DO NOW
WHAT WERE THE
MAIN ADVANTAGE
AND DISADVANTAGE
OF BUYING ON
CREDIT?
 READ IN YOUR
TEXTBOOKS ON
PAGES 426-427
UNDER THE
SECTION TITLED
“BUYING GOODS ON
CREDIT”

DO NOW
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT MARIJUANA SHOULD
BE LEGALIZED FEDERALLY? EXPLAIN YOUR
ANSWER.
 WHAT WOULD BE THE BENEFITS OF
LEGALIZING MARIJUANA? WHAT WOULD BE
THE DRAWBACKS?
 WHAT WOULD BE THE BENEFITS OF
MAINTAINING PROHIBITION ON MARIJUANA
(KEEPING IT ILLEGAL)? WHAT WOULD BE
THE DRAW BACKS?

Prohibition of Marijuana
The world wide marijuana market estimated to be worth(142
billion dollars annually)
Marijuana is 60% of the drug cartel’s revenue $8.6 billion
The war on drugs has cost taxpayers an estimated 2 TRILLION
dollars since the 1970s
Prohibition of Marijuana began in 1970 when Harry Anslinger
claimed that it caused rape, insanity and murder which caused a
widespread panic in the American public who began placing
pressure on the government to develop a law to make marijuana
illegal.
Control Substances Act of 1970 classifies marijuana as a
Schedule 1 Drug which would make it as the same level as heroin
800,000 people are arrested for illegal marijuana use each year
Chapter 13: The Roaring Life of the
1920s
Blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey performs with
her Georgia Jazz Band in Chicago Illinois, 1923

Section 1: Changing Ways of Life
As the 1920s dawned, social reformers
who hoped to ban alcohol—and the evils
associated with it—rejoiced. The
Eighteenth Amendment to the
Constitution, banning manufacture, sale,
and transportation of alcohol, took effect
in January of 1920. Billy Sunday, an
evangelist who preached against the evils
of drinking, predicted a new age of virtue
and religion. Sunday’s dream was not to
be realized in the 1920s, as the law
proved unenforceable. The failure of
Prohibition was a sign of cultural conflicts
most evident in the nation’s cities. Lured
by jobs and by the challenge and
freedom that the city represented,
millions of people rode excitedly out of
America’s rural past and into its urban
future.
America changed dramatically in the years before 1920, as was revealed in the
1920 census. According to figures that year, 51.2% of Americans lived in
communities with populations of 2,500 to more than 1 million. Between 1922
and 1929, migration to the cities accelerated, with nearly 2 million people
leaving farms and towns each year. “Cities were the place to be, not to get
away from,” said one historian. The agricultural world that millions of
Americans left behind was largely unchanged from the 19th century—the world
was one of small towns and farms bound together by conservative moral
values and close social relationships. Yet small-town attitudes began to lose
their hold on the American mind as the city rose to prominence. At the
beginning of the 1920s, New York, with a population of 5.6 million, toped the
list of the big cities. Next came Chicago, with nearly 3 million, and
Philadelphia, with nearly 2 million. Another 65 cities claimed populations of
100,000 or more, and they grew more crowded by the day.

1. migration
b/t 1922 and
1929

1. increased with nearly 2 million
people leaving rural farms and towns
each year to live in urban cities

According to figures in 1920, 51.2% of Americans
lived in communities with populations of 2,500 to
more than 1 million.
The New Urban Scene

Life in these booming cities was far different from the slowpaced, intimate life in America’s small towns. Chicago, for
instance was an industrial powerhouse, home to native-born
whites and African Americans, immigrant Poles, Irish, Russians,
Italians, Swedes, Arabs, French, and Chinese. Each day, an
estimated 300,000 workers, 150,000 cars and buses, and
20,000 trolleys filled the pulsing downtown. At night people
crowded ornate movie theaters and vaudeville houses offering
live variety shows.
The Cotton Club might be Harlem’s most famous surviving jazz venue, but during the Harlem Renaissance that
started after World War I and ended sometime during the Great Depression, it was also the neighborhood’s most
notorious. It had been opened by Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight boxing
champion, as the Club Deluxe (or Club De Luxe) in 1920. White gangster and bootlegger Owney “The Killer”
Madden bought and took over the club in 1923–the same year he was released on parole from what would have
been a twenty year-long imprisonment at Sing Sing. He would use the venue, which he had renamed the Cotton
Club, primarily as a means to sell bootlegged alcohol. The club was closed in 1925 for selling alcohol, but quickly
re-opened. After prohibition, the club continued to feature some of America’s best jazz musicians, and attracted
New York’s celebrities and socialites.
For small town migrants, adapting to the urban environment demanded
changes in thinking as well as in everyday living. The city was a world of
competition and change. City dwellers read and argued about current scientific
and social ideas. They judged one another by accomplishment more often than
by background. City dwellers also tolerated drinking, gambling, and casual
dating—worldly behaviors considered shocking and sinful in small towns. For
all its color and challenge, though, the city could be impersonal and frightening.
Streets were filled with strangers, not friends and neighbors. Life was fastpaced, not leisurely. The city demanded endurance. In the city, lonely
migrants from the country often ached for home. Throughout the 1920s,
Americans found themselves caught between rural and urban cultures—a tug
that pitted what seemed to be a safe, small-town world of close ties, hard
work, and strict morals against a big-city world of anonymous crowds,
moneymakers, and pleasure seekers.
2. rural areas (small  2. known for conservative
towns and farms)
moral values and close social
relationships
 3. city areas (urban)  3. known for being impersonal
& fast-paced; was a world of
competition and change

