America in the 1920s
Objective: Describe how the battle between traditionalism and modernity manifested itself in the
major historical trends and events after World War I and throughout the 1920s
Product: 1 PowerPoint with at least 7 slides
In groups of 3, you will choose one of the following topics to explore:
 Prohibition and Organized Crime
 The Jazz Age
 Entertainment and Sports
 Fashion, Art, and Literature of the 1920s
 The Changing Role of Women
 Consumerism and the Boom of Business
 The Scope Trial
 Nativism and The Revival of the KKK
 The Great Migration
 The Harlem Renaissance
 New Modes of Transportation
Each person in your group will assume a role, but you may help each other with the jobs:
1 Manager: This student is in charge of organizing the final product of the project. That doesn't
mean technical details, but making sure that the project meets the standards set out by the
instructor. Manages the group; in charge of PowerPoint aesthetics including pictures, videos,
grammar, spelling, and layout.
1 Writer: Condenses/rearranges information from the researcher into a manageable outline of
topics, slides, and bullets; re-writes all information in their own words; determines how the
information should be written and presented; passes off rough draft to Manager.
1 Researcher: Researches all subtopics related to your topic; determines which information
should be included in your PowerPoint; passes off condensed/summarized raw information to
the Writer; creates Works Cited slide.
Using the prompts on the back of this sheet as a guide, you will create a PowerPoint. While the
extent of your outline will dictate how long your PowerPoint is, it should be no less than 7 slides,
including a title slide and a links slide. Additionally, your PowerPoint must include:
1. A title slide that includes the names of your group members, the title of our class, and the
date.
2. A Links Slide with links to at least 3 sources that ARE NOT WIKIPEDIA. (Hint sites that end in
.edu)
3. Plenty of pictures!
4. Bullets in short, succinct statements
5. Presenter notes on all slides to help you elaborate on your bullets as you present
6. For extra credit, link to a multimedia source (movie, mp3, etc) that relates to your topic!
Due Dates:
Wednesday, March 20
Thursday, March 21– Tuesday
March 26
Choose your topic; begin initial research.
Work on your PowerPoint in class. It must be emailed to me by
midnight 3/26 (brown@latinacademy.org.)
Wednesday, March 27
Final Presentations in Class
1. Prohibition and Organized Crime
 What is prohibition? What amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol?
 Why did people want to prohibit alcohol?
 Why was Prohibition difficult to enforce? What were the ways that people got around Prohibition? (Hint!
Read about speakeasies and bootleggers)
 How was organized crime involved in prohibition? How did organized crime help to thwart prohibition?
 Was Prohibition successful? Why or why not? What amendment repealed Prohibition?
2. The Jazz Age
 What is jazz? What does jazz sound like? What music genres inspired jazz?
 Where was jazz “invented”? Why do you think many say that Jazz is distinctly American?
 What can we learn about the jazz and changes in race relations in America?
 Who were the famous faces of jazz? (Hint! Research Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong)
 What did a jazz club look like in the 1920s?
 What was the Charleston?
 What were the fashions associated with flappers and young people in the Jazz Age?
3. Entertainment and Sports
 Why did Americans have more leisure time in the 1920s? What did they do with their new-found leisure time?
 What sports were popular in the 1920s?
 Who was Babe Ruth?
 Why were radios so popular in the 1920s? How many Americans owned radios? What types of things could
Americans listen to on the radio?
 When were the first major movies distributed? What are “talkies”? (Hint! Find out about “The Jazz Singer” &
“Steamboat Willie”)
4. Fashion, Art, and Literature of the 1920s
 What were the fashion trends in the 1920s for men and women? How were they different than the Victorian
fashion trends in 1900?
