Chapter 21: The Roaring Life of the 1920s

Section 1: Changing Ways of Life

I. Rural and Urban Differences A. Between 1922 and 1929, migration to the cities accelerated, with nearly 2 million people leaving farms and towns each year (small town values change) 1. City dwellers judged one another by their accomplishments more often than their background a. City dwellers tolerated drinking, gambling, and casual dating (shocking and sinful in small towns) 2. Cities could be impersonal and frightening b. Life was fast paced and neighbors were not as neighborly B. Prohibition: the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages were legally prohibited 3. 18th Amendment: ratified Jan, 1919 and repealed by the 21st Amendment in Dec, 1933 C. Positive Opinions/Results of Prohibition: 4. Progressives wanted it banned to stop family violence, crime, and poverty c. Support for prohibition was found in the rural native-Protestant dominated West and South d. The church-affiliated Anti-Saloon League led the drive to pass Prohibition e. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union considered drinking a sin 5. WW I reformers advocated prohibition as a war measure f. People were concerned that many German Americans owned many of the brewers g. Drinking reduced the efficiency of soldiers and workers 6. Learned we must have a clear majority supporting an issue before a law is made h. Initially alcoholism declined and the number of alcohol related deaths D. Negative Opinions/Results of Prohibition: 7. Laws were broken by normally law-abiding citizens i. Immigrants, college students, and some city dwellers disobeyed prohibition j. People visited speakeasies, made their own liquor (stills), and bought alcohol illegally 8. Volstead Act (1919): est. the Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Department which was greatly underfunded k. Patrol 18,700 miles of coastline, inland borders, destroying stills, monitoring shipments on highways, and document legal industrial uses of alcohol l. Bribed and threatened law enforcement officials 9. Criminal gangs (organized crime) controlled liquor sales (Al Capone made $60 million a year from bootlegging out of Chicago) m. Speakeasies (hidden saloons and nightclubs): so called b/c when inside, one spoke quietly, or “easily,” to avoid detection (needed a card or password to enter) n. Bootleggers: smuggler’s practice of carrying liquor in the legs of boots (smuggled it in from Canada, Cuba, and the West Indies) o. Protection rackets: threatened store and business owners with violence if they did not give gangsters money 10. By the mid-1920s, only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition p. Rural Protestants still thought Prohibition strengthened morals II. Science and Religion Clash
A. Fundamentalism: Protestants that believed every word in the Bible should be regarded as literally true (skeptical of science and believed all important knowledge could be found in the Bible) 1. Attacked Christians who believed in the theory of evolution advanced by Charles Darwin a. A theory stating that plant and animal species had developed and changed over millions of years b. Most unbelievable claim is that humans evolved from apes 2. Revivalist preachers found eager audiences a. Billy Sunday: religious revivalist who preached against alcohol b. Aimee McPherson: showy revivalist who addressed communism, socialism, and jazz-ism (had a radio broadcast) B. The Scopes trial (Monkey Trial) 1. Tennessee legislature outlawed the teaching of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in public schools in March, 1925 2. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wanted to challenge constitutionality of the law a. Offered to defend any Tennessee school teacher who would challenge the statue b. John Scopes, a biology teacher, accepted the offer, was arrested, and the trial started on July 25, 1925 C. Split in values and beliefs of Americans 1. Clarence Darrow (most famous trial lawyer of the time) was Scope’s defense attorney a. Scopes represented new religious values based on scientific thought b. Represented Americans that felt the Tennessee law was a threat to free expression 2. William Jennings Bryan, former three-time Democratic presidential candidate and secretary of sate was the prosecutions star witness (special prosecutor) a. Bryan represented traditional fundamental religious values b. Bryan and followers were portrayed as narrow-minded D. Darrow called Bryan, as an expert on the Bible, to take the stand
1. Darrow asked Bryan, “Do you think the earth was made in six days?”
2. Bryan answered, “Not six days of 24 hours.” a. Bryan the fundamentalist was expected to simply say “yes” b. Fundamentalists believe the stories in the Bible are absolutely true, b/c the Bible is inspired by God E. Verdict in the Scope’s trial 1. Scopes never denied teaching evolution and was found guilty (fined $100) 2. Scoped appealed his conviction and in 1927 the verdict was reversed on a technicality a. Any fine over $50.00 had to imposed by a jury not the judge 3. Tennessee court upheld the anti-evolution law until the 1960s