Although almost all of the performers and servers at the venue were black,
Madden’s Cotton Club exclusively catered to white patrons; even the families of
headlining black performers weren’t allowed in. Langston Hughes described the
venue as “a Jim Crow club for gangsters and monied whites,” and noted that
white visitors to the neighborhood would flood “the little cabarets and bars
where formerly only colored people laughed and sang, and where now the
strangers were given the best ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negro
customers–like amusing animals in a zoo.”
Joe DiMaggio dines at the Cotton Club’s new Midtown
location after the opening game of the 1937 World Series.
The Prohibition Experiment

One vigorous clash between small-town and big-city Americans
began in earnest in January 1920, when the Eighteenth
Amendment went into effect. This amendment launched the
era known as Prohibition, during which the manufacture, sale,
and transportation of alcoholic beverages were legally
prohibited.
Carry Nation
Reformers had long considered liquor a prime cause of corruption. They
thought that too much drinking led to crime, wife and child abuse, accidents on
the job, and other serious social problems. Support for Prohibition came
largely from the rural South and West, areas with large populations of nativeborn Protestants. The church-affiliated Anti-Saloon League had led the drive to
pass the Prohibition amendment. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,
which considered drinking a sin, had helped push the measure through. At
first, saloons closed their doors, and arrests for drunkenness declined. But in
the aftermath of World War I many Americans were tired of making sacrifices;
they wanted to enjoy life. Most immigrant groups did not consider drinking a
sin but a natural part of socializing, and they resented government meddling.
4. prohibition (preventing), the
manufacture (making), sale,
transportation of alcoholic beverages
illegal
 5. support for
prohibition  5. came from rural (farm/country)
South and West
 6. social
 6. believed liquor led to crime, wife and
reformers
child abuse & accidents on the job

4. 18th
Amendment

Eventually, Prohibition’s fate was sealed by the government, which failed to
budget enough money to enforce the law. The Volstead Act established a
Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Department in 1919, but the agency was
underfunded. The job of enforcement involved patrolling 18,700 miles of
coastline as well as inland borders, tracking down illegal stills (equipment for
distilling liquor), monitoring highways for truckloads of illegal alcohol, and
overseeing all the industries that legally used alcohol to be sure none was
siphoned off for illegal purposes. The task fell to approximately 1,500 poorly
paid federal agents and local police—clearly an impossible job.

7. Volstead Act

7. established a Prohibition
Bureau but the agency was
underfunded
To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons and
nightclubs known as speakeasies—so called because when inside, one spoke
quietly, or “easily,” to avoid detection. Speakeasies could be found
everywhere—in penthouses, cellars, office buildings, rooming houses,
tenements, hardware stores, and tearooms. To be admitted to a speakeasy,
one had to present a card or use a password. Inside, one would find a mix of
fashionable middle-class and upper-middle-class men and women. Before long,
people grew bolder in getting around the law. They learned to distill alcohol
and built their own stills. Since alcohol was allowed for medicinal and religious
purposes, prescriptions for alcohol and sales of sacramental wine (intended for
church services) skyrocketed. People also bought liquor from bootleggers, who
smuggled it from Canada, Cuba, and the West Indies. “The business of
evading (the law) and making a mock of it has ceased to wear any aspects of
crime and has become a sort of national sport,” wrote a journalist.

