The Roaring 1920s

"What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.“

Vice President, Thomas R. Marshall Jan. 4, 1920

1920s

Men’s

Clothing

1920s

Women’s

Clothing

Flappers

In the 1920's women started wearing short skirts and bobbed hair, and had

more sexual freedom. They began to abandon traditional female roles and

take jobs usually reserved for men.

Swim Wear and the Fashion Police

Female bathers being

confronted by the police in

1922 for showing too much

skin.

Indecent female bathers

arrested in Chicago in 1922

In 1935, the police in

Atlantic City, New Jersey,

arrested 42 men on the

beach. They were cracking

down on topless bathing

suits worn by men. America's first nudist

organization was founded in

1929, by 3 men.

The First Miss America Pageant

In 1921 Margaret Gorman was the first Miss America. She was 16 years old.

Sports

Consumerism of the 1920s

American Consumers had money to spend and could spend more on leisure

activities and other entertainment.

American businesses flooded stores with new products such as household

appliances and recreational items.

Installment Buying

Purchasing a commodity over a period of time. The buyer gains the use of

the commodity immediately and then pays for it in periodic payments

called installments.

Henry Ford and the Model T (1913) Ford introduced and perfected the method of mass production and introduced

an innovative and more efficient assembly line.

Employees stay in one spot while

the assembly line brought the

parts to them. Up until that time,

parts remained stationary while

employees moved from station to

station.

First mass-produced automobile. In

1907 30,000 Model T cars were sold.

From 1907 until 1926, Ford built half

the automobiles in the world

(16,750,000 cars).

The wages paid by the Ford

auto company were much

higher than those paid by

other automobile companies.

In 1914, Ford paid workers

who were age 22 or older $5

per day, double the average wage offered by other car

factories.

Ford [Story of US]

Model T

Automobile

The automobile greatly changed the face of US culture by allowing people to

become more mobile, live further away from where they worked, and attend

activities and events that otherwise would have been inaccessible.

Great Migration

After WWI many African Americans began leaving the South in growing

numbers to pursue better economic opportunities in northern cities and in

hopes of escaping southern racism.

Great Migration & Racial Riots [Story of US]

National Magazines

Allowed news stories and business advertisements to reach people nationwide.

Radios

Became the first source of mass communication and entertainment available to

people in their own homes.

It also transformed politics by giving leaders direct access to larger numbers of

people.

Radio Broadcasting in the 1920s

Dancing to the radio

Radio became one of the era's most

influential advertising and

entertainment media. By 1929, over

10 million families owned radios

Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

A group of women who advocated total abstinence from alcohol and who

worked to get laws passed against alcohol.

18th Amendment The constitutional amendment that banned the manufacture, sale, and

transportation of alcohol. Took effect on January 20, 1920

Prohibition [Ken Burns]

Prohibition

The period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of

alcohol was banned.

Prohibition: Revenue Agents

Government agents destroy kegs of alcohol. Prohibition created an enormous

public demand for illegal alcohol

Reasons Why Prohibition Had Failed

• There weren't enough Prohibition agents to enforce the law.

• Many Americans never gave their support to Prohibition and continued to purchase and consume alcohol.

• It influenced the rise of crime in American society during the 1920's. Gangsters, bootleggers, hookers, and underground casinos.

Bootleggers

People who made, sold, or distributed alcohol illegally. Many people died or

got violently ill from buying and drinking illegally made alcohol.

Speakeasy An illegal establishment that sold alcohol during prohibition.

Prohibition and Crime

Protection rackets, organized crime and gangland murders were more

common during Prohibition than when alcohol could be bought legally.

Al Capone

Al Capone

The most infamous incident was the in 1929 when Capone's men dressed as police officers killed seven members

of his rival Moran's gang while Capone lay innocently on a beach in Florida.

Al Capone is America's best known gangster and the single greatest symbol

of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s

Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent

Chicago its reputation as a lawless city.

Al Capone [Story of US]

J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI (1895-1972)

Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-

fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modernizations to police

technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.

His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI. He

used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files

on political leaders, and to collect evidence using illegal methods.

Twenty-First Amendment

Passed February, 1933 to repeal the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). Congress

legalized light beer. Took effect December, 1933. Based on recommendation of

the Wickersham Commission that Prohibition had lead to a vast increase in

crime.

National Woman's Party (NWP)

A women's organization that fought for women's rights during the early 20th

century particularly for the right to vote. After the 19th Amendment gave women

the vote, the NWP turned its attention to passage of an Equal Rights

Amendment.

Congress passed the amendment and most states ratified it, but at the last minute

it was stopped by a coalition of conservatives and the ERA never passed.

NWP members picket the White House in 1917; the banner reads,

"Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty."

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947)

A suffragette who was president of the National Women's Suffrage

Association, and founder of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.

Instrumental in obtaining passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

19th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote.

Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding (Republican) won the Election of 1920. A series of

scandals that rocked his administration and he died of heart problems in 1923.

President Harding was the first U.S. president elected after woman were allowed to vote.

Ohio Gang

The name given to President Harding's cabinet because all the members were

friends from Ohio. Most were involved in scandals, such as extortions, accepting

bribes that damaged Harding’s presidency

“My God, this is a hell of a job! I can take care of my enemies all right. But my friends, my God-damn friends,

they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!”

Warren G. Harding

Albert Fall & the Teapot Dome Scandal

Teapot Dome was a place in Wyoming that had many large oil reserves.

Albert Fall was the Secretary of Interior.

He was caught accepting bribes to lease oil-rich government property to

private oil companies.

He was fined $100,000 and spent a year in jail.

His actions reflected poorly on President Harding, who too often allowed

people interested only in personal gain into a position in office.

