1. WARMUP What might life be like for Americans in the 1920s?
How would the culture change?
What stories do you know about the 1920s?

2. The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance
Culture of the ’20s

3. Life in the 1920s: Prohibition Era (1919-1933):
18th Amendment (1919) – prohibited the making, selling, or transportation of alcohol
Volstead Act – law passed by Congress to enforce prohibition – ignored by most of the cities on the east coast

5. Life in the 1920s: Success of prohibition:
-consumption of alcohol decreased
-arrest for drunkenness decreased
Why did Prohibition eventually fail?
Not enforced – some police depts. were corrupt, just didn’t care, or were scared of the gangsters
Most people didn’t take prohibition seriously – drank anyway

6. Effects of Prohibition

8. Life in the 1920s:
The crime wave that began made most people think that the amendment should be repealed
organized crime got involved in bootlegging (the illegal selling of alcohol)
the most famous gangster of the 1920s was Al Capone from Chicago

9. Life in the 1920s: Al Capone – nicknamed “Scarface”
-had a talent for avoiding jail by buying off policemen, city officials, and politicians
-made up to $60 million a year from bootlegging
-convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and sent to prison
-released in 1939 after becoming ill with syphilis – died in 1947

11. Life in the 1920s:
21st Amendment (1933) – repealed the 18th Amend. and allowed local communities to decide whether or not to legalize alcohol
Slang Words from prohibition era:
-bathtub gin
-moonshine (made at night)
-white lightning
-speakeasy – secret club or bar – usually in a basement – needed a password to get in

13. Life in the 1920s: Entertainment:
Shorter working hours and higher wages gave Americans more spare time and more money for entertainment
Radio – first radio station in Pittsburgh, PA in Nov – only news at first – baseball and music broadcasted later
Moving Picture Shows (“movies”) – all movies were silent films at first (had music but no talking)
Ex. Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Clara Bow
Sports –often called the “Golden Age of Sports”
Music / Dance – the radio made music more popular
Literature

15. Life in the 1920s: Sports Continued
Babe Ruth – nicknamed “The Sultan of Swat” or “The Great Bambino”
-most famous baseball player of the 20s
-played most of his career with the NY Yankees
-hit 60 homeruns in 1927 (remained a record until 1961)
-hit 714 career homeruns (remained a record nearly 40 years)

17. Life in the 1920s: Music and Dance Continued
Jazz was the most popular music of the 20s
started in New Orleans
Louis Armstrong was the most popular jazz musician of the 20s
George Gershwin was a popular composer – wrote “Rhapsody in Blue”
popular dances included: Charleston, Fox-trot, and Tango

19. Life in the 1920s: Literature Continued Famous 1920s authors include:
F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
Sinclair Lewis – Main Street
Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms
Langston Hughes

20. Langston Hughes
Poetry Reading:
“Let America be America again”

21. Life in the 1920s: Return of the Ku Klux Klan
Revived in the 1920s
Membership:
, million
million -today- approx. 6,000
Attacked African Am.’s, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants

22. Life in the 1920s: Scopes / “Monkey” Trial
The state of TN passed a law in 1925 that made it illegal to teach evolution (Charles Darwin theory) in public schools
John Scopes, a teacher from Dayton, TN, was chosen by the ACLU to challenge the law

23. Life in the 1920s:
He was arrested and charged – defense attorney was Clarence Darrow
William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor
The judge refused to allow scientists to testify for the defense since “they were not around during creation”
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, however the law was later changed

24. Life in the 1920s: The Red Scare
The fear of radicals (esp. communists and socialists)
Causes:
1) the communist revolution in Russia (1917) scared many Americans – “If it can happen there, it can happen here.”
2) terroristic violence in the U.S. – mail bombs were sent to local, state, and national leaders

25. Life in the 1920s:
Because of the Red Scare and the power of the KKK, limits were placed on immigration
Sacco and Vanzetti Case – two Italian immigrants, who were anarchists, were accused of killing 2 men during a robbery in MA – convicted without a fair trial – both were executed in 1927

26. Boom Time?
The years between World War I and the Great Depression were "boom times" in the United States.
A "boom" is a time of rapid, widespread expansion of economic opportunity, during which jobs are plentiful.
Jobs were plentiful in cities, especially in the North.

27. Women in the 20s
Women are starting to assert themselves in this time period
Flappers: Women in the 20s who challenge the old norms of America. Modern women of the 1920s – young, rebellious, fun-loving, and bold – short hair, short dresses (to the knees), more makeup (esp. lipstick) – attitudes changes – ex: began to smoke and drink in public, vote

29. The Harlem Renaissance
Explosion of culture among African Americans in New York
Langston Hughes, Louis Mailou Jones, Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong

30. Harlem Renaissance originally called the New Negro Movement.
fostered a new black cultural identity.
1920s through mid-40s.
an outpouring of creative expression that had long been bottled up by the constraints of segregation.

31. Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington (1899-1974) composer, musician, band leader

32. The Great Migration
Mass exodus from the South
Between 1920 and 1930, almost 750,000 African Americans left the South for political, social, and economic reasons.
At the beginning of the period, particularly in the South, racism was rampant, and economic opportunities were scarce.
At this time in the South, African Americans were restricted to "colored" facilities clearly inferior to those reserved for white citizens.
Lynching was still being used to instill fear in entire African American communities in the South.

33. Causes of Migration
new farm machinery drove thousands of tenant farmers off the land.
Southern states had fewer schools and higher rates of illiteracy than Northern states.
Northern states also had more cultural attractions and booming industries.
wider opportunities for prosperity
more racially tolerant environments
a sense of actual (as opposed to theoretical) citizenship

34. The New Negro Has no Fear
After centuries of abuse in the South, many African Americans were "voting with their feet"
UNIA Parade Organized in Harlem, 1924

35. The North: Home Sweet Home?
The North was a step up from the South, but it was no paradise.
Segregation in housing and hiring were the norm.
Northern racism sometimes took on a brutality that equaled anything in the South.

36. Why "Harlem" Renaissance?
Of the almost 750,000 African Americans who moved North, nearly 175,000 moved to Harlem.
Harlem is a section of Manhattan, which covers three square miles; therefore, Harlem became the largest concentration of black people in the world.

37. Triggers of Harlem Renaissance
the end of World War I and the return of black veterans
the support of civil rights organizations (NAACP) and black solidarity movements (UNIA)
the ascendance of Harlem as the "Negro capital of the world"
a new sense of economic, social, and cultural potential
Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association - UNIA

38. Famous Faces of the Harlem Renaissance
Claude McKay
“If We Must Die”
“America”
photo by James L. Allen

39. Famous Faces of the Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes ( )
“Dreams”
“Harlem”
“The Weary Blues”

41. Wrapup What caused the Harlem Renaissance?
Why were the 1920s known as the roaring 20s?
What examples of changes to American culture can you give?