8. speakeasies

9. bootleggers
8. to obtain liquor illegally, drinkers
went underground to hidden
saloons and nightclubs
 9. people also bought liquor from
bootleggers, who smuggled it from
Canada, Cuba, and the West Indies


A young woman
demonstrates
one of the means
used to conceal
alcohol—hiding it
in containers
strapped to one’s
leg.
Though alcohol was illegal during Prohibition, many people found ways
to continue drinking. Some women wore ankle flasks, which were
easily hidden inside a woman's Russian boots. (Library of Congress)
Where did most
people purchase
illegal alcohol
during Prohibition?
 Why didn't the
police simply shut
down these
places?
 Why was
Prohibition so
difficult to
enforce?

Prohibition not only generated disrespect for the law, it also contributed to
organized crime in nearly every major city. Chicago became notorious as the
home of Al Capone, a gangster whose bootlegging empire netted over $60
million a year. Capone took control of the Chicago liquor business by killing off
his competition. During the 1920s, headlines reported 522 bloody gang killings
made the image of flashy Al Capone part of the folklore period. By age 26, he
headed a criminal empire in Chicago, which he controlled through the use of
bribes and violence. From 1925 to 1931, Capone bootlegged whiskey from
Canada, operated illegal breweries in Chicago, and ran a network of 10,000
speakeasies. In 1927 the “Big Fellow,” as he liked to be called, was worth an
estimated $100 million. The end came quickly for Capone, though. In 1931,
the gangster chief was arrested for tax evasion and went to jail. That was the
only crime of which authorities were ever able to convict him. Capone was
later released from jail, but he died several years later at age 48.
10. organized  10. was a result of prohibition
crime
 11. gangster chief took control of
 11. Al Capone Chicago liquor business by killing off
his competition


Eventually arrested for tax evasion and went
to jail for 9 years fined $80,000
Early that morning, a black touring car pulled up in front of a small brick garage at 2122
North Clark Street. What appeared to be several policemen left the car and entered the
building through the front door. Within minutes, neighbors heard a loud clattering noise
followed by two muffled blasts, and then saw two men with their hands in the air and
three policemen leave the building, enter the car, and drive away. What appeared to be
a routine police raid, however, turned out to be mass murder, for inside the garage,
seven men lay dead or dying, their bodies riddled with at least one-hundred machinegun bullets. They were members of the Bugs Moran gang, which used the Clark Street
garage as a central liquor cache. Their assailants undoubtedly worked for Al Capone,
Moran’s chief rival in the murderous Beer War that raged across the city during the
1920s. Big Al, however, never faced any formal charges for ordering the worst gangland
slaying in American history.
Prohibition, 1920-1933
Causes
Effects
Various religious groups thought drinking
alcohol was sinful.
Consumption of alcohol declined.
Reformers believed that the government
should protect the public’s health.
Disrespect for the law developed.
Reformers believed that alcohol led to
crime, wife and child abuse, and accidents
on the job.
An increase in lawlessness, such as
smuggling, and bootlegging, was evident.
During World War I, native-born Americans Criminals found a new source of income.
developed hostility to German American
brewers and toward other immigrant
groups that used alcohol.
Organized crime grew.
By the mid-1920s, only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition. The rest who
wanted the amendment changed or repealed, believed that Prohibition caused
worse effects than the initial problem. Rural Protestant Americans, however,
defended a law that they felt strengthened moral values. The Eighteenth
Amendment remained in force until 1933, when it was repealed by the 21st
Amendment.

12. 21st
Amendment

12. repealed the 18th amendment
and made alcohol legal; gov
needed more revenue (money)
Science of
Religion Clash

Another bitter controversy
highlighted the growing rift
between traditional and
modern ideas during the
1920s. This battle raged
between fundamentalist
religious groups and secular
thinkers over the validity of
certain scientific discoveries.
Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (shown to
the right) used Hollywood showmanship to
preach the word to homesick Midwestern
migrants and devoted followers of her radio
broadcast. In the 1920s, fundamentalism
gained followers who began to call for laws
prohibiting the teaching of evolution.
The Protestant movement grounded in a literal, non-symbolic, interpretation of
the Bible was known as fundamentalism. Fundamentalists were skeptical of
some scientific discoveries and theories; they argued that all important
knowledge could be found in the Bible. They believed that the Bible was
inspired by God, and that therefore its stories in all their details were true.
They also believed that the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority
over all human knowledge. Their beliefs led fundamentalists to reject the
theory of evolution led by Charles Darwin in the 19th century—at theory stating
that plant and animal species had developed and changed over millions of
years. The claim they found most unbelievable was that humans had evolved
from apes. They pointed instead to the Bible’s account of creation, in which
God made the world and all its life forms, including humans, in six days.


