Download Chapter 21: The Roaring Life of the 1920s

Chapter 13: 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
a. Life was fast paced and neighbors were not as neighborly
B. Prohibition: the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic
beverages were legally prohibited
1. 18th Amendment: ratified Jan, 1919 and repealed by the 21st
Amendment in Dec, 1933
C. Positive Opinions/Results of Prohibition:
1. Progressives wanted it banned to stop family violence, crime,
and poverty
a. Support for prohibition was found in the rural nativeProtestant dominated West and South
b. The church-affiliated Anti-Saloon League led the drive to
pass Prohibition
c. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union considered drinking
a sin
2. WW I reformers advocated prohibition as a war measure
a. People were concerned that many German Americans
owned many of the brewers
b. Drinking reduced the efficiency of soldiers and workers
3. Learned we must have a clear majority supporting an issue
before a law is made
a. Initially alcoholism declined and the number of alcohol
related deaths
D. Negative Opinions/Results of Prohibition:
1. Laws were broken by normally law-abiding citizens
a. Immigrants, college students, and some city dwellers
disobeyed prohibition
b. People visited speakeasies, made their own liquor (stills),
and bought alcohol illegally
2. Volstead Act (1919): est. the Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury
Department which was greatly underfunded
a. Patrol 18,700 miles of coastline, inland borders, destroying
stills, monitoring shipments on highways, and document
legal industrial uses of alcohol
b. Bribed and threatened law enforcement officials
3. Criminal gangs (organized crime) controlled liquor sales (Al
Capone made $60 million a year from bootlegging out of
Chicago)
a. 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)
b. Bootleggers: smuggler’s practice of carrying liquor in the
legs of boots (smuggled it in from Canada, Cuba, and the
West Indies)
c. Protection rackets: threatened store and business owners
with violence if they did not give gangsters money
4. By the mid-1920s, only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition
a. 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.
III.
Young Women Change the Rules
A. Flapper: an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions
and urban attitudes of the day
1. Defied tradition dress codes and behaviors
a. Wore shorter skirts (above the knee), silk hose, and boyish
bobbed hair dyed jet black
b. Smoked, drank in public, and talked openly about sex
2. Valued their economic independence
a. More women worked outside the home
b. Viewed marriage as an equal partnership, but agreed child
rearing and housework was still a woman’s job
3. Samuel Gompers (AFL leader), in 1921, described the winner of
the first Miss America Pageant as a traditional women
a. If married they were still expected to quit their jobs and
raise family
B. 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
1. Magazines, newspapers, and advertisements promoted the
image of the flapper
a. The flapper was more an image of rebellious youth than a
widespread reality
b. Similar to the Hippie movement of the 1960s-1970s
(minority)
Women Shed Old Roles at Home and at Work
A. 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)
1. Many female college graduates became teachers, nurses,
librarians, secretaries, clerks
2. By 1930, 10 million women were earning wages
a. Few filled management roles and they earned less than men
3. Discrimination and inequality for women in the workforce
was established during the 1920s and 1930s
a. In 2005, on average for every $1.00 a man makes a woman
makes $.77
B. The birthrate had dropped at a faster rate in the 1920s, although it was
already dropping for several decades
1. Wider availability of birth-birth control info
a. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic in
the U.S. in 1916
b. 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
2. Technological innovations freed homemakers from some of
their traditional family responsibilities
a. Ready-made cloths, sliced bread, and canned foods were
available for purchase
b. Public agencies provided health care for the elderly and
sick, and workers’ compensation assisted those who could
no longer work
3. Marriages were increasingly based on romantic love and
companionship instead of dependence and need
a. Children were not working in factories, but instead they
were in school and taking part on organized activities with
kids their own age
b. Parents started reading manuals on child rearing and
listened to experts
4. Women started juggling the role(s) of work, family, and fun
a. Teens spent less time with family, rebelled more often, and
resisted societal control(s)
b. 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
II.
