Roaring Twenties

1. “What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.”
Vice President, Thomas R. Marshall Jan. 4, 1920

2. American culture and society in the 1920s were marked by a wave of new
lifestyles and ideas. While the movie industry produced new celebrities and jazz
music became popular, literature flourished and flappers defined a social trend.
Amidst the speakeasies, jazz, and jitterbugs, Americans began to stray from
traditional values as the culture changed.
Roaring Twenties
The economic prosperity of the 1920s afforded many Americans
leisure time for enjoying sports, music, theater, and entertainment.

3. 1920s
Men’s
Clothing

4. 1920s
Women’s
Clothing

5. Flappers
Women’s fashion drastically changed in the 1920s. The flapper was the
stereotype of a woman in the 1920s that began to abandon traditional female
roles and exemplify more sexual freedom. Independent and representing the
rebellious youth of the age, the flapper was usually characterized by her
"bobbed" hair, dangling cigarette, heavy make-up, and her ever shortening
skirt length. Often they competed for jobs usually reserved for men.

6. Swim Wear and the Fashion Police
Female bathers being confronted by the police in 1922
for showing too much skin.
Indecent female bathers arrested in Chicago in 1922
In 1935, the police in
Atlantic City, New
Jersey, arrested 42 men
on the beach. They were
cracking down on
topless bathing suits
worn by men.
America's first nudist
organization was founded
in 1929, by 3 men.

7. The First Miss America Pageant
In 1921 Margaret Gorman was the first Miss America. She was 16 years old.

8. Sports
Babe Ruth
Radio, motion pictures, and newspapers gave rise to a new interest in sports.
Sports figures, such as Babe Ruth and heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey,
were famous for their sports abilities but became celebrities as well.

9. Consumerism of the 1920s
American Consumers had money to spend and could spend more on leisure
activities and other entertainment.
American businesses flooded stores with new products such as household
appliances and recreational items.

10. Installment Buying
Purchasing a commodity over a period of time. The buyer gains the use of
the commodity immediately and then pays for it in periodic payments
called installments.

11. Henry Ford and the Model T
Employees stay in one spot while the assembly line
brought the parts to them. Up until that time, parts
remained stationary while employees moved from
station to station.
First mass-produced automobile. In 1907 30,000
Model T cars were sold. From 1907 until 1926,
Ford built half the automobiles in the world
(16,750,000 cars).
The wages paid by the Ford auto
company were much higher than
those paid by other automobile
companies. In 1914, Ford paid
workers who were age 22 or older
$5 per day, double the average
wage offered by other car
factories.
Ford [Story of US]
In 1893, Ford completed the construction of his first automobile and in 1903 he founded
the Ford Motor Company. In 1908 he started production of the Model-T. In 1913 Ford
began using standardized interchangeable parts and assembly-lines in his plants.

12. Automobile
The automobile greatly changed the face of US culture by allowing people to
become more mobile, live further away from where they worked, and attend
activities and events that otherwise would have been inaccessible.
Between 1913 and 1927, Ford factories
produced more than 15 million Model Ts.
The Model T, also known as the “Tin Lizzie,” changed the way
Americans live, work and travel. Henry Ford’s revolutionary
advancements in assembly-line automobile manufacturing
made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority
of Americans. For the first time car ownership became a reality
for average American workers, not just the wealthy.

13. Great Migration
After WWI many African Americans began leaving the South in growing
numbers to pursue better economic opportunities in northern cities and in
hopes of escaping southern racism.

14. Racial Unrest Reaches the North
In the summer of 1919, racial tensions steadily escalated in many Northern
cities as thousands of American soldiers returned and needed to find
employment. African-Americans, who moved North to find work during the
Great Migration found themselves competing for the same jobs as whites.

15. Red Summer [1919]
The Red Summer Chicago race riots began when an African-American swimmer at
the 29th street beach was stoned and killed by a white sunbather because his raft
drifted over to the beach area reserved for Whites-only.
He drowned because whites are said to have prevented attempts of African-
American bathers to rescue him. When the police arrived, the African-American
bathers demanded that the white man who threw the stone be arrested. Instead, the
police began to arrest the African-American bathers for being disruptive.
Race riots erupted in no less than twenty
American cities. The largest and most violent of
these riots occurred in Chicago where whites
and African Americans entered each other’s
neighborhoods and attacked one another. The
violence lasted almost two weeks.
Great Migration & Racial Riots [Story of US]

16. National Magazines
Allowed news stories and business advertisements to reach people nationwide.

17. Radios
Became the first source of mass communication and entertainment available to
people in their own homes. It also transformed politics by giving leaders direct
access to larger numbers of people.
Radio Broadcasting in the 1920s
Radio became one of the era's
most influential advertising
and entertainment media. By
1929, over 10 million families
owned radios Did You Know? During the 1920s, families sat down
together to listen to radio programs, much like families
today sit down together to watch television programs.

18. Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
A group of women formed the Women’s Christian Temperance movement in 1874
The movement advocated the total abstinence from alcohol and worked to get laws
passed against alcohol. By 1917 it successfully established prohibition in 19 states.

19. 18th Amendment
The 18th amendment took effect on January 20, 1920 and banned the manufacture,
sale, and transportation of alcohol.
Prohibition [Ken Burns]

20. Prohibition: Revenue Agents
Government agents destroy kegs of alcohol. Prohibition created an enormous
public demand for illegal alcohol

21. Reasons Why Prohibition Had Failed
• There weren't enough Prohibition agents to enforce the law.
• Many Americans never gave their support to Prohibition and continued to
purchase and consume alcohol.
• It influenced the rise of crime in American society during the 1920's.
Gangsters, bootleggers, hookers, and underground casinos.

22. Bootleggers
People who made, sold, or distributed alcohol illegally. Many people died or
got violently ill from buying and drinking illegally made alcohol.

23. Speakeasy
An illegal establishment that sold alcohol during prohibition.

24. Prohibition and Crime
Protection rackets, organized crime and gangland murders were more
common during Prohibition than when alcohol could be bought legally.

25. Al Capone
Al Capone
The most infamous
incident was the in
1929 when Capone's
men dressed as police
officers killed seven
members of his rival
Moran's gang while
Capone lay innocently
on a beach in Florida.
Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol of
the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition
era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its
reputation as a lawless city.
Al Capone [Story of US]

26. Twenty-First Amendment
Passed February, 1933 to repeal the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). Congress
legalized light beer. Took effect December, 1933. Based on recommendation of
the Wickersham Commission that Prohibition had lead to a vast increase in
crime.

27. National Woman's Party (NWP)
A women's organization that fought for women's rights during the early 20th
century particularly for the right to vote. After the 19th Amendment gave women
the vote, the NWP turned its attention to passage of an Equal Rights
Amendment.
Congress passed the amendment and most states ratified it, but at the last minute
it was stopped by a coalition of conservatives and the ERA never passed.
NWP members picket the White House in 1917; the banner reads,
"Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty."

28. Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947)
A suffragette who was president of the National Women's Suffrage
Association, and founder of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.
Instrumental in obtaining passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

29. 19th Amendment
The constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote.

30. Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding (Republican) won the Election of 1920. A series of
scandals that rocked his administration and he died of heart problems in 1923.
President Harding was the first U.S. president elected after woman were allowed to vote.

31. Ohio Gang
The name given to President Harding's cabinet because all the members were
friends from Ohio. Most were involved in scandals, such as extortions, accepting
bribes that damaged Harding’s presidency
“My God, this is a hell of a job! I can take care of my enemies all right. But my friends, my God-damn friends,
they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!”
Warren G. Harding

32. Albert Fall & the Teapot Dome Scandal
Teapot Dome was a place in Wyoming that had many large oil reserves.
Albert Fall was the Secretary of Interior.
He was caught accepting bribes to lease oil-rich government property to
private oil companies.
He was fined $100,000 and spent a year in jail.
His actions reflected poorly on President Harding, who too often allowed
people interested only in personal gain into a position in office.
Secretary of the Interior,
Albert Fall leased out
government oil reserves to
independent oil companies
in exchange for bribes and
kickbacks.

33. The Death of Warren G. Harding
President Harding died of a heart attack while vacationing in California. The scandals and the
negative press were perhaps too much for him.

34. Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge
Succeeded Harding as president in 1923.
Strongly believed that the government should not interfere with the growth of
business and that the natural business cycle would fix any problems in the
economy. One of Coolidge's most famous quotes was, "The business of the
American people is business."
After receiving word that Harding had died, Calvin
Coolidge was sworn in as President by his father, a
notary public.
President Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed “Silent
Cal” because he rarely talked. He was known to
take frequent naps and used to dress up like a
cowboy or Indian while he rode a mechanical
horse in the Oval Office.

35. Business of America is Business
Coolidge gave a speech in mid-January 1925 when he stated that "The chief
business of the American people is business... but there are many other things
that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity
which is so strong an element of all civilization."

36. Laissez-Fair Economics
The idea that government should not regulate business or try to manipulate the
market but rather let the market take its natural course.

37. Capitalism
An economic system based on free markets and privately owned industry.
J.C. Penny Co.
A&P Grocery Piggly Wiggly
Western Auto Parts

38. Communism
A system in which people in society cooperate and own property mutually,
thereby making governments unnecessary.

39. Red Scare
Fear of communism that swept across the US following WWI. Business
leaders, government officials, and a growing number of private citizens
feared that communism might spread to the U.S.

40. Palmer Raids
In 1919, the Communist Party was gaining strength in the U.S., and Americans
feared Communism. In January, 1920, Palmer raids in 33 cities broke into
meeting halls and homes without warrants. 4,000 "Communists" were jailed,
many innocent immigrates were deported.