13. Fundamentalism 13. believed in literal interpretation
of the Bible and argued that all
important knowledge could be
found in the bible
 14. rejected the theory of evolution
14. fundamentalists by Charles Darwin; called for laws
prohibiting the teaching of evolution
Science and Religion Clash

Fundamentalism expressed itself in several ways. In the South
and West, preachers led religious revivals based on the
authority of the Scriptures. One of the most powerful
revivalists was Billy Sunday, a baseball player turned preacher
who staged emotional meetings across the South. In Los
Angeles, Aimee Semple McPherson used Hollywood
showmanship to preach the word to homesick Midwestern
migrants and devoted followers of her radio broadcasts. In the
1920s, fundamentalism gained followers who began to call for
laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution.
DO NOW


SUMMARIZE THE BELIEFS OF FUNDAMENTALISM. WHAT
DID FUNDAMENTALISTS BELIEVE ABOUT THE BIBLICAL
ACCOUNT OF CREATIONISM?
LOOK IN YOUR TEXTBOOKS ON PAGE 438 UNDER
THE SECTION TITLED “SCIENCE AND RELIGION
CLASH.
In March 1925, Tennessee passed the nation’s first law (Tennessee Butler Act)
that made it a crime to teach evolution. Immediately, the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) promised to defend any teacher who would challenge
the law. John T. Scopes, a young biology teacher in Dayton Tennessee,
accepted the challenge. In his biology class, Scopes read this passage from
Civic Biology: “We have now learned that animal forms may be arranged so as
to begin with the simple one-celled forms and culminate with a group with
includes man himself.” Scopes was promptly arrested, and his trial was set for
July. The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the
day, to defend Scopes. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic
candidate for president and a devout fundamentalist, served as a special
prosecutor. There was no real question of guilt or innocence: Scopes was
honest about his action. The Scopes trial was a fight over evolution and the
role of science and religion in public schools and in American society.



15. Tennessee
Butler Act
16. John T.
Scopes
17. Scopes Trial
(1925)



15. made it a crime to teach evolution
16. arrested for teaching evolution in
biology class
17. trial over evolution and the role of
science and religion in public schools &
American society
The Scopes Trial

The trial opened on July 10, 1925, and almost overnight
became a national sensation. Darrow called Bryan as an expert
on the Bible—the contest that everyone had been waiting for.
To handle the throngs of Bryan supporters, Judge Raulston
moved the court outside, to a platform built under the maple
trees. There, before a crowd of about five thousand, Darrow
relentlessly questioned Bryan about his beliefs.
John Scopes
Darrow asked Bryan if he agreed with Bishop James Usher’s calculation that,
according to the Bible, Creation happened in 4004 B.C.E? Did he know the age
of the earth? Bryan grew edgy but stuck to his guns. Finally Darrow asked
Bryan, “Do you think the earth was made in six days?” Bryan answered, “Not
in six days of 24 hours.” People sitting on the lawn gasped. With this answer,
Bryan admitted that the Bible might be interpreted in different ways. But in
spire of this admission, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. The
Tennessee Supreme Court later changed the verdict on a technicality (the jury
should have decided the fine, not the judge, since under the state
constitution), but the law outlawing the teaching of evolution remained in
effect. This clash over evolution, the Prohibition experiment, and the emerging
urban scene all were evidence of the changes and conflicts occurring during
the 1920s. During that period, women also experienced conflict as they
redefined their roles and pursued new lifestyles.
18. Scopes
 19. Tennessee
Supreme Court



18. was found guilty and fined $100
19. overturned the verdict because
the jury should have decided the fine,
not the judge; but the law outlawing
the teaching of evolution remained in
effect

