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Social/Cultural Movements
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Chicago Race Riots
Many African Americans returned from the war expecting more equal treatment of blacks. However their demands for equal treatment just exacerbated white racism and violence. In Chicago, five days of rioting in July 1919 left 23 blacks and 15 whites dead. By the end of that summer, the death toll from racial violence had reached 120 -
Jazz
Jazz music captured important aspects of the culture of the 1920's, especially its creative excitement and sensual character. Most of the early jazz musicians were black, and they carried its rhythms to Chicago, New York, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. -
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The Harlem Renaissance
Harlem was the center of African American life in New York City. During the 1920s, Harlem stood as "the symbol of liberty and the Promised Land to Negroes everywhere," as an influential black minister put it. Talented African American artists and writers flocked to Harlem, where they broke with older genteel traditions of black literature to reclaim a cultural identity with their African roots. -
18th Amendment
The 18th Amendment prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportaion of intoxicating liquors" anywhere in the United States. This was the most striking example of the wartime success of a progressive reform. It also stood as yet another sxample of the widening influence of the national state on matters of economic policy and personal behavior. -
19th Amendment
The fight for women's suffrage began during World War 1 and slowly grew to becoming a national issue. As President Wilson began to support the fight for suffrage, he asked the Congress to also suport the movement as a "war measure". It quickly passed through the House of Representatives but took 18 months to get through the Senate and another year to win ratification by the states. On August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment was passed accepting women's suffrage. -
Radio
Radio came to the public in November 1920, when station KDKA in Pittsburgh carried that years presidential election returns. Nine years later, 800 stations were on the air and nearly 10 million American households owned a radio. This was a large source for information, entertainment and music for Americans in the 1920's. -
Women's Joint Congressional Comittee
The Women's Joint Congressional Comittee was a coalition of ten major white women's organizations that were political activists. It's major accomplishment was the passage in 1921 of the Sheppard-Towner Federal Maternity and Infancy Act. The first federally funded healthcare legislation, the act aimed to lower high rates of infant mortality by funding medical clinics, prenatal educational programs, and visiting nurse projects. -
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The Automobile
Automobiles took a very long time to produce before the introduction of the assembly line. When Henry Ford integrated the assembly system into automobile manufacturing, they were made much faster and the price of cars rapidly dropped. Auto sales climbed from 1.5 million in 1921 to 5 million in 1929. The expansion of the auto industry had a ripple effect on the Amaerican economy. It stimulated production in several industries, and was related to the employment of 3.7 million workers. -
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan was a racist organization that targeted people who weren't native, white protestants. These people were mainly black, Catholic or Jewish. As it reached the height of its power in 1925, the Klan used arson, physical intimidation and econonomic boycotts against their "enemies" to cause dispairity. -
Clara Bow
Clara Bow was Hollywood's favorite flapper, a babbed-hair "jazz baby" who rose to fame almost overnight. Thousands of young women were influenced by Bow and took her as their model. Decked out in short skirts and rolled-down silk stockings, these "flappers" wore makeup, smoked, danced to jazz, and flaunted their liberated lifestyle.
