The Roaring 1920’s
 Society
in the 1920’s
 Changes in Manners
 Changes in Morals
 Mass Media and the
Jazz Age
 The Harlem Renaissance
Ch 13 Sec2 The 20’s Woman
 How were women’s roles
changing?
 How did the image of the
flapper embody the changing
values and attitudes of young
women in the 1920’s?
 What were the causes and
results of the changing roles
of women in the 1920’s?
Women’s Changing Roles

Image of the Flapper
 Rebellious, energetic, fun-loving,
and bold.
 Stylish Urban young women
 Impact on fashion and behavior
Short bobbed hair and make-up
Wide-brimmed hats
Close fitting dresses, very short
Drank and Smoked in public
Dancing and language annoyed
parents
A
The Double Standard
set of standards granting
greater sexual freedom to
men than to women
 Women were required to
observe stricter standards of
behavior than men did
 Women were pulled back and
forth between new standards
and the old
Images of the Flappers
Women Working and Voting
15% of wage earning women
became professionals, although
businesses remained prejudice
towards women.
 Only 35% of women voted in 1920.
 Progressive women did lobby the
Shepard –Towner Act which aided
women and children. (Infant/Prenatal care.)


Jeanette Rankin WY, US House of
Reps.
Ch 13 Sec3 Education and
Popular Culture
 What
was popular culture of
the 1920’s?
 How did mass media create a
shared culture?
 Why did the youth dominated
decade come to be called the
Roaring twenties?
Americans on the Move
By 1920, more Americans lived in
cities.
 High School enrollments and Taxes
increased
 Rural /Urban split due to changes in
education, occupations, and cultural
issues.
 Over 500,000 African Americans
migrated from South to North.
 Better jobs, education, yet harsh
discrimination. (De Facto
Discrimination)

Other Migration
 Mexicans
emigrated to the US
because of job opportunities.
 The US had limited immigration
with quotas for European,
Japanese and Chinese
immigrants.
 Los Angeles developed a district
barrio or Spanish speaking
neighborhood.
 Puerto Ricans migrated to NYC
Growth of Suburbs
 Trolleys allowed people to get
from their suburban homes to
jobs and stores.
 By mid 1920’s 70,000 buses were
operating in the US.
 Cars became cheaper and offered
greater flexibility in travel.
American Heroes
Charles Lindbergh – 1927 NY to Paris
 Amelia Earhart – 1932 CA to Hawaii
 Jack Dempsey- Heavyweight Champ
 Babe Ruth – 60 HR in 1927, Yankees
 Gertrude Ederle – Gold medalist
1924

Mass Media
MOVIES:
80 million tickets sold a week.
The first talkie The Jazz Singer
1927.
Big Stars: Greta Garbo, Clara
Bow, Charlie Chaplin, Lon
Chaney, Mary Pickford, Gloria
Swanson, and Rudolph
Valentino.
Newspapers and Magazines
 Between
1920 and 1929 daily
newspaper circulation rose from
28 million to almost 40 million.
 By 1929 Americans were buying
200 million copies of magazines.
 Saturday Evening Post, Readers
Digest, Ladies Home Journal, and
Time were popular.
Popular Magazines
Radio of the 1920’s
 First radio broadcast – 1920
Election results by KDKA in
Pittsburgh
 By 1922, 500 stations were on air
 NBC, CBS brought the same
jokes, commercials, music,
sports, religious services, and
news to many Americans.
 Between 1922 and 1929 the # of
radios rose from 60,000 to 12mil
Radio 1920’s
Art and Literature of the 1920’s
 Famous Artists: Edward Hopper,
Rockwell Kent, Georgia O’Keeffe.
 Famous Authors:
 Sinclair Lewis
 F. Scott Fitzgerald
 Earnest Hemingway
 T.S. Elliot
 “The Lost Generation” –authors
disconnected from their country
and its values.
The Lost Generation
Ch 13 Sec 4 The Harlem
Renaissance
 What
were the cause and
results of the Great Migration
of African Americans to
Northern cities in the early
1900’s?
 What was the prolific African
–American artistic activity of
the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance
 NYC’s
Harlem was a cultural
center for African Americans.
 The Renaissance is known as a
cultural and literary awakening
as well as a time of acceptance.
 Authors:
African American Writers


Claude McKay: Poet/militant writer urging
Af Am to resisit prejudice & discrimination
Langston Hughes: (Best Known) Poet:
Difficult everyday lives of working class Af
Am
African American Writers

Zora Nele Hurston –Sorrow’s
Kitchen, Poor unschooled Southern
Blacks moving to the North
The Jazz Age
 Jazz grew out of African
American music of the South
like Ragtime and Blues.
 Jazz Clubs, Radio Play, and
Dances
 Cotton Club – Harlem NYC
 Connie’s Inn
 Saratoga Club
Cotton Club
Jazz Age Icons
Paul Robeson
 Louis Armstrong
 Duke Ellington
 Bessy Smith

African American Performers




Robeson: major dramatic actor & singer
with great stage presence. Played Othello
& supported communism
Armstrong: improv jazz trumpet [layer
Ellington: jazz pianist & composer
Smith: Blues singer. Most outstanding
female vocalist of her time. Highest paid
black artist up to 1927
Duke Ellington and George
Gershwin
WEB Dubois &James Weldon
Johnson (NAACP)

Belief: peaceful protest against racial
violence

Goal: Anti-lynching laws, equal rights

Tactics: court cases
African- American Voices
The Great Migration saw 500,000
African Americans move North
 NAACP -1909 – WEB Du Bois
 Du Bois wrote The Crisis an NAACP
magazine to highlight racial violence
and to form a platform in the civil
rights fight
 1920’s – Executive Secretary of the
NAACP James Weldon Johnson

fought for anti-lynching laws
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
Marcus Garvey an immigrant from
Jamaica believed African Americans
should build a separate society.
 In 1918 the UNIA was moved to
Harlem
 It promoted black owned businesses
 He founded the “Black Star” Shipping
Line
 He inspired Black Pride
 Proposed “Back to Motherland
Africa” Movement

1920’s Images