Section 2: The Twenties Woman

I. Young Women Change the Rules E. Flapper: an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day 11. Defied tradition dress codes and behaviors q. Wore shorter skirts (above the knee), silk hose, and boyish bobbed hair dyed jet black r. Smoked, drank in public, and talked openly about sex 12. Valued their economic independence s. More women worked outside the home t. Viewed marriage as an equal partnership, but agreed child rearing and housework was still a woman’s job 13. Samuel Gompers (AFL leader), in 1921, described the winner of the first Miss America Pageant as a traditional women u. If married they were still expected to quit their jobs and raise family F. Double Standard: a set of principles granting greater sexual freedom to men than to women-required women to observe stricter standards of behavior than men did 14. Magazines, newspapers, and advertisements promoted the image of the flapper v. The flapper was more an image of rebellious youth than a widespread reality w. Similar to the Hippie movement of the 1960s-1970s (minority) III. Women Shed Old Roles at Home and at Work G. Although women were successful in the workforce during WW I, many employers felt returning veterans, and, men in general, were the real bread winner(s) 15. Many female college graduates became teachers, nurses, librarians, secretaries, clerks 16. By 1930, 10 million women were earning wages x. Few filled management roles and they earned less than men 17. Discrimination and inequality for women in the workforce was established during the 1920s and 1930s y. In 2005, on average for every $1.00 a man makes a woman makes $.77 H. The birthrate had dropped at a faster rate in the 1920s, although it was already dropping for several decades 18. Wider availability of birth-birth control info z. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in the U.S. in 1916 {. Sanger also founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, and fought for the legal right(s) of physicians to give birth-control info to patients 19. Technological innovations freed homemakers from some of their traditional family responsibilities |. Ready-made cloths, sliced bread, and canned foods were available for purchase }. Public agencies provided health care for the elderly and sick, and workers’ compensation assisted those who could no longer work 20. Marriages were increasingly based on romantic love and companionship instead of dependence and need ~. Children were not working in factories, but instead they were in school and taking part on organized activities with kids their own age . Parents started reading manuals on child rearing and listened to experts 21. Women started juggling the role(s) of work, family, and fun . Teens spent less time with family, rebelled more often, and resisted societal control(s) . Popular culture made teen rebelliousness a them (media, entertainment, newspapers, etc.)

Section 3: Education and Popular Culture

I. Schools and the Mass Media Shape Culture A. Prior to the 1920s, high schools catered to college-bound students, but by the 1920s high schools began offering a broad range of courses (vocational training) 1. Children of immigrant families were finally being educated and taught English 2. From 1913 to 1926 the cost of attending school quadrupled a. Taxes to financed schools increased to keep up b. By the mid-1920s the cost of the American educational system amounted to $2.7 billion a year B. Literacy caused the mass media to shape American mass culture 3. Newspaper circulation rose and writers learned to hook readers with sensational tabloids a. National chains covered events beyond the borders of towns and states 4. Readers Digest (1922) and Time (1923) boasted a circulation of over 2 million each C. Radio was the most powerful communications medium to emerge in the 1920s 5. Americans experienced the news and athletics while it happened a. The first radio stations, Detroit’s WWJ and Pittsburgh’s KDKA, went on the air in 1920 (by 1929 the radio reached 10 million homes-1/3rd of the nations households) 6. The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), aired their programs nationwide 7. Amos & Andy Show (radio 1928-1960 and TV 1951-1966) a. Upon reflection, many critics believe racial stereotypes were promoted and prejudice was used for entertainment purposes b. Is this still true with popular entertainment today (SNL puppet skit (veterans) and Fallon election skit (politics)) II. America Chases New Heroes and Old Dreams (In 1929, Americans spent $4.5 billion on entertainment and changing fads) D. Babe Ruth 8. Led New York Yankees to 4 World Series championships (1920 – 1935) 9. Hit a record-setting 60 home runs in 1927 10. Hit 714 career home runs (broke in 1974) E. Savoy Big Five 11. Played in Chicago’s Savoy Ballroom until it was transformed into a skating ring in 1927 12. They became known as the Harlem Globetrotters a. Played all games on the road b. No one was willing to play them 13. Won the World Basketball Tournament in 1940
a. Adopted show tactics they have today F. Jim Thorpe 14. He played every sport at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania 15. 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden a. First contestant to win both the pentathlon and decathlon 16. Thorpe’s triumph turned to tragedy a. Played semi-professional baseball for money b. At the time Olympics athletes had to be amateurs c. Thorpe’s records and medals were destroyed 17. 1982, 29 years after his death, the Olympic committee restored his medals G. Charles Lindbergh (America’s most beloved hero) 18. On May 20, 1927 he flew nonstop from New York to Paris (33 ½ hours), flying the Spirit of St. Louis a. In 1919, Raymond Orteig (hotel owner) offered a $25,000 prize to anyone that could fly nonstop from New York to Paris b. Coolidge invited him to the White House giving Lindbergh the Congressional Metal of Honor and Distinguished Flying Cross
2. Lindbergh also supported research on rockets and developed an artificial heart
3. Pan American World Airways hired Lindbergh as a consultant H. Amelia Earhart became first women to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane (May 20, 1932 she started her trek across the Atlantic) 19. June 1, 1937 Earhart embarked on her attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world c. One of her stops involved landing on Howland Island in the Pacific which is only a mile and a half long and a half mile wide (never found the island and crashed) d. The gov’t spent $4 million and covered 250,000 square ocean miles searching for her and gave up on July 19, 1937 III. Writing, Entertainment, and the Arts I. Movies offered viewers an escape into romance and comedy 20. Nickelodeons (1890s) e. Earliest movie theaters that had a $.05 admission f. Attracted the wealthy and the working class g. Lloyd Lewis believed movies were a symbol of democracy b/c everyone could afford movies and therefore all Americans were equals for a few moments 21. The Jazz Singer, produced by Warner Brothers, was the first major movie released with sound (“talkie”) 22. Walt Disney’s, Steamboat Willie, was the first animated film with sound which was released in 1928 J. George Gershwin and Georgia O’Keeffe became popular in the 1920s 23. George Gershwin was a concert music composer that merged traditional elements with American Jazz 24. Georgia O’Keeffe produced intensely colored canvases that captured the grandeur of New York K. Some of America’s greatest writers were recognized in the 1920s 25. Sinclair Lewis was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in literature h. In his novel Babbitt, Lewis ridiculed Americans for their conformity and materialism 26. F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term “Jazz Age” to describe the 1920s i. In the Great Gatsby, he revealed the negative side of the 1920s, portraying wealthy and attractive people leading imperiled lives in gilded surroundings (materialism and immorality) 27. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote poems celebrating youth and a life of independence and freedom from traditional constraints 28. Disappointed with American culture, many writers moved to Europe forming their own social organizations j. Gertrude Stein called this group of post WW I writers the “Lost Generation” k. Writers were haunted by the death and destruction of WW I and upset with the lack of interest on the impact of the war 29. Ernest Hemingway became an ambulance driver as a way to experience and understand WW I l. Wrote about how pointless and inhumane war is, especially WW I (disillusionment)

