A period of Change
 Describe
& evaluate the impact of
scientific & technological innovations of
the 1920s.
 Identify & evaluate the impact of new
cultural movements on American society in
the 1920s.
 Identify characteristics of social conflict &
social change that took place in the early
1920s.
The 1920s was a period
of many changes for
Americans
th
19
Amendment
 Gave women the right to vote in 1920
Young women of the 1920s who defied
traditional ideas of proper dress and
behavior
 They shocked society by chopping off
their hair, raising their hemlines, wearing
makeup, smoking cigarettes, drinking
alcohol, and dancing in nightclubs
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For 1st time in history more Americans lived in
urban areas than in rural areas
Automobiles allowed people in rural areas to
visit cities
An increase in education—states passed
compulsory attendance laws

The change from rural to
urban caused a shift in
values

Values—the key ideas and
beliefs a person holds
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To many people rural
America represented
the traditional spirit of
the nation:
hardworking, selfreliant, religious, and
independent
Cities represented
changes that
threatened those values
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Grew a lot during the 1920s
A lot of rural members: mostly workers,
farmers, & small business owners
Saw their status declining and urban
America’s as increasing
The Klan targeted recent immigrants
(Catholics & Jews) as well as AfricanAmericans
Fundamentalism
 The uncertainty that comes with
changing times caused many Americans
to turn to religion for answers
 Fundamentalism—a literal interpretation
of the Bible
Fundamentalists
 Billy Sunday—former
ballplayer turned
revivalist preacher;
he condemned
radicals & criticized
the changing
attitudes of women
Fundamentalists
 Aimee Semple
McPherson—
preacher who
embraced glamour,
but preached
fundamentalism &
was known for
healing the sick
through prayer
Fundamentalists
Holy Hypocrisy?
Sister Aimee Semple McPherson was at the
center of a scandal in the 1920s when she
disappeared and later was accused of staging
her own kidnapping in which a ransom note
demanded $500,000 for her safe return.
McPherson ultimately was charged with
obstructing justice, but the charges were later
dropped. Still, her popularity waned after the
kidnap scandal.
Fundamentalism vs. modern
science
• Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
– Inherited characteristics of a population
change over generations and as a result of
these changes new species sometimes arise
• Fundamentalists believed that this theory
went against the teachings of the Bible
• Several states banned the teaching of
evolution including Tennessee in 1925
Scopes Trial
The Scopes “Monkey” Trial
• Tennessee teacher John
•
Scopes challenged
Tennessee’s antievolution law
One of Scopes’ attorneys
was Clarence Darrow
– The most famous criminal
lawyer in the U.S.
• William Jennings Bryan
helped the prosecution
– 3-time candidate for
president; leading
fundamentalist
Prohibition

Many people had fought to outlaw alcohol
 Women’s

Christian Temperance Union
Arguments against alcohol:
 It
hurt families
 It promoted crime
 Grain was needed for food during WWI
 Certain immigrant groups abused alcohol
Is that a promise?
Prohibition

18th Amendment—
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
Ratified in 1919
Made it illegal to
manufacture,
transport, or sell
alcohol in the United
States
Prohibition
Alcohol consumption
was reduced
 Enforcing the law
proved impossible