A 1925 newspaper
cartoon portrays
Bryan (left) and
Darrow (right) at the
close of the Scopes
“monkey” trial on the
teaching of evolution,
so-called because of a
theory of evolution
that humans evolved
from apes.
Section
2:
The
Twenties
Woman
 In the rebellious, pleasure-loving
atmosphere of the twenties, many
women began to assert their
independence, reject the values of the
19th century, and demand the same
freedoms as men. During the 1920s,
many women were shedding
traditional submissive roles—and the
nation was noticing. The “new”
woman, declared one contemporary
writer, “occupies herself, passionately,
with everything, except the things that
used to occupy the minds of girls.”
Women of the Twenties, added
another observer, were “demanding
recognition as individuals first, and as
wives and mothers second.”
During the 1920s, a new ideal emerged for some women: the flapper, an
emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban
attitudes of the day. Close-fitting felt hats, bright waistless dresses an inch
above the knees, skin-toned stockings, sleek pumps, and strings of beads
replaced the dark and prim ankle-length dresses, whalebone corsets, and petticoats of Victorian days. Young women clipped their long hair into boyish bobs
and dyed it jet black. Many young women became more assertive. In their bid
for equal status with men, some began smoking cigarettes, drinking in public,
and talking openly about sex—actions that would have ruined their reputations
not many years before. They danced the fox trot, camel walk, tango,
Charleston and shimmy with abandon. Attitudes towards marriage changed as
well. Many middle-class men and women began to view marriage as more of
an equal partnership, although both agreed that housework and child-rearing
remained a woman’s job.
1. 1920s women  1. began shedding their traditional
submissive roles demanding equal
status with men
 2. emancipated (free) young
 2. flapper
woman who embraced new
fashions and urban (city) attitudes

Women’s Fashion during 1900s
Magazines, newspapers, and advertisements promoted the image of the
flapper, and young people openly discussed courtship and relationships in ways
that scandalized their elders. Although many young women donned the new
outfits and flouted tradition, the flapper was more an image of rebellious youth
than a widespread reality; it did not reflect the attitudes and values of many
young people. During the 1920s, morals loosened only so far. Traditionalists
in churches and schools protested the new casual dances and women’s
acceptance of smoking and drinking.
Swing dancing began during the 1920's and transpired with rhythms
from jazz music. The most popular dance, the Lindy Hop, developed in
Harlem during 1927
Lee Miller first appeared in Vogue on its March 15, 1927, cover.
The illustrator Georges Lepape drew her as an iconic, modern
flapper against a New York cityscape.
In the years before WWI, when men “courted” women, they pursued only
women they intended to marry. In the 1920s, however, casual dating became
increasingly accepted. Even so, a 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. As a result, many women were
pulled back and forth between the old standards and the new.

3. attitudes
towards
marriage
4. casual
dating
 5. double
standard


3. middle-class men and women
began to view marriage as an equal
partnership

4. became increasingly accepted

5. a set of principles requiring
women to observe stricter standards
of behavior than men
The wide use of the automobile facilitated mixed-sex interaction, free
from parental supervision
Women Shed Old Roles at Home
and at Work

The fast-changing world of the
1920s produced new roles for
women in the workplace and
new trends in family life. A
booming industrial economy
opened new work opportunities
for women in offices, factories,
stores, and professions. The
same economy churned out
time-saving appliances and
products that reshaped the
roles of housewives and
mothers.
Although women had worked successfully during the war, afterwards employers who
believed that men had the responsibility to support their families financially often
replaced female workers with men. Women continued to seek paid employment, but
their opportunities changed. Many female college graduates turned to “women’s
professions” and became teachers, nurses, and librarians. Big businesses required
extensive correspondence and record keeping, creating a huge demand for clerical
workers such as typists, filing clerks, secretaries, stenographers, and office-machine
operators. Others became clerks in stores or held jobs on assembly lines. A handful of
women broke the old stereotypes by doing work once reserved for men, such as flying
airplanes, driving taxis, and drilling oil wells. By 1930, 10 million women were earning
wages; however, few rose to managerial jobs, and wherever they worked, women
earned less than men. Fearing competition for jobs, men argued that women were just
temporary workers whose real job was at home. Between 1900 and 1930, the patterns
of discrimination and inequality for women in the business world were established.
6. “women’s 
professions” of
1920s
 7. men’s

reaction

6. teachers, nurses, librarians,
secretaries
7. fearing competition argued that
women were just temporary workers
whose real job was at home
A young woman works
as a typesetter in a
publishing house in
1920.
 Big businesses required
extensive
correspondence and
record keeping, creating
a huge demand for
clerical workers such as
typists, filing clerks,
secretaries,
stenographers, and
office machine
operators.

Widespread social and economic changes reshaped the family. The birthrate
had been declining for several decades, and it dropped at a slightly faster rate
in the 1920s. This decline was due in part to the wider availability of birthcontrol information. At the same time, social and technological innovations
simplified household labor and family life. Stores overflowed with ready-made
clothes, sliced bread, and canned goods. Public agencies provided services for
the elderly, public health clinics served the sick, and workers’ compensation
assisted those who could no longer work. These innovations and institutions
had the effect of freeing home-makers from some of their traditional family
responsibilities. Many middle-class housewives, the main shoppers and money
managers, focused their attention on their homes, husbands, children and
pastimes. Women experienced greater equality in their marriage. Marriages
were based increasingly on romantic love and companionship. Children, no
longer thrown together with adults in factory work, farm labor, and
apprenticeships, spent most of their days at school and in organized activities
with others their own age.
 8. decline in
 8. social and technological inventions

birthrate
9. 1920s
children

simplified household labor and family life,
no need for big families to run chores
9. spent their days at school & organized
activities w/others their own age
Anna Howard Shaw