41. J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI (1895-1972)
Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-
fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modernizations to police
technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.
His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI. He
used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files
on political leaders, and to collect evidence using illegal methods.
His warrantless surveillance, eavesdropping,
and the library of secret files were used to
bully and possibly destroy the careers of
everybody including; government officials,
civil rights leaders, Vietnam-era peace
activists, and celebrities.

42. Nativism
Opposition to immigration

43. Revival of the Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan grew to be a national, rather than just a southern, force of
hatred. It experienced phenomenal growth in the 1920's, especially in the
Midwest and Ohio Valley states. Klan targeted Jews, Catholics, Communists,
and foreign immigrants.
It's peak membership came in 1924 at 3 million members, but its reputation for
violence led to rapid decline by 1929.

44. Sacco and Vanzetti Case
Ethnic prejudice was the basis of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, in which the two
immigrant men were accused of murder and theft on April 15, 1920. They
were arrested and both were charged with the robbery and the murder. Sacco
and Vanzetti were sentenced to death on circumstantial evidence and on Aug
23, 1927 they were executed by the electric chair still proclaiming their
innocence.

45. Immigration Restrictions
Congress passed a temporary limit to the number of immigrants beginning in
1929. Racist in nature, many of these laws were designed to allow more
immigrants from Western Europe into the country than from Eastern
Europe or the Far East. Hispanic Catholic immigrants, both legal and illegal,
increased drastically during this time period.
President Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924.

46. Fundamentalists
During the twenties, Protestants who insisted on the divinity of the Bible, were
angered by the theory of evolution. Fundamentalist legislatures even introduced
bills to prohibit the teaching of evolution in schools.
Billy Sunday
Billy Sunday Revival

47. Scopes Trial (1925)
Prosecution of Dayton, Tennessee school teacher John Scopes, for violation
of a Tennessee law forbidding public schools from teaching about evolution.
Former Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan,
prosecuted the case, and the famous criminal attorney, Clarence Darrow,
defended Scopes.
Scopes was convicted and fined $100,
but the trial started a shift of public
opinion away from Fundamentalism.
William Jennings Bryan
defending the Christian faith
John Scopes
Clarence Darrow

48. Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920's,
formally known as the "New Negro Movement."
Based in Harlem, New York, the famous works of African American artists
became known all over the country. These African Americans, typically
middle-class and educated, share their powerful feelings of pride for their
heritage.

49. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Black leader who advocated "black nationalism," and financial independence
for Blacks, he started the "Back to Africa" movement. He believed Blacks
would not get justice in mostly white nations.
Head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He was a Jamaican immigrant who believed
blacks should separate from corrupt white society. He proclaimed "I am the equal of any white man."

50. James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
American poet and part of the Harlem Renaissance, he was influenced by
jazz music.

51. Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Hughes was a gifted writer who wrote humorous poems, stories, essays and
poetry. Harlem was a center for black writers, musicians, and intellectuals.

52. Hollywood
Films really blossomed in the 1920s, expanding upon the foundations of film
from earlier years. Most US film production at the start of the decade
occurred in or near Hollywood on the West Coast.
By the mid-20s, movies were big business and that the greatest output of
feature films in the US occurred in the 1920s and 1930s.

53. Movie Industry
Fashions and lifestyles portrayed in the movies helped define a national culture.
As a result, movie stars became national icons.
Did You Know? During the 1920s, cosmetic sales soared as women tried to copy the look of Hollywood movie stars.
The average American woman used about one pound of face powder a year.

54. Jazz Singer (1927)
Motion pictures became increasingly popular. The first “talking” picture, The Jazz
Singer, was made in 1927 with singer, Al Jolson. The golden age of Hollywood
had began.
Camptown Races sung by Al Jolson
Cotton and Chick Watts Blackface Minstrel Show

55. Tin Pan Alley
Referred to the various music houses in New York City where songwriters
and musicians composed and published songs during the post-WWI years.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
George Gershwin
Tin Pan Alley

56. Irving Berlin
Famous composer associated with Tin Pan Alley who composed over 3,000
songs during his career despite the fact he could barely read music.
Among his famous hits are the traditional Christmas favorite "White
Christmas," the patriotic theme "God Bless America,” and "There's No
Business Like Show Business" from the Broadway musical Annie Get Your
Gun.

57. Jazz
A popular form of music after World War I that arose out of the African
American community as musical artists from Louisiana and Mississippi
brought their talents to the northern cities.
Crossing ethnic boundaries, jazz found a receptive audience among both
blacks and young whites.

58. Louis Armstrong
A trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, was among the most noted jazz
musicians.

59. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974)
Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974), an American aviator who made the first
solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927.
Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him, but Lindbergh was the
first person to do it alone nonstop. Lindbergh's feat gained him immediate,
international fame.