Section 4: The Harlem Renaissance

I. African-American Voices in the 1920s A. More than 800,000 African Americans moved North after WW I to the nation’s largest cities in what became known as the “Great Migration” 1. Northern whites were not pleased with the massive influx of blacks 2. Chicago riots in July of 1919 a. White man through rocks at a African American teenager swimming in Lake Michigan (young black boy drowned) b. Fights broke out on shore and spread to the city (white gangs caused the violence) c. 38 people died, 537 injured B. The NAACP (founded in 1909) urged African Americans to protest racial violence 3. W. E. B. Du Bois (founding member of the NAACP) led protests against racial violence a. NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis, was a media platform for the struggle 4. James Weldon Johnson, lawyer and NAACP executive secretary, fought for legislation to protect African American rights a. Pushing for anti-lynching laws was a main focus b. In 1919, three anti-lynching laws were introduced in Congress, but none passed C. Marcus Garvey, an immigrant from Jamaica, believed African Americans should build a separate society 5. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914 a. Garvey encouraged his, self proclaimed, 1 million followers to build and invest in African American businesses b. Garvey encouraged his followers to return to Africa and rid Africa of its white colonial oppressors 6. Founded the Black Star Steamship Company and encouraged African Americans to invest in the company a. Black Star Line ships were going to transport manufactured goods, raw materials, and produce among black businesses in North America, the Caribbean, and Africa, and become the linchpin in a global black economy 7. Facing financial ruin, Garvey announced the suspension of the company shortly after his February 1922 indictment on mail fraud charges stemming from the sale of Black Star Line stock a. Garvey was placed in prison in 1925, but was pardoned by President Coolidge in 1927 (the president ordered him deported) II. The Harlem Renaissance Flowers in New York D. Harlem, a neighborhood on the Upper West Side of New York’s Manhattan Island was the location of the Harlem Renaissance – literary and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture 8. Harlem Renaissance was a literary movement led by well-educated middle-class African Americans who expressed pride in the African-American experience 9. Claude McKay urges African Americans to resist prejudice and discrimination a. Poems expressed the pain of life in black ghettos and the strain of being black in a world dominated by whites b. The book Cane was a mix of poems and sketches about blacks in the North and South 10. Langston Hughes described the difficult lives of working-class African Americans a. Movements best known poet E. Shuffle Along, a black musical comedy popular in the 1920’s featured songs such as “Love Will Find a Way” 11. Paul Robeson, the son of a one-time slave, became a major dramatic actor a. Gained fame for his performance in Shakespeare’s Othello b. Hated b/c of his support of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party, and discriminated against b/c of his color F. Jazz was created in New Orleans, where musicians blended instrumental ragtime and vocal blues into new sounds 12. Louis Armstrong joined Jo “King” Oliver’s group in 1922 eventually creating the Creole Jazz Band a. Armstrong joined Fletcher Henderson’s band in 1924, the most important big jazz band in New York City 13. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, a jazz pianist and composer, led his ten piece orchestra at the Cotton Club in Harlem 14. Cab Calloway played at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club a. Popularized “scat,” or improvised jazz using sounds instead of words 15. Bessie Smith, a female blues singer, was perhaps the outstanding vocalist of the decade a. In 1927, she was the highest paid black artist in the world