1920s & 1930s

USII.5A-D

1920s• Prohibition was imposed by a constitutional

amendment; illegal to make, transport, or sell alcoholic beverages.

• Results of Prohibition– Speakeasies (places to drink)– Bootleggers smuggled booze (moonshine)– Organized Crime (Mafia or Cosa Nostra)

• Great Migration North (of Blacks)– Jobs scarce in South– Discrimination and violence– Better employment– Discrimination and violence in North also

USII.5B

Five Foot Two Button up Your Overcoat

Charleston

1920’s CULTURE• ARTART: Georgia O’Keefe (paintings of SW);

*Jacob Lawrence (painted Great Migration North)

• LITERATURELITERATURE: F. Scott Fitzgerald (wrote about Jazz Age), John Steinbeck (wrote about poor migrant workers of 1930s, *Langston Hughes (Africa and America)

• MUSICMUSIC: Aaron Copland & George Gershwin (wrote American music); *Duke Ellington and *Louis Armstrong (jazz composers); *Bessie Smith (blues singer)

• BLACK MOVEMENT IN ART & MUSIC – HARLEM RENAISSANCE *

USII.5C

1920s SNAPS

Ty Cobb

Chaplin

Capone

Charleston

Ellington

Felix

Keaton

KKK

Mahjongg

Ruth

Pickford

Sacco & Vanzetti

Houdini

Ford

I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU

CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

• Over speculating on stocks (using borrowed money to invest)

• Federal Reserve failed to prevent the collapse of the banking system

• High tariffs strangled international trade

USII.5D

IMPACT ON AMERICANS

• Banks and businesses failed

• ¼ of all workers were out of jobs

• Many people were homeless and hungry

• Farmers’ incomes fell to low levels

THE NEW DEAL• Social Security

• Federal work programs

• Environmental improvements programs

• Farm assistance programs

• Increased rights for labor

USII.5D