1920s Famous People

Blues Music W.C. Handy - Goals/Hopes

Even though he had to keep his dreams a secret from his religious parents, he took music lessons and hoped to earn a living playing music instead of teaching it

Blues Music W.C. Handy - Contributions

Although he did not invent it, he was the first to write down this kind of music on paper. He learned it by traveling through the south as a band leader, listening to southern African American musicians play guitars and banjos.

Blues Music W.C. Handy - Effects

Based on what he learned, he published songs as “sheet music” so people could play the “12 Bar Blues”. He inspired many others to play and many artists had “hits” on the radio performing his songs; Memphis Blues, Beale Street Blues and Saint Louis Blues

Blues Music Bessie Smith - Goals/Hopes

As a child of poverty in Chattanooga, TN, she “busked” / performed music on street corners to earn money. She began recording her music in 1923 hoping to join other African Americans in earning money as “blues” singers.

Blues Music Bessie Smith - Contributions

The Radio and sale of her records to be played at home was part of the Harlem Renaissance (re-birth of African American Artistry. Her music was enjoyed by white audiences, even in the segregated, Jim Crow south.

Blues Music Bessie Smith - Effects

Even though she was considered “rough” or low class due to the provocative language in some of her lyrics, she was so successful, she travelled on her own train car, touring the USA, performing her hits. She became known as the “Empress of the Blues”. Her success was cut short by the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Jazz Music Louis Armstrong - Goals/Hopes

Born in New Orleans, where he became an accomplished singer and trumpet player, he moved to New York as part of the Harlem Renaissance where he hoped to find a larger audience.

Jazz Music louis Armstrong - Contributions

This person’s music and joyful, joking, performance style made him popular with white and black audiences. He used “scat” singing (improvising with his voice like it was an instrument) and also improvised playing the trumpet. His deep, scratchy voice made him very popular with audiences.

Jazz Music Louis Armstrong - Effects

He became, perhaps, the most famous American musician on Earth through the 1950s, but was often seen as too quiet on racial injustices in the USA due to his easygoing, kind, joyful attitude and persona.

Jazz Music Duke Ellington - Goals/Hopes

Born in Washington, DC, this person was more interested in baseball than his piano lessons, but later became more serious as a musician because he could make money playing dances. He hoped to expand his audiences by moving to New York City to be part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Jazz Music Duke Ellington - Contributions

This person led big bands” at venues like the “Cotton Club” in Harlem (part of New York City) as part of the Harlem Renaissance. He performed for white and black audiences, which was rare in the 1920s-30s.

Jazz Music Duke Ellington - Effects

He wrote over 1000 jazz songs for big bands and helped make Jazz music (which used improvisation of each instrument during songs) popular through recorded music and radio play and performances.

Poets & Writers Langston Hughes - Goals/Hopes

Born and raised in Missouri and Kansas, he moved to NYC as part of the Harlem Renaissance where he hoped to find more opportunities as a black writer. He hoped to show the excellence of black people and expose how they were neglected by the USA.

Poets & Writer Langston Hughes - Contributions

His writing was first published in “The Crisis,” the NAACP magazine. His first collection of poetry, “The Weary Blues” was published in 1926. His poetry was simple and easy to read, but conveyed ongoing struggles of African Americans, as well as oppressed people in all over the world.

Poets & Writers Langston Hughes - Effects

His poems helped black Americans be proud and more confident to pursue a career in music, writing, or art. He was also a leader in criticizing the USA in its treatment of African Americans and the international victims of its colonialism. Criticized for being sympathetic to communism after visiting the Soviet Union.

Poets & Writers Zora Neale Hurston - Goals/Hopes

This person hoped to document the struggle of southern blacks and African American women, as well as document southern African American and Caribbean “folklore” and beliefs like “voodoo” and its effects on black culture.

Poets & Writers Zora Neale Hurston - Contributions

This person secured funding from white patrons to travel to Haiti and Jamaica to study folklore, music, language, and dance of the descendance of African Slaves in the Caribbean. She also established a school of dramatic arts for “negro expression” at Bethune-Cookman college (an HBCU in Florida)

Poets & Writers Zora Neale Hurston - Effects

As a writer of the Harlem Renaissance, her works, like “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, were not well known until after her death, but she brought many African American artists together and help them find wealthy, white patrons to support and fund their writing.

The Scopes “The Monkey Trial” - Goals/Hopes

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hoped to find someone to break the “Butler Act”, which made it illegal to teach human evolution in Biology classes in Tennessee. The ACLU promised to defend the teacher in court, hoping the court would find the law violates the 1^st Amendment “establishing” religion.

The Scopes “The Monkey Trial” - Contributions

A Tennessee Teacher was charged with a crime for teaching evolution, breaking a law forbidding this in the state. The trial was broadcast nationwide on the radio. The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow to defend the teacher (John Scopes), while William Jennings Bryan led the prosecution. Darrow seemed to win the argument by getting Bryan to admit that every story in the Bible is not “literal” (Eve being made from Adam’s rib), but Scopes is found guilty and had to pay a $100 fine.

