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John J. Pershing
Was the General of the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces to victory over Germany in World War 1, 1917-1918. Also president and first captain of the West point class of 1886. He served Spanish- and Philippine- American Wars and was tasked to lead a punitive raid against the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. -
Warren G. Harding's "Return to Normalcy
This is what Warren Harding advertised during his presidential campaign in the aftermath of World War I—it meant an end to wars in Europe and an end to reforms taking place in the United States. -
Glenn Curtiss
American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S aircraft industry. Began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early as 1904, he began to manufacture engines for airships. -
Franklin D. Rooevelt
American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States. -
Marcus Garvey
Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements -
Alvin York
One of the most decorated American soldiers in World War 1. Received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers, and capturing 132 others. -
Jazz Music
Jazz is a genre of music that originated in African-American communities during the late 19th and early 20th century. Jazz emerged in many parts of the United States of independent popular musical styles; linked by the common bonds of European American and African-American musical parentage with a performance orientation.[1] Jazz spans a range of music from ragtime to the present day—a period of over 100 years—and has proved to be very difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, -
Dorothea Lange
Influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. -
Langston Hughes
American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. -
Charles Lindbergh
Nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist. -
The Great Migration
Relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from 1916 to 1970, had a huge impact on urban life in the United States. Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws, many blacks headed north, where they took advantage of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the First World War. -
Sussex Pledge
Promise given by the German Government to the United States of America on May 4th 1916 in response to US demands relating to the conduct of the First World War. -
Battle of the Argonne Forest
Part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire Western Front. It was fought from September 26, 1918, until the Armistice on November 11, a total of 47 days. -
Treaty of Versailles
One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. -
Harlem Renaissance
Literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity. Its essence was summed up by critic and teacher Alain Locke in 1926 when he declared that through art, “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination.” Harlem became the center of a “spiritual coming of age” in which Locke’s “New Negro” transformed “social disillusionment to race pride.” -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression started because of the stock market crash of 1929, bank failures, reduction in purchasing across the board, American economic policy with Europe and drought conditions. -
The New Deal
The Great Depression in the United States began on October 29, 1929, a day known forever after as “Black Tuesday,” when the American stock market–which had been roaring steadily upward for almost a decade–crashed, plunging the country into its most severe economic downturn yet. Speculators lost their shirts; banks failed; the nation’s money supply diminished; and companies went bankrupt and began to fire their workers in droves. Meanwhile, President Herbert Hoover urged patience and self-relianc -
The Dust Bowl
Name given to the Great Plains region devastated by drought in 1930s depression-ridden America. The 150,000-square-mile area, encompassing the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring sections of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, has little rainfall, light soil, and high winds, a potentially destructive combination. When drought struck from 1934 to 1937, the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor, so the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense -
Red Scare
Hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. became known as the Red Scare. (Communists were often referred to as “Reds” for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag.) The Red Scare led to a range of actions that had a profound and enduring effect on U.S. government and society. Federal employees were analyzed to determine whether they were sufficiently loyal to the government, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, as well as U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, invest
