The Roaring Twenties

1
The Roaring Twenties

• 610-637

2
Science and Religion Clash

• Fundamentalism- literal, nonsymbolic
  interpretation of the bible
• Fundamentalists rejected the theory of evolution
• Called for laws in the 1920s to outlaw the
  teaching of evolution

3
Theory of Evolution

• Charles Darwin observed plant and animal life
• All life has adapted and descended from a common
  ancestor
• Natural selection- acts to preserve and
  accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations

4
The Scopes Trial

• Dayton, Tennessee was the first community to
  outlaw the teaching of evolution
• ACLU immediately promised support to any teachers
  that wanted to teach evolution
• John Scopes was the first to challenge the law

5
Scopes Trial cont.

• Clarence Darrow argued for Scopes and the theory
  of evolution
• William Jennings Bryan argued for the
  fundamentalists
• Fundamentalist law stayed on the books long after
  the ruling

6
Young Women Change the Rules

• Flappers- emancipated young women who embraced
  new fashions and urban attitudes of the day
• Close fitting felt hats
• Bright, waist less dresses an inch above the
  knees
• Skin toned silk stockings
• Sleek pumps
• Strings of beads
• Bracelets
• Bobbed hair, dyed black
• Rouge on cheeks, lipstick

7
Flappers

• Women became more assertive
• Trying to achieve equal status with men
• Smoked cigarettes
• Chewed gum
• Danced the fox trot, camel walk, tango, lindy
  hop, and shimmy
• Marriage became seen as a partnership, but women
  were still expected to take care of child
  rearing, and housework

8
Double Standard

• Granted greater sexual freedom to men than women
• Women had to observe stricter standards of
  behavior than men
• Many women were pulled between old roles and new
  ideas

9
New Work Opportunities

• womens professions grew after World War I
  (teaching and nursing)
• Clerical jobs grew
• Many jobs opened up in cities in small shops and
  grocery stores
• Patterns for discrimination and inequality for
  women in the workplace developed during the 1920s

10
Changing Family

• Birthrates declined as fewer married women had
  children (Birth control)
• Divorce rate doubled by the end of the decade
• Marriage based on decision of two people rather
  than decision of two families
• More ready-made products available for families
  to consume

11
Schools

• 1914- 1 million students attended high school
• 1926- 4 million students attended high school
• Schools were challenged to meet the needs of
  increasing numbers of immigrant groups
• Taxes to fund the schools increased

12
Mass Media

• Newspaper circulation rose
• Magazine circulation rose
• Editors developed ways to hook readers with
  sensational headlines
• Radio was the most powerful communications medium
• Americans could hear news as it happened

13
Sports heroes

• Babe Ruth (baseball)
• Jack Dempsey (boxing)
• Red Grange (football)
• Bill Tilden (tennis)
• Helen Willis (tennis)
• Bobby Jones (golf)
• Gertrude Ederle (swimming)

14
Charles Lindbergh

• First pilot to fly nonstop solo flight across the
  Atlantic Ocean
• Paris threw him a huge party when he landed
• He was given a ticker-tape parade in New York
• Was an example of honesty and bravery
• Was from Minnesota

15
Movies

• Hollywood became established outside of Los
  Angeles as a movie capital
• 1927- The Jazz Singer (first motion picture with
  sound)
• Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney)
• By 1930 millions of Americans went to the movies
  every week

16
Theater, Music, and Art

• Most plays before the 1920s focused on European
  themes
• Eugene ONeill changed American theater by asking
  Americans to reflect on themes from their own
  country
• George Gershwin combined American jazz and
  traditional music
• Painters created art that reflected the many
  changes in daily life in the growing cities

17
Writers

• Sinclair Lewis- first American to win Nobel Prize
  in literature
• F. Scott Fitzgerald- spokesman of the Jazz Age
  (from Minnesota)
• Ernest Hemmingway- criticized the glorification
  of war, began a simplified style of writing

18
African American Move North

• Great Migration- African Americans left the south
  because of racial violence, and economic
  discrimination
• 1915-16 floods, drought, and boll weevils
  destroyed agriculture in the south
• 1.5 million moved north in the 1920s
• Tension in the north led to race riots in the
  cities

19
NAACP

• National Association for the Advancement of
  Colored People
• Set up protests against violence towards African
  Americans
• The Crisis- the official magazine of the NAACP
• Fought for anti-lynching laws
• The new voice of African Americans looking for a
  better place in American society

20
Marcus Garvey

• Jamaican immigrant who believed African Americans
  should build a separate society
• Promoted African American businesses
• Preached for an independent nation
• Encouraged followers to return to Africa and
  overthrow colonial powers
• Founded a steamship company
• His movement lost support when he went to jail
  for mail fraud

21
Harlem Renaissance

• Harlem- a neighborhood on the upper west side of
  Manhattan Island
• Was described as the capital of black America
• The neighborhood was overcrowded, but there was a
  flowering of creativity both literary and
  artistic called the Harlem Renaissance

22
African American Writers

• Writers expressed new pride in the African
  American experience
• Wrote about African folklore and experiences of
  being black in a white world
• Claude McKay- poet, wrote about resisting
  prejudice and discrimination
• Langston Hughes- poet, discussed difficulties of
  everyday lives of workers
• Zora Neale Hurston- most accomplished African
  American woman writer of the time. Portrayed the
  lives of poor, unschooled Southern blacks

23
Jazz

• Began in New Orleans in early 20th century
• Mixed instrumental ragtime and vocal blues
• Louis Armstrong became the single most
  influential and important musician in the history
  of jazz

24

• Duke Ellington- jazz pianist and composer Was
  known as one of Americas great composers
• Bessie Smith- female blues singer
• Was the highest paid black artist in the world in
  1927
• Outstanding vocalist