 What kind of art was popular during the 1920s?
o Hint! Look at:
Traditional Art
Modern Art
o Mary Cassatt “The Child’s Bath”
o Georgia O’Keefe’s “New York with
o James McNeill Whistler “Portrait of the
Moon”
Artist's Mother”
o Aaron Douglas “Aspiration”
o Albert Bierstadt “The Rocky Mountains,
o Jacob Lawrence “Migration Series”
Lander's Peak”
 What kind/style of books were popular during the 1920s? (Hint! Compare Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden
Pond” with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby) What were some of the themes of 20s literature and poems?
5. The Changing Role of Women
 In what way was the 19th Amendment a turning point for women?
 What characteristics of “twenties women” were different from their traditional roles? What did 20s women do
that the older generation wouldn’t dream of doing?
 What did the new fashions of “twenties women” represent about the modern woman? (Hint! Check out
some flapper fashion!)
 What were some of the social and technological innovations that simplified household labor and family life?
 What were some of the new roles for women in the workplace? What types of jobs did “twenties women”
get?
6. Consumerism and the Boom of Business in the 1920s
 What is consumerism?
 What were some of the new popular products of the 1920s? What types of electrical conveniences came to
be during the 1920s? (Hint! Automobiles, washing machines, refrigerators, etc)
 What was the installment plan? How did it allow middle-class people to buy more expensive goods?
 How much did a car cost in the 20s? Why did more people own automobiles than every before?
 Where did people buy these new and exciting goods? (Hint! Read about chain stores, five-and-dimes, and
the Sears catalog!) What is a chain store?
 How did advertising take off in the 1920s? (Hint! Find some sample advertisements to include in your PPt!)
7. The Scopes Trial
 What was fundamentalism? Why were fundamentalists skeptical of scientific knowledge? What was the
conflict between fundamentalists and those who accepted evolution?
 Who/What/When/Where/Why?
 In what state was it illegal to teach evolution?
 What role did the ACLU play in the case?
 Who was John Scopes? What did he do that was illegal? What role did William Jennings Bryan play in the
trial? What beliefs did he have that enabled him to prosecute John Scopes?
 Why was nation mesmerized by this trial?
 What was the outcome of this trial? Did the passage of the Volstead Act and the ruling in the Scopes trial
represent a genuine triumph for traditional values? Why or why not?
8. Nativism and the Revival of the KKK
 What was the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921? Why was there pressure to pass it? What was the popular
perception of immigrants at this time? Why? How did immigration law change further in 1924?
 What were the goals of Nativists? How did their goals support those of the Ku Klux Klan?
 Where, how and why did the KKK revive? How big did the organization grow to be? What did they claim to
be protecting?
 How did the KKK terrorize people? What crimes did they commit? What were the consequences?
 How did people combat the KKK?
9. The Great Migration
 Why did African Americans come North in this time period? Where did they come from? Where did they
settle? How many people came?
 What were the push factors out of the South? What were the pull factors to the North?
 How was African Americans’ choice to “migrate” related to Jim Crow? How was it connected to WW I? What
jobs did people come for?
 How were African Americans greeted in Northern cities? (Please find a specific example.) What were the
contributing factors to the “Red Summer” of 1919?
 What new settlement patterns arose in cities after the Great Migration? Why? Discuss relining and mortgage
discrimination.
10. Harlem Renaissance
 What does the term Harlem Renaissance refer to? Why is it associated with Harlem? Who are the key
contributors to this Movement?
 What were some common themes in the works of these artists? What were some significant moments in the
Renaissance?
 What is important about this movement historically and artistically?
 Discuss the contributions of 4 artists from this Movement. Two of these artists must be the poet Langston
Hughes and writer Zora Neale Hurston.
 What was unique about the audiences for these performers?
11. New Modes of Transportation
 How did air travel commercialize during the 20’s? Who initially invested? What are the roots of this industry?
 Who were the pioneers of flight and what were their contributions?
 Why did the automobile popularize? Who was the captain of this industry and what was his business model?
 How did the car alter the American way of life? What demographic of people benefitted from the car?
 What is the connection between the car and the development of the suburbs?
 What industries developed as a consequence of car culture?
 What were the benefits and drawbacks of the newly expanding highway system?