Were the 1920s good for minorities? -...
Transcript of Were the 1920s good for minorities? -...
Were the 1920s good for minorities?
Black Advancements
• Blacks advance in many areas of society
• 1920s the expansion of Jazz
• Music grew out of New Orleans to Chicago, Detroit and New York
NY & Harlem
Harlem Renaissance• Cultural explosion of music, art, literature of black
Americans • Seemingly accepted by many in cities • Art depicted everyday life in Harlem • Black poetry became more mainstream - Langston
Hughes -Read Let America be America Again
Black Artists
Black Art
JAZZ
• Jazz explodes in cities up north – Louis Armstrong – Duke Ellington
• Becomes the dominant form of music that defines the 1920s
The Cotton Club
• Whites only patronage
• Located in Harlem • If you played there
you made it • Defined the period • Read “Pearl of the
Harlem Renaissance”
Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club
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Black Renaissance Jazz and Women
1920s Dress
• Basic style of dress • Shorter hair • Straight waist
Changes in Fashion
• Dresses Shorter • Shorter hair • Rise of the cosmetics industry • Evolution from high waist to straight
waist style dresses • Shift from corset to camisole and
bloomers to replace Victorian era undergarments
Women and the 1920s
Changing Attitudes of Women• Margaret Sanger - Changes in women’s role in marriage
– Marriage for love as opposed to security – Birth Control was more available – Family sizes decreased – Divorce see as acceptable way out of unhappy marriage
• Eleanor Rowland Wembridge - Changes in women’s attitudes toward Victorian restrictions - Kissing and other activities were seen as the norm -
• Changes in attitudes toward sex as not just for procreation
Reality
• Worked in “female” jobs • Business good place to find a husband
and learn endurance, self-effacement and obedience
• Marriage = Loss of Job • Still seen as wife and home maker • Most women were not flappers
Women’s Hopes Dashed
• Suffrage did not mean equality • Not able to serve on juries • Could not sign contracts without
husband’s permission • Held responsible for illegitimate births • Divorce favored men
Changes in Home Life
• Modern conveniences=higher expectations – Cleanliness became important – Housework continued unabated – Mixed messages from life and the media
Were the 1920s good for minorities?