Scopes Trials Essay

548 Words3 Pages

Although this may be true, many other people do believe that the events occurring during the 1920’s changed American lives for the worst. This was due to the many racial and religious conflicts arising during this time. With every other concept becoming modern in the United States, modernists took this approach with religion as well. They believed that they could accept Darwin’s theory without sacrificing their religious faith. However, fundamentalists disagreed. They took every word of the bible as true and blamed liberal views of modernists for a “decline in morals”. Both of these ideas were present during the Scopes Trials. In 1925, a Tennessee biology teacher, John Scopes, was arrested for illegally teaching the concept of evolution …show more content…

Due to these propositions, the case of Sacco and Vanzetti became very popular. Two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in a Massachusetts court of robbery and murder. Many liberals felt that they were only convicted due to their ethnicity and political beliefs (anarchists). They were executed in 1927, despite these remarks. Moreover, the most severe example of nativism in the United States was the resurgence of the KKK. They used modern advertising method to gain 5 million members by 1925. The KKK in this time period were not against only African Americans, but also Catholics, Jews, foreigners, and suspected Communists, due to the Red Scare. They used cruel punishments as tactics to intimidate anybody deemed as “un-American”. From whipping, tar and feathering, and even hanging, the KKK was ruthless. However, by 1925, it was discovered that the KKK was a fraud and very corrupted. This caused the Klan’s influence and membership to decline expeditiously. Notwithstanding, the events that occurred in the 1920’s still had a positive effect on the lives of Americans because social reform during this time was the only reason why the KKK shrunk in size in the first place. Many people were able to become

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