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Contents
Section 1 :
Section 2 :
Changing Ways of Life
The Twenties Women
Section 3 :
Education And Popular Culture
Section 4 :
The Harlem Renaissance
Citations :
Pictures and Information
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Section 1:
Changing Ways of Life
M
igrations to the cities accelerated, cities grew more and
more crowded day by day. Life in these cities was much different from slow-paced small towns. For small town migrants, they had to change the way they lived, as well as the way they thought, the cities were a world of competition and change. City people read and argued about current, scientific and social ideas, they judge each other by accomplishment more than background. They also tolerated drinking, gambling and casual dating. On the other hand, all of those behaviors were considered shocking and sinful in small towns. Cities seemed colorful and challenging but they could also be frightening and impersonal. Life was fast-paced, streets were filled with strangers, not neighbors or friends. In the cities, lonely migrants were sometimes lost in a world of anonymous crowds, moneymakers, and pleasure seekers. In 3|Page
January 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, that was when an immense clashed between small town and big city Americans. This amendment was about Prohibition, in which the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages was legally prohibited. One reason for this was reformers had always thought alcohol was responsible for corruption. They thought that too much alcohol would cause crimes such as women and child abuse, accidents and other serious social problems. At first, saloons were closed and arrests for drunkenness declined, but after World War I, many people were tired of sacrificing themselves and wanted to enjoy life more. They monitored highways for truckloads of illegal alcohol but it was clearly impossible due to low payment for local police and federal agents. To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons, bars and nightclubs known as Speakeasies, they called it that because once you were inside, people’d speak quietly to avoid detection. Speakeasies
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could be found everywhere, in penthouses, cellars, office buildings, rooming houses, tenements, hardware stores, and tearooms. If one wanted to be permitted in a speakeasies, one had to present a card or some kind of a password. Not so long after that, people learned to distill alcohol and built their own stills. Since alcohol was allowed for medicinal and religious purposes, it was also one way to get alcohol. People also bought liquor from Bootleggers, who smuggled liquor in from Canada, Cuba and the West Indies. Al Capone, a gangster whose bootlegging empire netted over $60 million a year, took control of the liquor business in his hometown, Chicago, by killing off his competition. During the 1920s, reports showed 522 bloody gangs were killed. By the middle of 1920, only 19 percent supported Prohibition, the rest thought it only made the problem worse. Eighteenth Amendment was finally repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933. Another battle happened between the traditional and modern ideas, this battle raged between fundamentalist religious groups 5|Page
and secular thinkers due to certain scientific discoveries. Fundamentalism, the Protestant movement grounded in a literal, or nonsymbolic, interpretation of the Bible. There were many clashes between scientific ideas and religious ideas, but the most famous one was The Scopes Trial. In March 1925, Tennessee passed the nation’s first law that made teaching evolution a crime. The American Civil Liberties Union promised to defend any teacher who would challenge the law. A biology teacher named John T. Scopes accepted the challenge. He got on trial for doing such things, it was a fight over evolution and the roles of science and religion in public schools and the society.
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Section 2:
The Twenties Woman
D
uring the twenties century,
“the flappers” changed the young women’s ideal about their fashion and roles that led to the women revolution during this time. Many women wore short skirt, cut short hair, drank, smoked, wore make up, danced, had sex freely and voted. The 1920s was also known as the “Jazz Age”, so flappers mostly spent their time to dance many types of dancing such as Charleston or Black Bottom in the theaters or public places. They were known as the giddy risk-takers, they tried to escape the previous societal rule and wanted to have equal social statuses as men. So many women smoked and drank alcohol in public; they cut off their hair to look boyish, they had sex with a large amount of men even before marriage. Many magazines and newspapers promoted the flappers. But many schools, churches and people rejected 7|Page
the flappers because their movements and behaviors affected their values and attitudes. Double-standard also required the women had to be stricter and not granting greater sexual freedom than men.
In 1920s, many young women protested the idea about women had to do the house work only. They started to step out and seek for their jobs in factories, stores or just did domestic work. Many of them graduated from college and became “ female professionals�, who were teachers, lawyers, doctors and etc. Even though their wages were still lower than men’s but it was only the beginning to join the business world. Besides, the change of the society and economy reshaped the family structure. The birthrate started to decrease in 1920s because Margaret Sanger established the American Birth Control League in 1921 which controlled the birth rate. In addition, the children were no longer supposed to work in factories, farms or stores. They spent most of their time to go to schools and their parents cared more about them.
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Section 3:
Education and Popular Culture
I
n 1920s, the amount of enrollments increased rapidly in the
United States, including the immigrants, causing the taxes and school fee to go up as well. Magazines and newspapers boomed (Los Angeles Examiner, Time, Washington Times, etc.), American journalists and editors, learning how to hook the readers’ attention, wrote more about national and international news. Radio/airwaves/tune in was also popular to the Americans’ daily lives, they listened to the radios almost everyday for news, sports, music. Americans’ entertainment was a hot issue too, people liked playing mahjong and games, watching sports like dance marathons, flagpole sitting, baseball, etc. The first American pilot who traveled across the 9|Page
Atlantic alone by plane was the famous handsome man named Charles A. Lindbergh. Also, many good movies were made to satisfy the audience’s thirst for entertainment, especially the animation industry with the first Disney production “Mickey Mouse” cartoon. Many Americans enjoyed novels and artworks and they considered them as important and irreplaceable parts in their lives. People were really fond of jazz music, therefore that period of time was called the “Jazz Age” since jazz songs were very popular. There were talented and famous people who influenced the American literary and art history a lot such as George Gershwin, Sinclair Lewis, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, etc.