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
1. Newspaper circulation rose and writers learned to hook readers
with sensational tabloids
a. National chains covered events beyond the borders of towns
and states
2. 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
1. 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)
2. The National Broadcasting Company (CBS) and the
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), aired their programs
nationwide
America Chases New Heroes and Old Dreams (In 1929, Americans spent $4.5
billion on entertainment and changing fads)
A. Babe Ruth
1. Led New York Yankees to 4 World Series championships (1920
– 1935)
2. Hit a record-setting 60 home runs in 1927
3. Hit 714 career home runs (broke in 1974)
B. Savoy Big Five
1. Played in Chicago’s Savoy Ballroom until it was transformed
into a skating ring in 1927
2. They became known as the Harlem Globetrotters
a. Played all games on the road
b. No one was willing to play them
3. Won the World Basketball Tournament in 1940
a. Adopted show tactics they have today
C. Jim Thorpe
1. He played every sport at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania
2. 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden
a. First contestant to win both the pentathlon and decathlon
3. 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
4. 1982, 29 years after his death, the Olympic committee restored
his medals
D. Charles Lindbergh (America’s most beloved hero)
1. On May 20, 1927 he flew nonstop from New York to Paris (33 ½
hours), flying the Spirit of St. Louis
III.
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
E. Amelia Earhart became first women to cross the Atlantic Ocean by
plane (May 20, 1932 she started her trek across the Atlantic)
1. June 1, 1937 Earhart embarked on her attempt to be the first
woman to fly around the world
a. 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)
b. The gov’t spent $4 million and covered 250,000 square
ocean miles searching for her and gave up on July 19, 1937
Writing, Entertainment, and the Arts
A. Movies offered viewers an escape into romance and comedy
1. Nickelodeons (1890s)
a. Earliest movie theaters that had a $.05 admission
b. Attracted the wealthy and the working class
c. 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
2. The Jazz Singer, produced by Warner Brothers, was the first
major movie released with sound (“talkie”)
3. Walt Disney’s, Steamboat Willie, was the first animated film
with sound which was released in 1928
B. George Gershwin and Georgia O’Keeffe became popular in the 1920s
1. George Gershwin was a concert music composer that merged
traditional elements with American Jazz
2. Georgia O’Keeffe produced intensely colored canvases that
captured the grandeur of New York
C. Some of America’s greatest writers were recognized in the 1920s
1. Sinclair Lewis was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in
literature
a. In his novel Babbitt, Lewis ridiculed Americans for their
conformity and materialism
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term “Jazz Age” to describe the
1920s
a. 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)
3. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote poems celebrating youth and a
life of independence and freedom from traditional constraints
4. Disappointed with American culture, many writers moved to
Europe forming their own social organizations
a. Gertrude Stein called this group of post WW I writers
the “Lost Generation”
b. Writers were haunted by the death and destruction of WW I
and upset with the lack of interest on the impact of the war
5. Ernest Hemingway became an ambulance driver as a way to
experience and understand WW I
a. 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
1. 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
2. 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
1. 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
2. Founded the Black Star Steamship Company and encouraged
African Americans to invest in the company
II.
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
3. 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)
The Harlem Renaissance Flowers in New York
A. 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
1. Harlem Renaissance was a literary movement led by welleducated middle-class African Americans who expressed pride in
the African-American experience
2. 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
3. Langston Hughes described the difficult lives of working-class
African Americans
a. Movements best known poet
B. Shuffle Along, a black musical comedy popular in the 1920’s featured
songs such as “Love Will Find a Way”
1. 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
C. Jazz was created in New Orleans, where musicians blended instrumental
ragtime and vocal blues into new sounds
1. 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
2. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, a jazz pianist and
composer, led his ten piece orchestra at the Cotton Club in
Harlem
3. Cab Calloway played at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom and the
Cotton Club
a. Popularized “scat,” or improvised jazz using sounds instead of
words
4. 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