Roaring 20s Vocab

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s

F. Scott Fitzgerald

an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer who wrote The Great Gatsby

The Red Scare

fear that communists were working to destroy the American way of life

The Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Calvin Coolidge

became president when Harding died of pneumonia. He was known for practicing a rigid economy in money and words, and acquired the name "Silent Cal" for being so soft-spoken. He was a true republican and industrialist. Believed in the government supporting big business.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Italian radicals who became symbols of the Red Scare of the 1920s; arrested (1920), tried and executed (1927) for a robbery/murder, they were believed by many to have been innocent but convicted because of their immigrant status and radical political beliefs.

Warren Harding

1921-1923 Republican, "Return to normalcy", return to isolationism; Tea Pot Dome scandal; Prohibition

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of African American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

Suburbanization

movement of upper and middle-class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions (perceived and actual). In North America, the process began in the early nineteenth century and became a mass phenomenon by the second half of the twentieth century.

Speakeasies

an illegal bar where drinks were sold, during the time of prohibition. People literally had to speak easy so they were not caught drinking alcohol by the police.

Stock Market

a system for buying and selling stocks in corporations

Jazz

a style of dance music popular in the 1920s

Assembly Line

in a factory, an arrangement where a product is moved from worker to worker, with each person performing a single task in the making of the product.

Flappers

carefree young women with short, "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The flapper symbolized the new "liberated" woman of the 1920s. Many people saw the bold, boyish look and shocking behavior of flappers as a sign of changing morals. Though hardly typical of American women, the flapper image reinforced the idea that women now had more freedom.

The Great Gatsby

a novel depicting the picturesque idea of the self made American man and entrepreneur who rose from obscurity. was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Palmer Raids

a 1920 operation coordinated by Attorney General Mitchel Palmer in which federal marshals raided the homes of suspected radicals and the headquarters of radical organization in 32 cities

Eugenics

study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve those qualities

Buying on Credit

people would purchase things and make partial payments on set intervals: installment plans, led to a lot of debt

Henry Ford

1863-1947. American businessman, founder of Ford Motor Company, father of modern assembly lines, and inventor credited with 161 patents.

Herbert Hoover

(1929-1933) The New York Stock Market Crashes October 29, 1929 "Black Tuesday". The 20th Amendment is passed and added and the 21st Amendment is passed by 1933.

Laissez-Faire

policy that government should interfere as little as possible in the nation's economy

Organized Crime

the work of a group that regulates relations among criminal enterprises involved in illegal activities, including prostitution, gambling, and the smuggling and sale of illegal drugs.

Return to Normalcy

after World War I 1919-20s, when Harding was President, the US and Britain returned to isolationism. The US economy "boomed" but Europe continued to struggle. It was the calm before the bigger storm hit: World War II

Marcus Garvey

African American leader during the 1920s who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and advocated mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Was deported to Jamaica in 1927.

Prohibition

the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the United States by a constitutional amendment

Social Darwinism

the application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion.

Ku Klux Klan

white supremacy organization that intimidated blacks out of their newly found liberties

Charles Lindbergh

United States aviator who in 1927 made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1902-1974)

Teapot Dome

scandal during the Harding administration involving the granting of oil-drilling rights on government land in return for money

Scopes Monkey Trial

1925 court case in Tennessee that focused on the issue of teaching evolution in public schools

Nativism

the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.