In 1920, veteran suffragist
Anna Howard Shaw stated
that equality in the workplace
would be harder for women
to achieve than the vote.
– “You younger women will have
a harder task than ours. You
will want equality in business,
and it will be even harder to
get than the vote”
----------Anna Howard Shaw
Why do you think Shaw
held this belief?
DO NOW

HOW WAS THE FLAPPER
LIKE OR UNLIKE WOMEN
OF TODAY? OR ARE
THERE
CHARACTERISTICS FOR
BOTH?

READ IN YOUR
TEXTBOOKS ON
PAGE 441 UNDER
THE SECTION
TITLED “THE
FLAPPER”
Section 4: The Harlem Renaissance

During the 1920s,
African Americans set
new goals for
themselves as they
moved north to the
nation’s cities. Their
migration was an
expression of their
changing attitude
toward themselves—an
attitude perhaps best
captured in a phrase
first used around this
time, “Black is
beautiful.”
Aaron Douglas (1899-1979)
Great Migration, the large-scale movement of hundreds of thousands of
Southern blacks to cities in the North. This great population shift had already
begun before the war in the late 19th century, when African Americans trickled
northward to escape the Jim Crow South—but after the turn of the century, the
trickle became a tidal wave. This painting by Jacob Lawrence shows three of
the most common destinations for African Americans leaving the South.
Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration,
hundreds of thousands of African Americans had uprooted themselves from
their homes in the South and moved north to the big cities in search of jobs.
By the end of the decade, 5.2 million of the nation’s 12 million African
Americans—over 40% lived in cities. However, Northern cities in general had
not welcomed the massive influx of African Americans. Tensions had escalated
in the years prior to 1920, culminating, in the summer of 1919, in
approximately 25 urban race riots. A number of push-and-pull factors led to
the Great Migration: push—racial violence, economic discrimination, and
natural disasters in the South; pull– job opportunities and better pay in the
North. Life in Northern cities, however, remained a struggle for many African
Americans. There, they continued to encounter discrimination, violence, and
poverty. Many were also forced to live in overcrowded slum conditions.

1. Great
Migration

2. race riots
1. hundreds of thousands of African
Americans moved from the South
to the north into big cities
 2. emerged across the U.S. in 25
urban (city) areas

Founded in 1909, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) urged African Americans to protest racial violence. W.E.B. Du
Bois, a founding member of the NAACP, led a parade of 10,000 AfricanAmerican men in New York to protest such violence. Du Bois also used the
NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis, as a platform for leading a struggle for civil
rights. Under the leadership of James Weldon Johnson—poet, lawyer, and
NAACP secretary—the organization fought for legislation to protect AfricanAmerican rights. It made anti-lynching laws one of its main priorities. In 1919,
three antilynching bills were introduced in Congress, although none was
passed. The NAACP continued its campaign through antilynching organizations
that had been established in 1892 by Ida B. Wells. Gradually, the number of
lynchings dropped. The NAACP represented the new, more militant voice of
African Americans.

3. NAACP

4. James
Weldon
Johnson
3. urged African Americans to
protest racial violence led by Du
Bois
 4. fought for legislation (laws) to
protect African American rights;
antilynching laws was main priority

Although many African Americans found their voice in the NAACP, they still faced
daily threats and discrimination. Marcus Garvey, an immigrant from Jamaica,
believed that African Americans should build a separate society. His different more
radical message of black pride aroused the hopes of many. In 1914, Garvey
founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). In 1918, he moved
the UNIA to New York City and opened offices in urban ghettos in order to recruit
followers. By the mid-1920s, Garvey claimed he had a million followers. He
appealed to African Americans with a combination of spellbinding oratory, mass
meetings, parades, and a message of pride. Garvey also lured followers with
practical plans, especially his progress to promote African-American businesses.
Further, Garvey encouraged his followers to return to Africa, help native people
their throw off white colonial oppressors, and build a mighty nation.

