Chapter 22- The Roaring 20s

Timeline 1920-1930

Introduction and Republican White House

  • Warren G. Harding elected

    • 29th president

    • Promised Americans change as WW1 caused many problems

    • “Red Scare”

      • nation controlled my racial violence and political oppression

  • 1920s: A Decade of Conflict and Tension (New Era, Jazz Age, etc…)

    • mass production and entertainment

      • automobiles, radios, etc…

    • American either rejected/desire political and economic reform

      • didn’t like the shifting demografics, wanted to go back to old time, KKK formed again

      • wanted the women opportunities, accepted reform

  • Republican White House

    • Harding signs a legislation

    • Congress fears non Americans

      • didn’t like immigrants bc of suspicions caused from WW1

    • Rich people use fear of Russian Revolution to benefit

      • Labor movement

        • suffer, sharp decline in members, loss of money

      • rich people fear communists and labor unions because communism = equality in everyone in terms of money and status which rich didn’t like

    • Hardings corrupt presidency

      • “Ohio Gang”

      • Henry C. Wallace, Andrew Mellon

      • Teapot dome scandal

  • Calvin Coolidge’s Presidency

    • 30th president

    • Supported business interests and wealthy

      • didn’t take action in supporting labors and their unions

      • Congress reduced taxes on wealthy from 66% to 20%

    • 19th amendment passed 1920 - Women’s Right to Vote

    • 18th Amendment January 1920 - Prohibition of alcohol is banned

    • 1928 election - Coolidge retires

      • Al Smith vs Herbert Hoover (wins)

Culture of Consumption and Culture of Escape

  • Escape daily struggles through automobiles, radio, music; companies wanting people to spend more and buy more household items

  • Consumer Revolution

    • Republicans dominated the Government with Calvin Coolidge as President and then Herbert Hoover

    • Hoover focused on the nations economics and was also known as humanitarian

    • Department stores became popular as they sold multiple things in one place

      • black people still not allowed to be in same movie theaters as whites

      • movie theaters, cars, radios were improved

  • The New Woman

    • Flappers: freedom and rebellion

      • embraced urban life with their clothes and makeup

      • only 10% of married women worked outside their homes

  • The New African

    • lynching epidemic continued

    • Great migration led to cultural limits, though bonded over racial pride and military services

    • Jazz sprouted in the south

      • new thing for american consumers

    • Marcus Garvey: built black nationalist organization in the word

      • didn’t end up working

      • ideas were based on Booker T.’s ideas but they were very poorly managed due to his bashing on other activists

  • The Culture War

    • 20s were difficult for radicals, immigrants and modernism

    • change frightened americans and they blamed eastern europeans and latin american immigrants

    • 1921: congress passed emergency immigrant act to stop immigration

  • Fundamentalist Christianity

    • catholicism (believes that the priest can interpret the bible for you, not the literal meaning in the bible: an interpretation) and protesantism challenged each other greatly

    • concerns over women’s sexual freedoms, empty pleasures, and mocking prohibition arose

    • Fundamentalist (someone who believes in the fundamental truths in the bible: what the bible literally means and says: word for word in the bible is how you live life)

      • Fundamentalist religion vs science (americans questioned means evolution in a court case

  • Contradictions in Women’s Roles

    • Workforce: “Women’s work” (low pay, no leadership roles)

    • Domestic sphere: Labor-saving devices —> higher expectatoins

    • Flapper image: Freedom

  • Harlem Renaissance

    • Jim Crow laws and racial violence

    • Great Migration reshaped cities like Harlem

      • 257% growth by 1930; predominantly black

    • The “New Negro”: Race pride and self-expression

  • Marcus Garvey

    • UNIA: racial pride and economic independence

    • Pan-Africanism: “Return to Africa”

  • Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

    • white supremacist organization

      • mission has changed from hating/killing black people to equal opportunity haters (hating everyone who is not white even catholics; have to be white wasp (anglo-sacistists)

    • wide known events

      • lynching of Leo Frank and the release of the film “The Birth of a Nation”

    • Colonel William Joseph Simmons organized the “second” KKK in georgia in 1915

    • KKK followed the great migration above the mason-dixon line

    • women most susceptible to recruitment

    • mostly middle class

    • lynching of Bertha Lowman and her brothers in 1926 didn’t lead to any consequence due to involvment of townspeople like sheriffs