for having a “pure” country. For example, in the newspaper report from the Shelby County Guide, they reported the KKK coming into their town to regulate matters. They, “... hung three or four negroes nearly dead, and whipped others severely,” (Source 7), just like how Mr. Morrison was critically whipped at the railroad for defending himself in a fight the other person started. Thus, the objective of the KKK is horrific, violent, and just outright

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

The Ku Klux Klan first emerged in Pulaski, Tennessee following the Civil War. As we know today, the mere mention of the Klan triggers fear as the KKK is known for its various tactics of violence that came in the form if lynchings, murders, and mutilations. Following their emergence, the KKK were quickly symbolized and portrayed as the protectors of the South, following the defeat of the Southern states in the Civil War and the beginning of the period of Reconstruction by the federal government (Gurr, 1989, p. 132). During the 1920s, the KKK achieved its greatest political success and growth outside of the South. During this period, the membership of the Klan heavily expanded to the states of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Oregon, to which the KKK obtained two to two and one-half million members at its apex.

Read More
468 Words | 2 Pages

However, the illegality surrounding the drinking culture of New York City conferred classiness to it, and drinking became a mark of social status in 1920’s Manhattan. Pre-prohibition drinking holes lacked urban sophistication, but post-prohibition nightclubs defined it. Lerner is masterful in describing prohibition’s cultural blowback. Another interesting

Read More
901 Words | 4 Pages

Wets believe that alcohol was a key contributor that helped society thrive in the 1920s. When the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, instead of solving issues, it created more; many jobs were lost as a result of the amendment. Tax revenue decreased and the government lost eleven million dollars (Doc 1). Society’s need and want for alcohol did not subside after the passing of this amendment. This led to people taking drastic measures to inquire alcohol.

Read More
1277 Words | 6 Pages

In the text, it was stated “Beneatha: Mama, if there are two things we , as a people, have got to overcome, one is the Klu Klux Klan - and the other is Mrs. Johnson. (pg. 543)” According to Dictionary.com, Ku Klux Klan is “a secret organization in the southern U.S., active for several years after the Civil War, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired powers of blacks and to oppose carpetbaggers from the North, and which was responsible for many lawless and violent proceedings.” Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were known for their violence acts. They murdered numerous blacks, some are whites, who were either active in Republican politics or educating black children.

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

Writers attempted to show drunks the hazardous effects of their ways. Those behind the Temperance movement preyed upon the fears of humanity’s worst, domestic violence, sexual abuse, the loss of childhood innocence (Reynolds and Rosenthal 61). In the end the Temperance movement was taken up largely by the middle class, women, religious peoples and conservatives; oddly enough however, the ATS while in need of support, did not need the support of African Americans. Women flocked to this movement for a variety of reasons including, early twentieth century American women held few freedoms which forced not only them but more importantly their children to rely upon the husband, the

Read More
1576 Words | 7 Pages

Most notably, they lynched people of color, burned their homes, and committed other egregious actions. However, the KKK is a perfect example of the negative power that people can hold. Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Klu Klux Klan proved that recruitment was the second KKK’s most effective tool. By 1923, “nationwide, the Klan boasted that 500,000 Masons had joined.” Organizing and enlisting new members were two crucial methods that people have employed time and time again.

Read More
1200 Words | 5 Pages

When alcohol was made illegal, that is when the growth of organized crime had increased. Bootlegging was already established across the nation since there were twenty-six states that had made alcohol illegal before the United States as a whole could, “Thus, when alcohol was made illegal, there was already a rudimentary infrastructure for its illicit importation, distribution, and sales” (Climent). Bootleggers were able to easily attain produced alcohol and sell it to speakeasies all over the country, “The major organized crime rings then set to work creating interstate and even international distribution networks to access illegally produced alcohol, smuggle it into the country, and sell the product to speakeasies(illegal bars) and other customers” (Climent). It was exceedingly arduous to enforce Prohibition to Americans since it was so readily available, “In the end the law proved impossible to enforce and in fact led to the rise of organized crime and a huge increase in alcohol abuse among Americans” (Farshtey 7). In The Great Gatsby, alcohol could be soon moving around on trays and ingested by the guests at his luxurious and ostentatious parties.

Read More
834 Words | 4 Pages

Racism in the 1920’s was widespread and inescapable for African Americans and other races as well as religions as they were terrorized and discriminated against persistently. A prime example of this discriminating was a group called the Klu Klux Klan, or the KKK. The first branch of the KKK was founded in 1866 by a group of former confederate veterans in Pulaski Tennessee. It first started as a social club for the group, but soon spread to over 4 million members across the United States by the mid 1920’s.

Read More
2333 Words | 10 Pages

This paper will discuss the difference between the Ku Klux Klan and The Black Panther Party two extremist groups. The historical foundation of these two groups along with the comparison of their extremist activities, and the motivating factors which fueled and heighten their motivational actions. The movement of these two groups were prompted by the two different beliefs with the Ku Klux Klan motives being from racism, and the Black Panther forming for the protection of their communities from racial tension. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee by veteran confederate soldiers lead by General Nathan Bedford in 1865 during the time of the Reconstruction Era as a result of resistance to the Republican Party’s support of the Reconstruction

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

Prohibition has been a big issue since the mid to late eighteen hundreds. Some states were under prohibition during that time, but during the 1920s no states were allowed to drink. For years female activist groups had been battling alcohol, and January 16, 1920, their wish was granted. Some of these anti-alcohol groups were non-violent, however some were extremely violent. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was a very large group of non-violent women who were against alcohol due to the impact it had on families.

Read More
630 Words | 3 Pages

During the 1920’s alcohol was beginning to be viewed as a problem. Many groups complained about the various effects it had on culture. Women complained that their husbands would get drunk and beat their wife or children. In the business world managers and company owners complained that alcohol was the cause of men coming in late and coming in drunk or hungover which directly affected

Read More
2224 Words | 9 Pages

The Prohibition Era, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was a time in American history when the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were prohibited. This era stemming from January 1920 to December 1933 was marked by a surge in organized crime, speakeasies, racial tensions, and bootlegging; all factors that led to the economic downfall of the U.S. shortly after. In this paper, we will discuss the historical background of the Prohibition Era, the government’s flawed structure at the time, as well as the impact it had on different groups of American society. The temperance movement, which advocated for the moderation or abstinence from alcohol, began in the 19th century. It gained momentum during the Progressive Era,

Read More
1560 Words | 7 Pages

The Higher Education of Drinking College is a place for higher learning. It is a time when young adults are exploring themselves as individuals, expanding not only their academic horizons but for many, it’s their first time being on their own socially. Young adults find themselves making many decisions. These choices involve attending class, completing assignments and possibly engaging in behaviors that could impact their own personal health and safety. Sometimes they are faced with decisions that involve the use of various substances including alcohol.

Read More

More about Essay On Life As A College Student In The 1920's

Related Topics

Open Document