Summary
Highlights
World War I, being a 'total war,' led to a significant expansion of the federal government's role in American lives. President Woodrow Wilson created agencies like the War Industries Board and the National War Labor Board to organize the economy around war production, leading to new jobs but also increased government control.
The government suppressed civil liberties, particularly freedom of speech, to maintain unity during wartime. The Espionage Act (1917) and Sedition Act (1918) made anti-war activities and criticisms of the government illegal. Eugene V. Debs was famously imprisoned for opposing the draft. The Supreme Court's ruling in Shank v. United States upheld these restrictions, stating that speech posing 'clear and present danger' could be limited.
German-Americans were viewed with suspicion, leading to organizations like the American Protective League spying on them. The Russian Revolution and the founding of the Comintern fueled the Red Scare. Attorney General Mitchell Palmer spearheaded the Palmer Raids, arresting over 6,000 immigrants without legal justification and deporting hundreds, largely targeting perceived radical immigrants. This period also saw the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924, significantly reducing immigration.
Wartime industrial production led to a massive rural-to-urban migration, with federal policies coordinating production and stabilizing wages making urban factory work attractive. The Great Migration, a major movement of millions of African Americans from the South to northern and western cities, accelerated during this time. They sought to escape segregation (Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson), racial violence (Ku Klux Klan, lynchings), and limited economic opportunities (sharecropping).
Despite leaving the South, Black migrants still faced significant racial discrimination and hostility in northern cities. White workers viewed them as job competition, leading to violence. A prominent example is the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, where white mobs destroyed the prosperous Black Greenwood district (Black Wall Street) due to racial resentment, resulting in numerous deaths and severe property damage.