The Roaring Twenties

2. 1920's = "Roaring 20's” or "Jazz Age“

3. 1920 census = urban society

4. 1920 census = urban society

5. 1920 census = urban society

6. 1920 census = urban society

7. 1920 census = urban society

8. Warren G. Harding, 1921-1923 Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929 Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933
Laissez-faire economics

9. • President Warren G.
Harding promises U.S. a
“return to normalcy ” after
WWI
• Pro-biz Sec. Treasury
Andrew W. Mellon:
trickle-down economics
• Government policies
support unregulated biz
Warren G. Harding,
1921-1923

10. • Ohio Gang: unqualified,
corrupt friends in
cabinet
• Teapot Dome Scandal =
Sec. Interior Albert Fall
takes bribes from big oil
• Harding depressed,
sudden death (1923)

11. • Vice-President Calvin
Coolidge cleans up
scandals; re-elected 1924
• Continued unregulated
Laissez faire economics
• Refuses to help farmers;
believed in rugged
individualism
Calvin Coolidge,
1923-1929

12. • Avg. per capita annual income 35% , more
income for goods and leisure
• Henry Ford made affordable cars

13. • Installment buying —small
monthly payments
• National advertising begins,
promotes new products
• Cheap electricity and oil fuel
new labor-saving inventions
– more time for sports,
movies, radio, reading,
talking on phone

16. • Golden Age of Air:
ex-WW I pilots fly
as crop-dusters,
stunt fliers, flight
instructors
• U.S. Post Office
Department started
air service (1918)
• Pan American
Airways becomes
first U.S. passenger
airline (1927)

17. Charles A. Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart
fly across the Atlantic

18. Hindenburg disaster, 1937

19. • Youth culture - rebellion against tradition and
authority
• Youth remain in school longer, wear daring
clothes, follow silly fads
• Charleston is popular dance

20. • 19th
Amendment:
Women’s
suffrage
• Flapper: symbol
of 1920s
American
women

23. • 18th
Amendment—
Prohibition —bans
making, selling
alcohol (1920)

26. • Speakeasies sell alcohol, bootleggers transport
and sell

27. • Organized crime
battled for
control
• Chicago crime
boss Al Capone
controlled 10K
speakeasies;
St. Valentine’s
Day Massacre

30. • Prohibition fails,
21st Amendment
repealed (1933)

31. • Mass media — radio and film gain mass audience
• Top actor: Charlie Chaplin

32. • First “talkie”:
The Jazz Singer
(1927)

33. • Birth of popular sports - boxing, baseball, golf,
swimming, football

35. First Red Scare, 1919-1920

39. • Immigration Acts
of 1921 and 1924
• cut immigration
by 80%
• 2% of total
number of
people of each
nationality in
U.S. as of 1890
census
• excluded
Asians

41. • Sacco and Vanzetti

42. • Lost Generation— pessimistic reaction to WWI

43. • Lost Generation— pessimistic reaction to WWI

44. • Fundamentalism: literal interpretation of Bible

45. • Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson

46. • John Scopes breaks evolution ban, found guilty
at Scopes-Monkey Trial

47. • Harlem Renaissance —black culture – poetry,
painting, jazz

48. • Great Migration: African Americans move
North for better jobs

49. Ku Klux Klan Revival
• nativists, fundamentalists, white supremacists
• 4-5 million members at peak in 1925
• opposed blacks, Catholics, Jews, foreigners

50. Red Summer 1919
• short postwar economic downturn
• White supremacist attacks in 36 cities
• Elaine massacre – 100-240 blacks and five whites killed

51. Red Summer 1919
• short postwar economic downturn
• White supremacist attacks in 36 cities
• Elaine massacre – 100-240 blacks and five whites killed

52. Red Summer 1919
WARNING: Next slide contains graphic image of a lynching victim.

53. Red Summer 1919
Will Brown, victim of Omaha, Nebraska lynching

54. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921
• wealthiest black community in U.S.; site of Black Wall Street
• airplanes used to bomb black neighborhoods; first aerial assault on U.S. soil
• 35 square blocks destroyed
• estimated 150-300 killed; around 10,000 blacks left homeless

55. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

56. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

57. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

58. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

59. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

60. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

61. Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921

62. “Harlem is not merely a Negro colony or community, it is
a city within a city, the greatest Negro city in the world. It
is not a slum or a fringe, it is located in the heart of
Manhattan and occupies one of the most
beautiful…sections of the city.” - James Weldon Johnson

63. “I, Too.” by
Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the
kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.

64. • National Association
for the Advancement
of Colored People
(NAACP)
• Marcus Garvey – anti-
lynching and black
separatism - return to
Africa

67. • Jazz—combines
African rhythms,
blues, ragtime
• Louis Armstrong
• Duke Ellington

68. Lynching Deaths
in the United States

69. “Strange Fruit”
Written by Abel Meerpool (1937). Performed by Billie Holiday (1939).
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Time magazine
"Best Song of the 20th Century”

70. Politics of the Roaring 20s
Economics
-superficial
prosperity
-increased
production of
consumer
goods
-increased
standard of
living &
spending
Government
-pro-business
presidents
elected
-isolationist &
anti-immigrant
-corruption
Society
-apparent
threat of
communism
-fear and
distrust of
immigrants &
labor
-faith in
business
-strikes and
worker unrest
Technology &
Industry
-introduction of
new
transportation
-widespread
use of
electricity
-advertising
gains popularity

71. Life of the Roaring 20s
Entertainment
-Wide spread
entertainment
becomes a
pastime
-News is more
available
-Sports heroes
are celebrated
Art
-Music
becomes
distinctly
American
-Artists are
depicting real
life
-Writers explore
new topics
Urbanization
-Cities grow due
to
industrialization
-Afr. Amer.
Continue to
move north
-Struggles with
prohibition and
organized crime
Attitudes
-Women are
allowed greater
freedoms
-Traditional and
modern ideals
collide