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Section 4:
The Harlem Renaissance 1910s and 1920s, known as Great Immigration, thousands of black moved north. In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) urged African Americans to protest violence. It protected their rights. But African Americans still faced daily threats and discrimination. Marcus Garvey found the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), moved it to New York and opened offices in urban ghettos to recruit followers. He promoted African Americans’ businesses and built mighty nation. Garvey left behind a powerful legacy of newly awakened blacks’ pride, economic independence, and reference for Africa. 1916-1920s, millions of black farmers and sharecroppers moved to the North, looking for chances and freedom. Thousands of them settled in Harlem, this place became a cultural center in their lives. That was called Harlem Renaissance. Harlem attracted worldly and conscious African Americans developed their artistic, musical and literary talents which created a flowering of the African American art. The 1920s, when the American economy boomed and was 11 | P a g e
known as the Roaring Twenties. This decade was called:” The greatest, gaudiest spree in history” by Fitzgerald. Young people were against the old ideas, attitudes of their elders, because they’ve already known the new fashion, attitudes, actively sought out fun and freedom. They listened to all the great black Jazz artists. During this period, alcohol was illegal. The spirit of the Harlem Renaissance reached far in the world of African American writers and intellectuals. Several songs in Shuffle Along (source), including” Love will find a way”, was popular among white audiences. There were some talent performers such as Florence Mil, Josephine Baker, and Mabel Mercer. During the 1920s, Arican Americans who performed arts won many awards. Jazz was born in 20th century in New Orleans. Joe king Oliver and his band Creole Jazz band traveled north to Chicago spreading their Jazz music around. Jazz quickly spread to such cities as Kansas, Memphis, NY and became the 12 | P a g e
most popular music for dancing. Harlem Renaissance changed America. During this time, they had economic prosperities, new ideas, changing values, personal freedoms, as well as important developments in art, literature and music.
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Citations Section 1: Information:
Bootlegging, K. Allsop, The Bootleggers (1961, repr. 1970); A. Sinclair, Prohibition: The Era of Excess (1962, repr. 1964); H. Waters, Smugglers of Spirits (1971).Web 19 May 2010 Speakeasies of the Prohibition Era, by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated March, 2010.Web 19 May 2010 American History Book, by Rand Mc Nally, Mc Dougal Littell, page 640-645 Pictures: On This Date in History, Jim Whimpey. Web 21 May 2010 How Prohibition Worked by Alia Hoyt. Web 21 May 2010 Alcapone Web 21 May 2010 Kyvig, David. “Women Against Prohibition,” American Quarterly. 1976.Web 21 May 2010 Section 2: Information: Kim Keney,The Flapper Changing Roles for Women in the Roaring Twenties 17 Dec 2008. Web.18 May 2010 14 | P a g e
Flapper Fashion 1920s C20th Fashion History, By Pauline Weston Thomas, Web 18 May 2010 1925 - Flapper Dresses in Style, by Jennifer Rosenberg. Web 18 May 2010 American History Book, by Rand Mc Nally, Mc Dougal Littell. Page 646-649 Pictures: Kristin McCormack, " Who were the Flappers and What did they Tell us about America in the 1920's?" . Web 19 May 2010 The Roaring Dance, Web 19 May 2010 February 2, 2009.IT’S MY BLOG-A-VERSARY! Web 19 May 2010 Section 3: Information: Publications International, Ltd., the Editors of. "1920 Baseball Season." 25 August 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. Web. 18 May 2010
Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 by David E. Kyvig The 1920s by Kathleen Drowne and Patrick Huber Web 19 May 2010 Hall, Donald A. "Technical preparation of the airplane - Spirit of St. Louis." NACA TN 257. July 1927. Web 18 May 2010 American History Book, by Rand Mc Nally, Mc Dougal Littell, page 652-657 Pictures: George Gershwin Timeline, Web 19 May 2010
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Charles Lindbergh, by REEVE LINDBERGH ,Monday, June 14, 1999. Web 19 May 2010 Store Renovation Reveals Pieces Of 1920-60s Grocery ,by Susan Morse, Sunday, November 24, 2002.Web. 19 May 2010
Section 4: Information: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Columbia University Press, 2007. Web. 20 May 2010. The Universal Negro Improvement Association. No Publisher. Web. 20 May 2010. Ghetto. Wikipidia. Web. 20 May 2010. American History Book, by Rand Mc Nally, Mc Dougal Littell, page 658-663 Pictures: The Harlem Renaissance. Jerry Butler. Web. 22 May 2010. GLBTQ Encyclopedia Looks at the Harlem Renaissance Through a Lavender Lens. Chris FearSon, 4 Feb. 2008. Web. 22 May 2010. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - The Complete Set, 27 April 2009. Web 22 May 2010
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