The Scopes “The Monkey Trial” - Effects

The TN Supreme court overturned the verdict but not the law as it did not require the teaching of religion. This case showed the growing divide in rural and urban beliefs as many urban dwellers supported Scopes, while many rural Americans supported the Butler Act. The US Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Arkansas in 1968 stating it violates the Establishment Clause of the 1^st Amendment (Epperson vs. Arkansas)

The Flappers / “New Woman” - Goals/Hopes

After winning the vote with the 19^th Amendment, and more women working during outside the home during WW I, 1920s women began to change their behavior in public with hopes of finding more equality with men and enjoying their lives in the same way that men do.

The Flappers / “New Woman” - Contributions

In the 1920s, many American women adopted European fashion of women wearing shorter hair, more revealing clothing (showing their arms, necks, and legs with shorter skirts), drinking, smoking, and dancing in public, and more open attitudes of casual sex, just like men.

The Flappers / “New Woman” - Effects

Urban young women with jobs were the main participants in this movement. The Great Depression and World War 2 diminished these attitudes, but they would be revived in the second phase of feminism in the 1960s-70s.

Margaret Sanger - Goals/Hopes

Due to so many children of immigrants and people in poverty living in terrible conditions, this person proposed and supplied methods of birth control for women hoping to improve the lives of women by allowing them to actually plan if they are going to have children.

Margaret Sanger - Contributions

In 1916, this person opened the first birth control clinic in New York City, offering woman ways to control whether or not they wanted to get pregnant. She also believed in Eugenics and wanted to reduce the amount of “unfit” people being born. She was arrested 8 times for breaking the law (The Comstock Act) for spreading awareness and birth control methods.

Margaret Sanger - Effects

Planned Parenthood was founded by this person, which still exists today. Also, she was and is still criticized as being racist for not wanting poor immigrants and African Americans to have children they can’t afford to raise properly, although, she denied the racist accusations, saying it was only to protect ALL women and children.

Marcus Garvey - Goals/Hopes

The Jamaican person hoped to convince African Americans in the USA and the Caribbean to be more connected to Africa in what they bought, believed, and how they lived. He wanted blacks to be proud of being black and not dependent on whites at all and to live separately from whites. Also hoped all African Americans would eventually relocate to Africa and form a powerful nation of their own. (The Black to Africa Movement)

Marcus Garvey - Contributions

This person started Universal Negro Improvement Association and the “Black Star Line” shipping business to bring African products to America and African Americans to Africa. He encouraged “black separatism”; meaning blacks and whites should not be integrated in society. He also said he agreed with the KKK that whites and blacks should remain separate. He was deported from the USA back to Jamaica for a false fraud charge in 1927.

Marcus Garvey - Effects

He is a national hero in Jamaica but seen as a divisive in the early Civil Rights Movement by people such as W.E.B. Du Bois because he did not believe in white integration.

Prohibition Era & Organized Crime of the 1920s - Goals/Hopes

In 1920, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution banned the sale, distribution, and manufacture of alcohol. Many urban and immigrants in the USA hoped to drink anyway, and hoped to repeal and remove the 18th Amendment.

Prohibition Era & Organized Crime of the 1920s - Contributions

The Volstead Act was the law written to enforce the nationwide ban on alcohol. This law was weak and allowed medicinal use of alcohol and allowed making it at home. Bootleggers like Al Capone brought in alcohol from Europe, Canada, and Mexico for sale. Capone order the murder of other “bootleggers” leading many of the country to want to repeal the 18^th Amendment. People also drank at secret bars called “Speakeasies”, made illegal moonshine, and often paid off police not to raid their illegal sales and drinking of alcohol.

Prohibition Era & Organized Crime of the 1920s - Effects

Due to rise in organized crime, violence and murders between bootlegging gangs and over 10,000 deaths from drinking poisoned or unregulated alcohol the USA repealed the 18th amendment with the 21st Amendment in 1934( during the great depression). This allows states to regulate and even ban alcohol, although none do because states can tax it to raise revenue for the state.

Consumerism & New Products in the 1920s - Goals/Hopes

After World War I, the US economy was the biggest in the world. Businesses wanted the profits to continue so they made it easier to new products in hopes of making more money. Many Americans hoped to “fit in” by buying the latest products that their friends and family did.

Consumerism & New Products in the 1920s - Contributions

People bought new products: vacuums, toasters, refrigerators, irons, washing machines, Henry Ford’s Model-T cars. Prices were cheap because factories had become more efficient during WW I. Stores offered credit: put in a small down payment, and make payments every month. People invested in the stock market, and often borrowed money to do it. Chain stores appear in cities in towns, using invested money to expand. New household products gave many women more free time, leading to the emergence of the “Flappers”.