5. Marcus Garvey

6. United Negro
Improvement
Association
5. believed that African Americans
should build a separate society;
founded the (UNIA); spoke about
African nationalism
 6. organization to recruit followers
& promote African-American
businesses

Marcus Garvey

Garvey encouraged his followers to
return to Africa, help native people
their throw off white colonial
oppressors, and build a mighty
nation. His idea struck a chord in
many African Americans, as well as
in blacks in the Caribbean and
Africa. Despite the appeal of
Garvey’s movement, support for it
declined in the mid-1920s, when he
was convicted of mail fraud and
jailed. Although the movement
dwindled, Garvey left behind a
powerful legacy of newly awakened
black pride, economic
independence, and reverence for
Africa.
European nations had been establishing colonies for centuries. In the late 19th
century Africa had emerged as the prime target of European expansionism. By
the early 20th century, only two countries in all of Africa—Ethiopia and Liberia—
remained independent.
http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/history/european/section14.php
Ethiopia
Liberia
Many African Americans who migrated north moved to Harlem, a neighborhood
on the Upper West Side of New York’s Manhattan island. In the 1920s, Harlem
became the world’s largest black urban community, with residents from the
South, the West Indies, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Haiti. Like many other urban
neighborhoods, Harlem suffered from overcrowding, unemployment, and
poverty. But its problem in the 1920s were eclipsed by a flowering of creativity
called the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and artistic movement celebrating
African-American culture. Above all, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary
movement led by well-educated, middle-class African Americans who expressed
a new pride in the African American experience. They celebrated their heritage
and wrote with defiance and poignancy about the trials f being black in a white
world.

7. Harlem
New York

8. Harlem
Renaissance
7. became the world’s largest black
urban community (people from the
South, West Indies, Cuba, Puerto
Rico, Haiti)
 8. literary and artistic movement
celebrating African-American culture

Van Der Zee chose to show wealth in this photo, which was seemed strange as the
stock market had recently crashed. This couple appears to have money in a
number a ways. You see it in the clothes they wear, and the raccoon skin coats.
Also the car matches the coats in lavishness. The Cadillac is a big part in this photo
as it out shines the rest. Your eye is first drawn to the front of the car that seems
to be glowing off the front tire. The two figures seem to be surround by the light
reflecting off the car. In every respect, the couple seems to be flaunting their
money. Van Der Zee also has no problem with trying to amplify that feeling
through his photography.
Claude McKay, a novelist, poet, and Jamaican immigrant, was a major figure
whose militant verses urged African Americans to resist prejudice and
discrimination. His poems also expressed the pain of life in the black ghettos
and the strain of being black in a world dominated by whites. Another gifted
writer of the time was Jean Toomer. His experimental book Cane—a mix of
poems and sketches about blacks in the North and South was among the first
full length literary publications of the Harlem Renaissance. Missouri-born
Langston Hughes was the movement’s best-known poet. Many of Hughes’s
1920s poems described the difficult lives of working-class African Americans.
Some of his poems moved to the tempo of jazz and the blues.

9. Claude
McKay

10. Langston
Hughes
9. novelist & poet whose militant
verses urged African-Americans to
resist prejudice and discrimination
 10. famous poet whose poems
described the difficult lives of
working-class African Americans

Enslaved

Oh when I think of my long-suffering race,
For weary centuries despised, oppressed,
Enslaved and lynched, denied a human place
In the great life line of the Christian West;
And in the Black Land disinherited,
Robbed in the ancient country of its birth,
My heart grows sick with hate, becomes as lead,
For this my race that has no home on earth.
Then from the dark depths of my soul I cry
To the avenging angel to consume
The white man's world of wonders utterly:
Let it be swallowed up in earth's vast womb,
Or upward roll as sacrificial smoke
To liberate my people from its yoke!
----------Claude Mckay
Africa

The sun sought thy dim bed and brought forth light,
The sciences were sucklings at thy breast;
When all the world was young in pregnant night
Thy slaves toiled at thy monumental best.
Thou ancient treasure-land, thou modern prize,
New peoples marvel at thy pyramids!
The years roll on, thy sphinx of riddle eyes
Watches the mad world with immobile lids.
The Hebrews humbled them at Pharaoh's name.
Cradle of Power! Yet all things were in vain!
Honor and Glory, Arrogance and Fame!
They went. The darkness swallowed thee again.
Thou art the harlot, now thy time is done,
Of all the mighty nations of the sun.
-----Claude McKay

