The Roaring 20’sAn era of prosperity,

Republican power,

and conflict

• 1920's collectively known as the "Roaring 20's", or the "Jazz Age"

• in sum, a period of great change in American Society - modern America is born at this time

• for first time the census reflected an urban society - people had moved into cities to enjoy a higher standard of living

The 20’s is The Jazz AgeThe Flappers

make upcigarettes

short skirts

MusiciansLouis ArmstrongDuke Ellington

WritersF. Scott FitzgeraldErnest Hemingway

• 1920's also brought about great changes for women...

• 1920 - 19th Amendment gave them the federal vote

• after 1920, social circumstances changed too as more women worked outside the home

• and more women went to college and clamoured to join the professions

• women didn't want to sacrifice wartime gains - amounted to a social revolt

• characterized by the FLAPPER/ "new woman"– (bobbed hair, short dresses,

smoked in public...)

The Dance Craze• The Charleston• Has a quick beat• Dancers kick out their

feet• Popular dance for

Flappers: Women who wore short skirts (to the knees), bright red lipstick, hair cut short, smoked and drank in public, and drove fast cars

A New Generation of American Writers

• Depressed about their awful experiences in World War I

• Criticized Americans for being obsessed with money and fun

• Many became expatriates (people who leave their own country to live in a foreign land) and moved to Europe

Ernest Hemingway

• Wrote about experiences of Americans during WWI and in Europe

• Wrote A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man in the Sea

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Wrote about wealthy young people who go to constant parties but cannot find happiness

• He wrote The Great Gatsby

• His characters had flappers, bootleggers, and movie makers

Sinclair Lewis

• Grew up in a small town in Minnesota and moved to New York City

• He wrote books about rural people from a city person’s perspective (making them look stupid)

• Wrote Main Street and Babbitt

Harlem Renaissance

• originally called the New Negro Movement.

• fostered a new black cultural identity.

• 1920s through mid-40s.

• an outpouring of creative expression that had long been bottled up by the constraints of segregation.

Boom Time?

– The years between World War I and the Great Depression were "boom times" in the United States.

– A "boom" is a time of rapid, widespread expansion of economic opportunity, during which jobs are plentiful.

– Jobs were plentiful in cities, especially in the North.

– Between 1920 and 1930, almost 750,000 African Americans left the South for political, social, and economic reasons.

– Why go North? • wider opportunities for prosperity• more racially tolerant environments• a sense of actual (as opposed to theoretical)

citizenship– Mass exodus from the South called The Great

Migration.

Why Leave the South?

The Great Migration

– At the beginning of the period, particularly in the South, racism was rampant, and economic opportunities were scarce.

– At this time in the South, African Americans were restricted to "colored" facilities clearly inferior to those reserved for white citizens.

– Lynching was used to instill fear in entire African American communities in the South.

– new farm machinery drove thousands of tenant farmers off the land.

– 1915 - severe boll weevil infestation – Southern states had fewer schools and higher

rates of illiteracy than Northern states. – Northern states also had more cultural

attractions and booming industries.

Causes of Migration

Children in the Silent Protest Parade, 1917Page from The Brownies Book, published by NAACP

Reaction of White Southerners

–Promised better pay and improved treatment. – Intimidation – Some even boarded northbound trains to

attack African American men and women in an attempt to return them forcibly to their homes.

The New Negro Has no Fear– After centuries of abuse in the South, many

African Americans were "voting with their feet"

UNIA ParadeOrganized in Harlem, 1924

The North: Home Sweet Home?

–The North was a step up from the South, but it was no paradise. – Segregation in housing and hiring

were the norm.–Northern racism sometimes took on a

brutality that equaled anything in the South.

The North: Home Sweet Home?

–New arrivals could land only low-paying jobs as janitors, elevator operators, domestics, and unskilled laborers. –Despite the challenges, most of those

who went North never returned.

Why "Harlem" Renaissance?

• Of the almost 750,000 African Americans who moved North, nearly 175,000 moved to Harlem.

• Harlem is a section of Manhattan, which covers three square miles; therefore, Harlem became the largest concentration of black people in the world.

Triggers of Harlem Renaissance

• the end of World War I and the return of black veterans

• the formation of civil rights organizations (NAACP) and black solidarity movements (UNIA)

• the ascendance of Harlem as the "Negro capital of the world"

• a new sense of economic, social, and cultural potential

Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, was the center of the African American political, cultural, and artistic movement in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Mets Lose

Here!!

Yankees Buy Pennant Here!!

Can you see any evidence from this map that this is an African American community?

Giants Stink Here!

1930

1911

1920

ImpactThe Harlem section of New York City was transformed from a

deteriorating area into a thriving middle class community.

Before After

Modernism & the Harlem Renaissance• Blacks view surge in art, music and literature as the

creation of a new cultural identity.• Whites see it as another new, exotic, and trendy form of

entertainment.

Authors and Works

• Creative expression was one of the few avenues available to African Americans

• Common bond: They dealt with African American life from an African American perspective.

• African-American-owned magazines and newspapers flourished

Countee Cullen (1903-1946) poet, novelist, playwright

Harlem Renaissance PoetsClaude McKay: From

Jamaica, wrote the poem, “If We Must Die” that condemned lynchings

Countee Cullen: Taught high school in Harlem, wrote of the experiences of African Americans

Zora Neale Hurston

• Write novels, short essays, short stories

• Traveled throughout the South in a battered car collecting folk tales, songs, and prayers of black southerners

• Published these in her book, “Mules and Men”

• Most famous- There Eyes Were Watching God

Langston Hughes• Most well-known of the

Harlem Renaissance poets

• Also wrote plays, short stories, and essays

• First poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

• Encouraged African Americans to be proud of their heritage

• Protested racism and acts of violence against blacks

“The night is beautiful,

So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,

So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful also, is the sun.

Beautiful also, are the souls of my people.”

-Langston Hughes, “In My People”

Lafayette Theatre

opening night of Shakespeare's "Macbeth"

• also known as the "House Beautiful“• probably the first New York theater to

desegregate • as early as 1912, African-American

theatergoers were allowed to sit in orchestra seats instead of only the balcony.

Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington(1899-1974) composer, musician, band leader

Heroes of the 1920s

• Athletes:– Bobby Jones: Won nearly every golfing

championship– Jack Dempsey: Heavyweight boxing champion for

7 years– Bill Tilden and Helen Willis: Tennis champions– Gertrude Ederle: 1st woman to swim the English

Channel

Babe Ruth

• Grew up in an orphanage

• Often in trouble as a boy

• Hit 60 homeruns in one season, and 714 overall

• Called the “Sultan of Swat”

Charles Lindbergh• The greatest hero of the

1920s• The first person to fly an

airplane across the Atlantic Ocean alone

• Flew from New York to Paris• Called “Lucky Lindy”

because he had to fly for 33 ½ hours and didn’t carry a parachute, a radio, or a map

CelebritiesBabe Ruth &Ty Cobb

Jack Dempsey

Charles Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis

New York Black Yankees, 1939Photo credit: Morgan & Marvin Smith