SOL Review Materials for Unit Seven – Part One The Roaring 1920s and the Jazz Age

1. Electrification improved Americans quality of life, eased labor, and increased productivity. Labor-saving products were invented, like washing machines, stoves, or refrigerators. Electric lighting improved the quality of life and helped factories stay open longer. Entertainment improved: Motion Pictures and the Radio! Improved communications – Telegraph, Telephone. Look at the fine print! Washing machines were on sale by mail order from the World’s Largest Store: The Sears-Roebuck Company!

2. Advancements in communications and the use of new mass media forms changed life in America. Airplanes, Trains, and Trucks were all “Measures of Progress in the 1920s. The telephone became popular and was very common in people’s homes now. Commercial radio broadcasts began! The motion picture industry came to prominence – and newsreels were used to keep Americans informed and entertained. AT&T

The First Commercial Radio Station

Hollywood – Films and Newsreels The Jazz Singer, by Al Jolson Hollywood not only produced blockbuster films staring entertainers like Al Jolson and Charlie Chaplain, but also created newsreels that summarized the major events of the decade.

3. Henry Ford used the assembly line to mass produce the Model-T Ford, relying on mechanized labor. On Henry Ford’s assembly line, every man had one job to do – expertly – every day. In this way, the car could be manufactured much faster, mechanized machinery could be used it the process, and very few skilled laborers were required – as long as you could learn how to do your one task, all was well.

4A. The automobile changed the American economy and the American way of life! The automobile allowed Americans to have much greater mobility – and reliable transportation changed Americans way of life. Suburbs developed as people realized that they could live outside the city, and commute to work.

4B. The automobile changed the American economy and the American way of life! Manufacturing the Model-T Ford created many new jobs – and high quality jobs for the most part! The growth of the automobile industry also inspired parts stores, road construction, glass, steel, and rubber companies, and, of course petroleum refineries.

5. The Wright Brothers invented the airplane. The Wright brothers invented the airplane back in 1903. Their invention came to fruition, however, during the 1920s, when the spectacular trans-Atlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh was completed, and commercial flights across the United States and into Latin American began.

6. Georgia O’Keeffe was an artist from the Southwest. Georgia O’Keeffe was a member of the Taos Movement, and many of her pictures were desert landscapes. Later in her career, many of her paintings were close-ups of flowers. In general, her work features desert landscapes, symmetry, and the juxtaposition of life and death. The painting above is pretty representative of her work!

7. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby. Many scholars of American literature consider The Great Gatsby the finest work in all our nation’s history. The novel exposes the purposeless and vacant lives of the wealthy during the 1920s. Look for the movie version of The Great Gatsby this month!

8. John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath. The Grapes of Wrath is the story of the Joad family, forced to evacuate their homes near the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Steinbeck wanted to expose the difficulties of the Great Depression period and to honor the strength and resiliency of the American people during this difficult period of our nation’s history.

9. Aaron Copland was a famous American composer of the era. Aaron Copland was a composer whose work is uniquely American – “Fanfare for the Common Man” is his most well know piece. Many of his works were instrumentals.

10. George Gershwin was a pop musician who played piano. George Gershwin was a writer of popular music. He played the piano, and many of his songs received air play on the radio over the years. Sadly, he passed away at the young age of 37. At the time, he was one of the United States most popular musicians ever.

11. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was as celebration of African American literature. During the Harlem Renaissance, African-American artists, writers, and musicians based in Harlem, NY, revealed the freshness and variety of African American culture. They celebrated the joys and accomplishments of African-American communities, and did not focus on issues of racism, segregation, and prejudice.

12. Jacob Lawrence was an African-American artist who portrayed African-American subjects in urban settings. He also created a trilogy of paintings about “The Great Migration.”

13. Langston Hughes was an African American Poet and the leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes was a poet, an author, and a playwright who became the leading member of the Harlem Renaissance. Many of his poems went on to become popular successes, and his work not only expressed African-Americans pride during the 1920s, but also inspired the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

14. Louis Armstrong was a key figure in the growth and popularity of jazz music. Louis Armstrong, whose nickname was “Satchmo” was not the inventor of jazz. But his unique style of playing the cornet and the innovative and interactive nature of the musical genre made him enormously popular during the 1920s.

15. Duke Ellington was a jazz superstar as well, creating the “swing jazz” style that lasted through the 1940s.

16. Bessie Smith was a jazz – blues singer of the 1920s.

17. Prohibition failed because so many Americans chose to break the law, and because organized crime – gangsters and bootleggers, for example, sold alcohol illegally throughout the decade.

18. Speakeasies were secret bars where customers could break the law, purchase alcohol, dance, and make merry – unless or until the police came to break up the illegal business.

19. Organized Crime ran the alcohol trade during Prohibition. Moonshiners, Bootleggers, Rumrunners, and gangsters - organized crime - controlled the illegal alcohol trade. Often, these alcohol dealers would use deadly force against rival gangs or against police officers and federal agents who enforced the prohibition laws. Gangsters like Al Capone were responsible for the murders of dozens of police officers, federal agents, and rival gangsters who tried to sell alcohol on his “turf” – Chicago, IL.

21. The 21st Amendment to the Constitution repealed the 18th Amendment in 1933. The 21st Amendment to the Constitution repealed the 18th, allowing breweries to distill alcoholic beverages and consumers to legally purchase it again. When it was approved in 1933, people hoped that new jobs would help to pull the United States out of the Great Depression, too. It didn’t help much.

22. Plessy V. Ferguson made “Jim Crow” laws and segregation the law of the land. During the 1920s and the 1930s, very little changed in the segregated South. “Jim Crow” laws were still in effect, and segregation laws all over the nation – from California to Texas and from Alabama to Virginia – were upheld by the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy V. Ferguson. The laws effected Latinos, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos, and especially Native Americans, who had no citizenship rights at all until the 1920s.

23. African Americans moved to Northern cities seeking jobs and greater freedom during the Great Migration of the 1920s. Jobs for African Americans in the South were scarce and low paying. African Americans faced discrimination and violence in the South. African Americans moved to cities in the North and Midwest in search of better employment opportunities. African Americans still faced discrimination and violence in the North and Midwest. There was less violence there; however, occasional race riots were terrifying. The painting “The Great Migration” – a part of a trilogy by Jacob Lawrence – shows African Americans embarking upon trips to major Northern cities like Chicago, New York, and St. Louis. These were destinations for African-Americans during the Great Migration of the 1920s.