Exhortation: Summer 1919
Through the pregnant universe rumbles life's terrific thunder,
And Earth's bowels quake with terror; strange and terrible storms break,
Lightning-torches flame the heavens, kindling souls of men, thereunder:
Africa! long ages sleeping, O my motherland, awake!
In the East the clouds glow crimson with the new dawn that is breaking,
And its golden glory fills the western skies.
O my brothers and my sisters, wake! arise!
For the new birth rends the old earth and the very dead are waking,
Ghosts are turned flesh, throwing off the grave's disguise,
And the foolish, even children, are made wise;
For the big earth groans in travail for the strong, new world in making-O my brothers, dreaming for dim centuries,
Wake from sleeping; to the East turn, turn your eyes!
Oh the night is sweet for sleeping, but the shining day's for working;
Sons of the seductive night, for your children's children's sake,
From the deep primeval forests where the crouching leopard's lurking,
Lift your heavy-lidded eyes, Ethiopia! awake!
In the East the clouds glow crimson with the new dawn that is breaking,
And its golden glory fills the western skies.
O my brothers and my sisters, wake! arise!
For the new birth rends the old earth and the very dead are waking,
Ghosts have turned flesh, throwing off the grave's disguise,
And the foolish, even children, are made wise;
For the big earth groans in travail for the strong, new world in making-O my brothers, dreaming for long centuries,
Wake from sleeping; to the East turn, turn your eyes!
During the 1920s, African Americans in the performing arts won large
followings. The tenor Roland Hayes rose to stardom as a concert singer, and
the singer and actress Ethel Waters debuted on Broadway in the musical
Africana. Paul Robeson, the son of a one-time slave, became a major dramatic
actor. His performance in Shakespeare’s Othello, first in London and later in
New York City, was widely acclaimed. Subsequently, Robeson struggled with
racism he experienced in the United States and the indignities inflicted upon
him because of his support of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. He
took up residence abroad, living for a time in England and the Soviet Union.

11. Paul
Robeson

11. major dramatic actor; performed
in Shakespeare’s Othello; however
struggle w/racism and other
indignities because he supported
communism
Jazz was born in the early 20th century in New Orleans, where musicians blended
instrumental ragtime and vocal blues into an exuberant new sound. In 1918, Joe
“King” Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band traveled north to Chicago, carrying jazz with
them. In 1922, a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong joined Oliver’s
group, which became known as the Creole Jazz Band. His talent rocketed him to
stardom in the jazz world. Famous for his astounding sense of rhythm and his
ability to improvise, Armstrong made his personal expression a key part of jazz.
After two years in Chicago, in 1924 he joined Fletcher Henderson’s band, then the
most important big jazz band in New York City. Armstrong went on to become
perhaps the most important and influential musician in the history of jazz.

12. Jazz

13. Louis
Armstrong
12. born in New Orleans where
musicians blended instrumental
ragtime and vocal blues
 13. influential Jazz player known for
his sense of rhythm and his ability to
improvise

Louis Armstrong


Louis Armstrong even talked about his anticipated
funeral:
“They’re going to blow over me. Cats will be coming
from everywhere to play. I had a beautiful life. When I
get to the Pearly Gates I’ll play a duet with Gabriel.
We’ll play ‘Sleepy Time Down South.’ He wants to be
remembered for his music just like I do.”
Jazz quickly spread to such cities as Kansas City, Memphis, and New York City,
and it became the most popular music for dancing. During the 1920s Harlem
pulsed to the sounds of Jazz, which lured throngs of whites to the showy exotic
nightclubs there, including the famed Cotton Club. In the late 1920s, Edward
Kenney “Duke” Ellington, a jazz pianists and composer, led his ten-piece
orchestra at the Cotton Club. Through the 1920s and 1930s, Ellington won
renown as one of America’s greatest composers, with pieces such as “Mood
Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady.” Ellington continued composing, playing, and
touring until the 1970s. Bessie Smith, a female blues singer, was perhaps the
outstanding vocalist of the decade. She recorded on black-oriented labels
produced by the major record companies. She achieved enormous popularity
and in 1927 became the highest-paid black artist in the world.

14. Duke
Ellington

15. Bessie
Smith
14. jazz pianist and composer;
won one of America’s greatest
composers
 15. female blues singer; became
highest paid black artist in the
world in 1927

Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway, a talented
drummer, saxophonist,
and singer, formed
another important jazz
orchestra, which played at
Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom
and the Cotton Club,
alternating with Duke
Ellington. Along with
Louis Armstrong, Calloway
popularized “scat,” or
improvised jazz singing
using sounds instead of
words.
Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance represented a portion of the
great social and cultural changes that swept America in
the 1920s. The period was characterized by economic
prosperity, new ideas, changing values, and personal
freedom, as well as important developments in art,
literature, and music. Most of the social changes were
lasting. The economic boom, however, was short lived.