Bootleggers—alcohol
smugglers
Organized crime


Al Capone
Speakeasies—illegal
bars
Al Capone
Zora Neale Hurston
Began writing short stories and
plays
Attended Barnard College &
studied anthropology
Did scholarly work on African
American folklore
Wrote novels during the 1930s
One of the leading figures of the
Harlem Renaissance
Great Migration
During World War I, many African
Americans fled the South
They were fleeing segregation,
racism, and lack of good jobs
They went to northern cities such
as New York, Chicago, and Detroit
This major relocation of African
Americans is known as the Great
Migration
The states in blue had the ten largest net gains
of African Americans, while the states in red
had the ten largest net losses.[
African Americans
after World War I
Found opportunities in the North
but did not escape racism
Shortage of jobs after World War I
caused racial tensions
Wave of racial violence in the
summer of 1919
Riots
African Americans felt they had
earned greater freedom by fighting
in World War I
Many whites didn’t think so
Harlem
By early 1920s, about 200,000
African Americans had moved to
New York City
Most of them moved into a
neighborhood called Harlem
Harlem became the unofficial
capital of African American culture
and activism
W.E.B. Du Bois
Key figure in the rise of Harlem
One of the founders of the NAACP
Editor of a magazine called The
Crisis
Du Bois and The Crisis helped
promote an African American arts
movement in New York City
Harlem Renaissance
Marcus Garvey
Jamaican born, proud of his
African heritage
Founded the Universal Negro
Improvement Association –UNIA
Promoted self-reliance for Blacks
Believed Blacks should look out for
their own interests without whites
“Back to Africa”
Black Star Line
Critical of Du Bois and the NAACP
Convicted of mail fraud &
deported
James Weldon Johnson
 Man of many talents
 Journalist, educator, lawyer, musician, poet
 Wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
 Became NAACP’s official anthem
 Leader of the NAACP
Claude McKay, “If We Must
Die,” 1919
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Langston Hughes
Harlem Renaissance poet and
writer
William H. Johnson
Aaron Douglas
Jacob Lawrence
William H. Johnson
Aaron Douglas
Jacob Lawrence
Paul Robeson
Louis Armstrong
Bessie Smith
Paul Robeson
One of the first African
Americans to get a lead role
on the American stage
Jazz
Harlem was a center for
jazz
Jazz blended several
different musical forms
from the South into a
wholly original American
form of music
Jazz Musicians
 Louis Armstrong
 Cab Calloway
 Duke Ellington
 Fats Waller
 Bessie Smith
 Blues singer
Louis Armstrong
Jazz Trumpeter and Singer
Cab Calloway
Jazz Singer
Band Leader
“Minnie the Moocher”
Duke Ellington
Composer,
Pianist
Band Leader
Fats Waller
Jazz Pianist
Organist
Composer
Comedic Performer
Bessie Smith
Blues singer
The Savoy was a
popular dance venue
from the late 1920s to
the 1950s and many
dances such as Lindy
Hop became famous
here. It was known
downtown as the
"Home of Happy
Feet" but uptown, in
Harlem, as "the
Track". Unlike the
'whites only' policy of
the Cotton Club, the
Savoy Ballroom was
integrated where
white and black
Americans danced
together
Architecture
Art Deco
Wrigley Building
Chrysler Building
Woolworth Building
Empire State Building
Art Deco Posters
The Cotton Club was a famous
night club in Harlem, New York City
that operated during Prohibition that
included jazz music. While the club
featured many of the greatest African
American entertainers of the era,
such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke
Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie,
Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The
Nicholas Brothers, Lottie Gee, Ella
Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Louis
Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King
Cole, Billie Holiday and Ethel Waters,
it generally denied admission to
blacks
 Invented
by Guglielmo Marconi in the late
1800s
 First commercial broadcast was in 1920

KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 Radio
helped to create a shared culture in
America
Exploded
in popularity during the
1920s
Movies became longer, more of an
art form
 The
Birth of a Nation
Movies
 The
had sound for the first time
Jazz Singer
1915 silent film directed by D. W.
Griffith; one of the most influential and
controversial of American motion
pictures
noted for its innovative technical and
narrative achievements, and its status as
the first Hollywood "blockbuster."
First motion picture with talking
First “Talkie”
Starred Al Jolson
Film Stars
The Little Tramp
Charlie Chaplin
Rudolph Valentino
Clara Bow
Charles Lindbergh
Lucky Lindy
First solo trans-Atlantic
flight
 New York to Paris—
May 21, 1927
 Thirty-three and onehalf hours

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Amelia Earhart
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First woman to fly across the
Atlantic
Disappeared in 1937 attempting to
fly around the world
Red Grange
The
Galloping Ghost
Helen Wills
Helen Wills competing at the 1924 Summer
Olympic Games in Paris, where she won
gold medals in singles and doubles
competition.
Bobby Jones
Babe Ruth
Sultan of Swat
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Sinclair Lewis
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Ernest Hemingway
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George Gershwin