America in the 1920’s and 1930’s

Women’s Rights

• 19th Amendment is passed in August of 1920 – gave women the right to vote

• Flappers – women who challenged traditional dress and behavior

Red Scare

• Labor unrest, strikes and violence led many people to worry about Communist/Anarchist influence in the US.

• Xenophobia – fear and hatred of foreigners

• Nicola Sacco/Bartolomeo Vanzetti – executed in 1927

• American Civil Liberties Union - ACLU

Great Migration

• During the 1920’s, hundreds of thousands of black southerners began moving to the North to escape racial prejudice

• Faced opposition from whites concerned about job losses

• 25 urban race riots during the 1920’s in the North

1920’s politics• Warren Harding elected President in 1920• Ohio Gang• Teapot Dome Scandal• Harding dies in 1923 – Calvin Coolidge takes

over• Disarmament – limiting military weapons• Kellogg-Briand Pact – 1928 – outlawed war• Herbert Hoover elected President in 1928• Republican policies were pro-business –

believed that it was not the government’s job to solve social problems

• Country became isolationist again

Prohibition• January 16, 1920 – 18th amendment is

passed – banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages

• Speakeasies – illegal clubs that sold alcohol

• Bootleggers – alcohol smugglers• Led to the rise of major criminal

organizations – Al Capone• December 5th, 1933 – 21st amendment

ends Prohibition

Culture Wars

• Fundamentalism – teaches that the Bible is literally true and free of error

• 1925 – Scopes Monkey Trial• Nativism – anti-immigrant feelings• Emergency Quota Act – 1921 – limited

immigration to 375,000 a year• National Origins Act – 1924 – favored

European immigrants over other races

Boom Times

• 1920’s – economic growth and business doubled• Henry Ford – used assembly line techniques to

manufacture large numbers of cars – Model T - $290 in 1927

• Mass production methods led to tremendous business growth and new job opportunities

• Installment plans – customers made down payments and had a monthly payment after that

Jazz Age

• Fads – Flappers, Marathon Dancing, Flagpole Sitting

• 1920 – radio programs are aired regularly for the first time

• Movies were invented in the late 1800’s – Nickelodeons – early theaters

• 1927 – first movie with sound is released – “The Jazz Singer”

Famous People of the 1920’s• Movies – Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino,

Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo• Sports – Jim Thorpe – Football/Olympics• Helen Wills – Tennis• Red Grange – Football• George Herman Ruth “Babe” – Baseball• Leroy (Satchel) Paige, James (Cool Papa) Bell –

Negro Leagues Baseball• Charles Lindbergh – Pilot – first to fly across the

Atlantic – 1927• Amelia Earhart – Female pilot – disappeared in 1937

Blues and Jazz• Ragtime, Blues, and Jazz were popular music

styles during the 1920’s• Ragtime – Scott Joplin• Blues – W.C. Handy, Bessie Smith• Jazz – Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington• Harlem Renaissance – period of African-

American artistic growth – Langston Hughes• Lost Generation – writers disgusted by the

destruction of World War I – Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Expatriate – person who leaves their native country to live elsewhere