Consumerism & New Products in the 1920s - Effects

Americans thought they needed to buy products to make them fit into the “middle class”. If your neighbor bought a new refrigerator, or a new car, you felt pressure to buy one also… later called; “keeping up with the Joneses”. If you didn’t buy Listerine, nobody would kiss you! Too many products were made in the 1920s, and by the end of the decade, prices started to drop, and people started getting laid off… The stock market crashed in 1929 and people that borrowed money, couldn’t pay the banks back, so banks started to close! Great Depression Follows until 1943!

Impact of Radio in the 1920s - Goals/Hopes

Like the television in the 1950s and social media today, this 1920s product was used to ADVERTISE. It was used hoping to sell more products, but also hoped to keep people informed of the news and entertained, no matter if they were rural or urban.

Impact of Radio in the 1920s - Contributions

NBC (National Broadcasting Company-1926) and its competitor, CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System-1927) broadcast radio signals for music and plays, and news). They made money by selling advertisements for new factory made products in the 1920s. Jazz music became popular, which was enjoyed by white and black Americans.

Impact of Radio in the 1920s - Effects

Radio made news and products and entertainment attainable for people no matter where they lived (if they had electricity). This led to rural inhabitants not feeling as isolated from urban areas. By 1937, 75% of Americans had a radio in their homes.

The First “RED SCARE” - Goals/Hopes

In 1917 during World War I, Russia dropped out of the war after “Russian Revolution”, which was ultimately won by the Communists aka Bolsheviks. Some Americans wanted a Communist revolution to come to the USA (some Civil Rights activists and labor union members) because under Communism, in theory, there are no rich and no poor.

The First “RED SCARE” - Contributions

In 1916-17, 4 million US workers went on strike, which newspapers who supported the war called, “plots to establish communism in America.” In 1918-19, there were bombings by “Anarchists”, who attacked wealthy and powerful people, and on Wall Street in NYC. In 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Trial; admitted immigrant Anarchists were executed for murder after the confession by another man. Protests failed to save them. “RED” meant Communist in the context of the 1920s-1990s.

The First “RED SCARE” - Effects

The “Bureau of Investigation” which became the FBI was created. “The Palmer Raids” (1919-182) were police raids on Russian-American owned businesses and bookstores that led to hundreds of immigrants being jailed without charges and hundreds being deported back to Europe and Russia (even if they had not committed a crime). M Like many immigrants, many African Americans who went north in the Great Migration were attacked by anti-communist mobs and the resurging KKK, which had grown into the north.

American Movies of the 1920s: Charlie Chaplain & “The Jazz Singer” - Goals/Hopes

In 1917 during World War I, Russia dropped out of the war after “Russian Revolution”, which was ultimately won by the Communists aka Bolsheviks. Some Americans wanted a Communist revolution to come to the USA (some Civil Rights activists and labor union members) because under Communism, in theory, there are no rich and no poor.

Charlie Chaplain: Thomas Edison’s invention of “moving pictures” in the 1880s led to the birth of “Motion Pictures” in the 20th century. Most were “silent” meaning words would appear on screen instead of the audience being able to hear the voices, and a piano player would play music while it played. Film makers wanted to bring books, and plays to life on screen so more people could see them.

American Movies of the 1920s: Charlie Chaplain & “The Jazz Singer” - Contributions

Charlie Chaplain: The superstar of the silent era was this person. He used “physical comedy” and dressed like a “tramp” or outcast in some of his most famous movies. He was also reluctant to add sound to his movies when it was later an option. The first “talkie”; movie with sound was The Jazz Singer in 1927.

American Movies of the 1920s: Charlie Chaplain & “The Jazz Singer” - Effects

Charlie Chaplain: These were very popular due to the fact that they were inexpensive to attend and could be seen in almost every town. They replaced plays and “theater” to some degree. Chaplain (a European immigrant) was later forced to leave the USA due to having “communist sympathies”, extra-marital affairs with younger women, and, oddly, his similar look to Adolf Hitler, whom he had mocked one of his films.

Celebrities: Charles Lindberg - Goals/Hopes

This person hoped to popularize air travel by making airplane flights across portions of the US. (the airplane had been invented by the Wright Brothers in 1903)

Celebrities: Charles Lindberg - Contributions

This person became a “celebrity” after becoming the first person to fly an airplane solo across the Atlantic Ocean, non-stop. He flew the “Spirit of St. Louis” from New York City to Paris, France in 1927.

Celebrities: Charles Lindberg - Effects

Air travel, air mail, and pilot training increased after his trans-Atlantic flight, (known as the Lindburgh Boom) but, one of his children was kidnapped and murdered in 1932. The Press / news media followed his family to the point that he left the US to live in Europe for a time.

Celebrities: Babe Ruth - Goals/Hopes

This person hoped to popularize baseball during his 1914-1935 (22 year) career.

Celebrities: Babe Ruth - Contributions

Was first a star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but later a superstar as a hitter for the New York Yankees. He finished his career with 714 home runs. His popularity helped make baseball “America’s Pastime”.

Celebrities: Babe Ruth - Effects

Radio also made the sport more popular because audiences could listen to games across the country.