1. The Roaring 20’s
An era of prosperity,
Republican power,
and conflict
2. • 1920's collectively known as the "Roaring 20's", or the
"Jazz Age"
• in sum, a period of great change in American Society -
modern America is born at this time
• for first time the census reflected an urban society -
people had moved into cities to enjoy a higher standard
of living
3. The 20’s is The Jazz Age
The Flappers
make up
cigarettes
short skirts
Writers Musicians
F. Scott Fitzgerald Louis Armstrong
Ernest Hemingway Duke Ellington
4. • 1920's also brought about
great changes for women...
• 1920 - 19th Amendment gave
them the federal vote
• after 1920, social
circumstances changed too
as more women worked
outside the home
• and more women went to
college and clamoured to join
the professions
• women didn't want to
sacrifice wartime gains -
amounted to a social revolt
• characterized by the
FLAPPER/ "new woman"
– (bobbed hair, short
dresses, smoked in public...)
5. The Dance Craze
• The Charleston
• Has a quick beat
• Dancers kick out their
feet
• Popular dance for
Flappers: Women who
wore short skirts (to the
knees), bright red
lipstick, hair cut short,
smoked and drank in
public, and drove fast
cars
6. A New Generation of American Writers
• Depressed about their awful experiences in
World War I
• Criticized Americans for being obsessed with
money and fun
• Many became expatriates (people who leave
their own country to live in a foreign land) and
moved to Europe
7. Ernest Hemingway
• Wrote about
experiences of
Americans during
WWI and in Europe
• Wrote A Farewell to
Arms, The Sun Also
Rises, The Old Man in
the Sea
8. F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Wrote about wealthy
young people who go
to constant parties but
cannot find happiness
• He wrote The Great
Gatsby
• His characters had
flappers, bootleggers,
and movie makers
9. Sinclair Lewis
• Grew up in a small
town in Minnesota
and moved to New
York City
• He wrote books about
rural people from a
city person’s
perspective (making
them look stupid)
• Wrote Main Street
and Babbitt
10. Harlem Renaissance
• originally called
the New Negro
Movement.
• fostered a new
black cultural • an outpouring of
identity. creative expression
• 1920s through that had long been
mid-40s. bottled up by the
constraints of
segregation.
11. 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.
12. Why Leave the South?
– Between 1920 and 1930, almost 750,000 African
Americans left the South for political, social, and
economic reasons.
– Why go North?
• wider opportunities for prosperity
• more racially tolerant environments
• a sense of actual (as opposed to theoretical)
citizenship
– Mass exodus from the South called The Great
Migration.
13. The Great Migration
– 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 used to instill fear in entire
African American communities in the South.
14. Causes of Migration
– new farm machinery drove thousands of tenant
farmers off the land.
– 1915 - severe boll weevil infestation
– Southern states had fewer schools and higher
rates of illiteracy than Northern states.
– Northern states also had more cultural
attractions and booming industries.
15. Children in the Silent Protest Parade, 1917
Page from The Brownies Book, published by NAACP
16. Reaction of White Southerners
– Promised better pay and improved
treatment.
– Intimidation
– Some even boarded northbound trains to
attack African American men and women
in an attempt to return them forcibly to
their homes.
17. 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
18. 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.
19. The North: Home Sweet Home?
–New arrivals could land only low-
paying jobs as janitors, elevator
operators, domestics, and unskilled
laborers.
–Despite the challenges, most of those
who went North never returned.
20. 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.
21. Triggers of Harlem Renaissance
• the end of World War I and the return of
black veterans
• the formation 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
22. Mets
Yankees Buy
Giants Lose
Pennant Here!!
Stink Here!!
Here!
Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, was the
center of the African American political, cultural,
and artistic movement in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Can you see any evidence from this map that this is an
African American community?
24. Impact
The Harlem section of New York City was transformed from a
deteriorating area into a thriving middle class community.
Before After
25. Modernism & the Harlem Renaissance
• Blacks view surge in art, music and literature as the
creation of a new cultural identity.
• Whites see it as another new, exotic, and trendy form of
entertainment.
26. Authors and Works
• Creative expression was • African-American-owned
one of the few avenues magazines and
available to African newspapers flourished
Americans
• Common bond: They
dealt with African Countee
American life from an Cullen
African American (1903-1946)
perspective. poet,
novelist,
playwright
27. Harlem Renaissance Poets
Claude McKay: From
Jamaica, wrote the
poem, “If We Must
Die” that condemned
lynchings
Countee Cullen: Taught
high school in
Harlem, wrote of the
experiences of
African Americans
28. Zora Neale Hurston
• Write novels, short
essays, short stories
• Traveled throughout the
South in a battered car
collecting folk
tales, songs, and prayers
of black southerners
• Published these in her
book, “Mules and Men”
• Most famous- There Eyes
Were Watching God
29. Langston Hughes
• Most well-known of the
Harlem Renaissance
poets
• Also wrote plays, short
stories, and essays
• First poem, “The Negro
Speaks of Rivers”
• Encouraged African
Americans to be proud
of their heritage
• Protested racism and
acts of violence against
blacks
30. “The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful also, is the sun.
Beautiful also, are the souls of my people.”
-Langston Hughes, “In My People”
31. Lafayette
Theatre
opening night of Shakespeare's
"Macbeth"
• also known as the "House Beautiful“
• probably the first New York theater to
desegregate
• as early as 1912, African-American
theatergoers were allowed to sit in
orchestra seats instead of only the
balcony.
33. Heroes of the 1920s
• Athletes:
– Bobby Jones: Won nearly every golfing
championship
– Jack Dempsey: Heavyweight boxing champion for
7 years
– Bill Tilden and Helen Willis: Tennis champions
– Gertrude Ederle: 1st woman to swim the English
Channel
34. Babe Ruth
• Grew up in an
orphanage
• Often in trouble as a
boy
• Hit 60 homeruns in
one season, and 714
overall
• Called the “Sultan of
Swat”
35. Charles Lindbergh
• The greatest hero of the
1920s
• The first person to fly an
airplane across the Atlantic
Ocean alone
• Flew from New York to Paris
• Called “Lucky Lindy”
because he had to fly for 33
½ hours and didn’t carry a
parachute, a radio, or a map
