Last week, we highlighted the mostly under-appreciated “lost souls” of the recently concluded decade.
Today, we look back to events of the 1920s that bear remembering with praise or wincing.
The nation got Prohibition when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning alcohol took effect just 16 days into the new decade. Americans would mostly ignore the amendment until its repeal in 1933.
The 19th Amendment followed in August 1920 – to more lasting effect, thank goodness. It gave women the right to vote.
Congress investigated the administration of President Warren G. Harding in what became the Teapot Dome scandal involving bribery and the cheap sale of petroleum reserves to oil companies. A Navy secretary went to prison.
Congress enacted the Immigration Act of 1924. The act barred nearly all immigrants from Asia and most from countries outside the Western Hemisphere. It also created preferences for immigrants related to citizens.
Also that year, Congress authorized creation of the U.S. Border Patrol.
The movies grew up, getting color in 1922, sound effects and music in ’26, and full-blown talking in ’28.
