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According to the constitution, Americans are free to believe in whatever religion they choose. Many people came to live in America because they were being persecuted because of their religion. After World War One, a new kind of Christianity emerged - Fundamentalism. They did not like the influence of cinema and jazz, or the new way in which women dressed and behaved. The Fundamentalists believed strongly and literally in everything the Bible said, and in the Bible Belt they condemned any other beliefs.

A new law was passed in six southern states prohibiting the teaching of Charles Darwin's evolution ideas in schools because those ideas contradicted the story of the Creation in the Bible. John Scopes, a Biology teacher from Dayton, Tennessee was outraged by the new act. Scopes took the decision to teach his pupils about Darwin and evolution in order to make a political point. He was arrested for breaking the law. He was found guilty of teaching the theory of evolution to his pupils and was fined $100. To many people living outside the Bible Belt, the ideas of the Fundamentalists seemed irrational.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was more racial prejudice and animosity towards those who some people did not consider to be 'real' Americans. There was discrimination against the 12 million black people living in the USA and only a few had the right to vote. The Jim Crow laws were the laws that introduced segregation in the south.

The Ku Klux Klan was a racist group of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) people who wanted to see black people remain as enslaved people. By the mid-1920s they had 5 million members. The KKK discriminated against black people, Catholics, Jews and Mexicans, and often killed black people by hanging without trial (lynching). They were not brought to justice very often as Klan members were members of the police and had friends in the courts.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) focused on opposing racism and segregation through litigation and holding non-violent activities, such as marches and protests. The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) were more militant. They encouraged black people to establish their own businesses and to employ black people only. They also encouraged them to return to their homeland, Africa. Black is beautiful was the UNIA’s most famous slogan.