Secretary of the Interior,

Albert Fall leased out

government oil reserves to

independent oil companies

in exchange for bribes and

kickbacks.

The Death of Warren G. Harding

President Harding died of a heart attack while vacationing in California. The scandals and the

negative press were perhaps too much for him.

Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge Succeeded Harding as president in 1923.

Strongly believed that the government should not interfere with the growth of

business and that the natural business cycle would fix any problems in the

economy. One of Coolidge's most famous quotes was, "The business of the

American people is business."

After receiving word that Harding had died, Calvin

Coolidge was sworn in as President by his father, a

notary public.

President Calvin Coolidge was nicknamed “Silent

Cal” because he rarely talked. He was known to

take frequent naps and used to dress up like a

cowboy or Indian while he rode a mechanical

horse in the Oval Office.

Business of America is Business

Coolidge gave a speech in mid-January 1925 when he stated that "The chief

business of the American people is business... but there are many other things

that we want very much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity

which is so strong an element of all civilization."

Laissez-Fair Economics

The idea that government should not regulate business or try to manipulate the

market but rather let the market take its natural course.

Capitalism An economic system based on free markets and privately owned industry.

J.C. Penny Co.

A&P Grocery Piggly Wiggly

Western Auto Parts

Communism

A system in which people in society cooperate and own property mutually,

thereby making governments unnecessary.

Red Scare

Fear of communism that swept across the US following WWI. Business

leaders, government officials, and a growing number of private citizens

feared that communism might spread to the U.S.

Palmer Raids

In 1919, the Communist Party was gaining strength in the U.S., and Americans

feared Communism. In January, 1920, Palmer raids in 33 cities broke into

meeting halls and homes without warrants. 4,000 "Communists" were jailed,

many innocent immigrates were deported.

Nativism

Opposition to immigration

Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan grew to be a national, rather than just a southern, force of

hatred.

It experienced phenomenal growth in the 1920's, especially in the Midwest and

Ohio Valley states.

Klan targeted Jews, Catholics, Communists, and foreign immigrants.

It's peak membership came in 1924 at 3 million members, but its reputation for violence led to

rapid decline by 1929.

Sacco and Vanzetti Case

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants charged

with murdering a guard and robbing a shoe factory in Braintree, Mass.

The trial lasted from 1920-1927. Convicted on circumstantial evidence,

many believed they had been framed for the crime because of their

anarchist and pro-union activities.

Immigration Restrictions

Congress passed a temporary limit to the number of immigrants beginning in

1929.

Racist in nature, many of these laws were designed to allow more immigrants

from Western Europe into the country than from Eastern Europe or the Far

East.

Hispanic Catholic immigrants, both legal and illegal, increased drastically

during this time period.

President Coolidge signs the Immigration Act of 1924 on

the White House South Lawn.

Fundamentalists

Broad movement in Protestantism in the U.S. which tried to preserve what it

considered the basic ideas of Christianity against criticism by liberal theologies.

It stressed the literal truths of the Bible and creation.

Billy Sunday Billy Sunday Revival

Scopes Trial (1925)

Prosecution of Dayton, Tennessee school teacher John Scopes, for violation

of a Tennessee law forbidding public schools from teaching about evolution.

Former Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan,

prosecuted the case, and the famous criminal attorney, Clarence Darrow,

defended Scopes.

Scopes was convicted and fined $100,

but the trial started a shift of public

opinion away from Fundamentalism.

William Jennings Bryan

defending the Christian faith

John Scopes

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920's,

formally known as the "New Negro Movement."

Based in Harlem, New York, the famous works of African American artists

became known all over the country. These African Americans, typically

middle-class and educated, share their powerful feelings of pride for their

heritage.

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

Black leader who advocated "black nationalism," and financial independence

for Blacks, he started the "Back to Africa" movement. He believed Blacks

would not get justice in mostly white nations.

Head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). He was a Jamaican immigrant who believed

blacks should separate from corrupt white society. He proclaimed "I am the equal of any white man."

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

American poet and part of the Harlem Renaissance, he was influenced by

jazz music.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Hughes was a gifted writer who wrote humorous poems, stories, essays and

poetry. Harlem was a center for black writers, musicians, and intellectuals.

Hollywood

Films really blossomed in the 1920s, expanding upon the foundations of film

from earlier years. Most US film production at the start of the decade

occurred in or near Hollywood on the West Coast.

By the mid-20s, movies were big business and that the greatest output of

feature films in the US occurred in the 1920s and 1930s.

Movie Industry

Fashions and lifestyles portrayed in the movies helped define a national culture.

As a result, movie stars became national icons.

Jazz Singer (1927)

The first movie with sound, this "talkie" was about the life of famous jazz

singer, Al Jolson.

Camptown Races sung by Al Jolson Cotton and Chick Watts Blackface Minstrel Show

Tin Pan Alley

Referred to the various music houses in New York City where songwriters

and musicians composed and published songs during the post-WWI years.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

George Gershwin

Tin Pan Alley

Irving Berlin

Famous composer associated with Tin Pan Alley who composed over 3,000

songs during his career despite the fact he could barely read music.

Among his famous hits are the traditional Christmas favorite "White

Christmas," the patriotic theme "God Bless America,” and "There's No

Business Like Show Business" from the Broadway musical Annie Get Your

Gun.

Jazz

A popular form of music after World War I that arose out of the African

American community as musical artists from Louisiana and Mississippi

brought their talents to the northern cities.

Crossing ethnic boundaries, jazz found a receptive audience among both

blacks and young whites.

Louis Armstrong

A trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, was among the most noted jazz

musicians.

Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974)

Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974), an American aviator who made the first

solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927.

Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him, but Lindbergh was the

first person to do it alone nonstop. Lindbergh's feat gained him immediate,

international fame.