Ch 15, Sec 2-3

Cultural Innovations and African American Culture

Arts and Literature

• Artists and writers were:– “radicals” in beliefs– Young– Called Bohemians

• Questioned everything• Lived in areas like South side of Chicago and

Greenwich Village in New York

Modern American Art

• Influenced by Europe• New ideas of how to paint• Painted/photographed city life• Showed the excitement and scared feelings of

Americans

Writers

• New topics include:– The midwest– Greatness of American life– Women’s struggles– The problems with society– Tragedies with a fast paced society– Explained the horrors of war

Writers

• F. Scott Fitzgerald:– Author of The Great Gatsby– Explained the problem with American society– Made the 1920s/Americans seem superficial

Free Time

• Americans now had extra money to spend• Craved entertainment• Rise in sports, music, theater, movies, and

radio shows.

Sports

• Baseball became America’s past time• Babe Ruth-first real sports celebrity• Negro Leagues• Jack Dempsey-heavy weight boxing champ

from 1919-1926

Sports• Rise in College Football– Red Grange- University of Illinois– Fans went from the 1,000s to the millions

• Tennis, golf, and swimming also became big attractions

Movies• Silent movies• Piano players played music behind the screen• Subtitles played at the bottom of the screen• Charlie Chaplin-famous actor– The Kid– The Gold Rush

• 1927-first movie with speaking parts came out

Radio

• Gained popularity in the 1920s• Sent out the news nationally for the first time

as the events were taking place• Played comedies, music, and dramas• Helped to unite the country

Harlem Renaissance

• Started with the Great Migration of African Americans from the south to the north

• An artistic, political, and racial pride movement of African Americans

Harlem Renaissance Writers• Langston Hughes:– Wrote about the black experiences in a

segregated U.S.

• Zora Neale Hurston:– Wrote about rural culture of the South

Jazz

• Jazz:– Started by Louis Armstrong– Blends music from all over the country together– Duke Ellington (piano player) in jazz clubs and

speakeasies– Cotton Club-NYC

Jazz Example

Blues

• A soulful style of music that started in African American spirituals

• Spoke of love, poverty, and oppression

Blues Example

African Americans in Politics

• WWI influenced African Americans to take pride in their people

• Stepped up to take small political jobs• Great Migration allowed African Americans to

have a vote for the first time• Tried to reverse racial discrimination with new

laws

NAACP

• Fought racism, esp. lynchings• Blocked politicians from getting elected to

high seats of power• Had mixed success in different parts of the

country

Marcus Garvey

• United African Americans• Gave ideas of racial pride and culture new meaning• Believed in education for all black youth and

adults alike• Wanted to be separate from whites (Liberia)• His ideas started the ground work for the Civil

Rights Movement of the 1960s.