The Roaring 1920’s
 Society
in the 1920’s
 Changes in Manners
 Changes in Morals
 Mass Media and the
Jazz Age
 The Harlem Renaissance
Essential Questions
How were women’s roles
changing?
 How were cities and suburbs
affected by Americans moving
from rural areas?
 Who were some heroes of the
1920’s?
 What made them so popular?
 What were the changes in
manners and morals?
 How did Jazz impact culture?

Women of the Victorian Era
Women’s Changing Roles

Image of the Flapper ( Exaggerated)
 Rebellious, energetic, fun-loving,
and bold.

Stylish Urban young women
 Impact
on fashion and behavior
Short bobbed hair and make-up
Wide-brimmed hats, skull caps
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

15% of wage earning women
became professionals, although
businesses remained prejudice
towards women. (Less $ than Men)
 Even Flappers were expected to be
homemakers


Some Assembly line jobs were
available as well as “Men Only” jobs
Greater equality in marriage,
children spent time at school and in
organized activites
Women and the Family
 The
Birth Rate dropped during
the 1920’s
 Birth Control information was
widespread

Margaret Sanger ( First BC
Clinic 1916)
 Some
1920’s women juggled
work and career
 Leisure Time increased
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.
 By
Americans on the Move
1920, more Americans lived in
cities.
 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.
Steam Boat Willie -1928
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 -Babbit
 F. Scott Fitzgerald –”JAZZ AGE”
 Earnest Hemingway
 Edna St. Vincent Millay - Youth
 “The Lost Generation” –authors

disconnected from the US and its
values. (Critical of US Culture)
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
The Lost Generation
The Harlem Renaissance
 What
were the causes 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 black pride.
 Authors:

Alan Locke - The New Negro
(1925)

Zora Nele Hurston -Their Eyes
are Watching God (1937)
Harlem Renaissance II
 Famous
Poets:
Claude McCay – Harlem

Shadows (1922)
Countee Cullen – Color
Langston Hughes – The
Weary Blues, I Too (1926)
Performers of Stage

Paul Robeson –
Major Dramatic
Actor
Ex. Othello
Ethal Waters –
Africana
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
Jelly Roll Morton
 Benny Goodman
 Louis Armstrong
 Duke Ellington
 Ma Rainey
 Bessy Smith
 Cab Calloway

Jelly Roll Morton
Bessie Smith
Duke Ellington and George
Gershwin
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