History - 1920's Society

Assessment Review (27th October 2026)

Roaring Twenties

The 1920s; marked by consumerism, urban growth, jazz, cinema, changing social values and greater freedoms for some, but also racism and inequality.

Urbanisation

The growth of cities as people moved from rural areas; 51.2% of Americans lived in cities, with around 2 million moving to cities each year. New York had 5.6 million residents, Chicago 3 million and Philadelphia 2 million.

Urban and rural America

Cities were diverse and more accepting of drinking, gambling and casual dating; rural areas tended to be more conservative and religious.

Jazz Age

1920s culture associated with jazz, dancing, the Charleston and venues such as Harlem's Cotton Club.

Consumerism

Growing spending on consumer goods and entertainment, including cars, radios and films.

Talkies

Films with sound; arrived in 1927. The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson, was an early famous example.

Nativism

Hostility to immigrants and preference for native-born Americans; immigrants were often portrayed as un-American, radical or non-Protestant.

Red Scare

Fear of communism, socialism and anarchism around 1919–1921, intensified by the Bolshevik Revolution, strikes and fears of revolution.

Palmer Raids

Raids in 1919–1920 in which authorities arrested suspected radicals and immigrants during the Red Scare.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Two Italian immigrants arrested in 1920 for robbery and murder; their trial relied on circumstantial evidence, they were convicted and executed.

Emergency Quota Act (1921)

Restricted immigration by setting annual quotas on the number of immigrants allowed into the United States.

National Origins Act (1924)

Tightened immigration quotas, targeting immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia.

WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant; a group often associated with traditional American identity and fears of immigration.

Religious fundamentalism

Literal interpretation of the Bible; some rural Americans used it to defend traditional beliefs and reject modern urban values.

Scopes Trial (1925)

Tennessee teacher John Scopes was tried for teaching evolution, which was banned in some states; six southern states had banned it in schools.

Clarence Darrow

ACLU attorney who defended Scopes; represented science, modernity and urban values.

William Jennings Bryan

Prosecuted Scopes and represented Christianity and rural traditional values; died five days after the trial ended.

Scopes Trial outcome

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100; Darrow challenged Bryan about biblical creation, and evolution supporters felt they had won the debate.

Jim Crow laws

Laws enforcing racial segregation in schools, transport, restaurants and public spaces.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

White supremacist organisation targeting Black Americans, immigrants, Catholics, Jews and socialists through intimidation and violence.

KKK revival

Revived in 1915 by William J. Simmons; the film The Birth of a Nation (1915) portrayed the original Klan as heroes and helped inspire the revival.

KKK motto

'100% Americanism'; the Klan claimed to defend traditional American and Protestant values.

KKK membership

The Klan grew from a few thousand members in 1920 to about 5 million by 1925—around 15% of adult men in some states—then fell to fewer than 30,000 by 1930.

KKK march (1925)

Around 40,000 Klansmen marched in costume down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

KKK influence and methods

Members included judges, police, mayors and governors; the Klan used propaganda, parades, threats, beatings, lynching and political influence.

D. C. Stephenson

Indiana Klan leader whose conviction for rape and murder helped damage the Klan's reputation and contribute to its decline.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; an organisation through which people resisted racism and fought for Black Americans' rights.

Great Migration

Black Americans moved from the South to northern cities seeking better wages, greater freedom and escape from southern violence.

Black Americans in cities

More than 5 million of the 12 million Black Americans lived in cities by 1920; Black communities in Chicago and New York doubled during the 1920s.

Harlem Renaissance

Flowering of African-American art, music, culture and political thought in Harlem, New York.

Duke Ellington

Jazz musician who launched his career at Harlem's Cotton Club and gained national and international recognition.

Marcus Garvey and UNIA

Garvey promoted a more radical approach to Black identity and rights through the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Race in the 1920s

African-American cultural life grew, but racism, segregation and racial violence continued; cultural progress did not bring equal legal or social rights.

Prohibition

National ban on the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating alcohol; enforcement began in 1920 under the 18th Amendment.

18th Amendment

Established national Prohibition; ratified in 1919 and took effect in January 1920.

Volstead Act

1919 law enforcing Prohibition and defining intoxicating drinks as those containing more than 0.5% alcohol.

Temperance Movement

Movement to reduce or ban alcohol; supporters argued it damaged families, caused poverty and crime, and harmed work productivity.

Dries and wets

Dries supported Prohibition; wets opposed it or supported legal alcohol.

Prohibition enforcement

Speakeasies sold illegal alcohol; bootlegging smuggled or distributed it, and moonshining produced it illegally.

Prohibition supporters

The Anti-Saloon League and Women's Christian Temperance Union campaigned against alcohol using religious, social and political arguments.

Prohibition and World War I

Anti-German feeling helped the campaign because many brewers were German American; grain could also be saved for food.

Organised crime

Illegal alcohol created a profitable trade for gangs and the Mafia; violence increased as groups fought for control.

Al Capone

Notorious mobster who controlled much of Chicago's illegal alcohol trade.

St Valentine's Day Massacre (1929)

Gang killing associated with the violent struggle to control the illegal liquor trade.

End of Prohibition

Only 19% of Americans supported Prohibition by the end of the 1920s; the 21st Amendment repealed it in 1933.

Women's changing roles

Some women gained greater freedom, employment and independence after World War I, but changes were uneven.

19th Amendment and suffrage

Women gained the right to vote nationwide in 1920 through the 19th Amendment.

Women in paid work

About 10 million women were working by 1929, 25% more than in 1920.

Flappers

Young women symbolising changing social attitudes; some wore shorter skirts, cut their hair, smoked, drank and socialised without chaperones.

Divorce rates

Divorces rose from 100,000 in 1914 to 205,000 in 1929—more than doubling.