Roaring 20s:

Main Idea

Main Ideas of the Roaring 20s

The Twenties were also known as the Jazz Age because of the music that developed. The 20s were a wild time of great excitement, great spending, great growth, great fear, and ended in a Great Depression. 

Immigration: increase in people coming

Red Scare: increase in fear of communism

18th Amendment: Prohibition of Alcohol

Scopes Monkey Trial: Bible vs. Science

Prosperity: people making and spending money

19th Amendment: Women's suffrage

Stock Market Crash: signaled the beginning of the Great Depression

Red Scare

Red Scare

In 1917 the Russians had a revolution, and the communists took control of the government.

Americans became fearful of a communist revolution in the US.  To prevent a communist revolution here the government began to violate American citizens' civil rights. 

US citizens were often harrassed, arrested, deported or even executed on just the suspicion of being a communist. Proof was not needed.

Sacco & Vanzetti were executed on flimsy evidence of a murder. Many said they were killed because they were communists.

Immigration

Immigration

More and more immigrants came to America. We became the "great meltiing pot" of the world. 

Nativists were Americans who had been here a while but hated on those who were new. Nativists said the new immigrants brought an increase in disease and crime, they were communists, and they took an honest Americans' job. 

The KKK started to grow again at this time. 

The US Congress passed laws that either limited or completely prohibited immigration from certain nations, especially Asian nations. 

18th Amendment

18th Amendment

The Temperance Movement (those against alcohol) was successful in getting Congress to outlaw booze. 

But, it turned out to be unsuccessful. Instead of Americans becoming moral, there was an increasing disrespect for the law.

Prohibition gave rise to the gangsters like Al Capone. 

19th Amendment

19th Amendment: Suffrage

Women had been attempting to gain voting rights for years.

Women's efforts during World War I gave them the boost they needed to get Congress to pass the 19th Amendment. 

It's 1920 and women can now vote!

Scopes Monkey Trial

Scopes Monkey Trial: Fundamentalism vs. Modernism

John Scopes was a biology teacher in Tennessee. It was illegal to teach the theory of evolution. Scopes was arrested and put on trial.

The "Trial of the Century": This trial was about more than just John Scopes; it was about the Bible against Science.  Millions of Americans listened on the radio (no TV yet) and more followed the story in the newspapers. 

Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution, but this trial changed

what would be taught in schools. Science would take the lead

and religion would have less of an influence in the classroom. 

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh

Became the 1st to fly solo, nonstop

across the Atlantic Ocean

from New York to Paris, France. 

He opened the way for international air travel.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Ford did not invent the automobile but he did perfect a way of making cars cheap enough for the average person to own one. 

Ford developed the ASSEMBLY LINE

and was able to lower the price of a car. 

The auto industry gave rise to many other industries like oil, rubber, glass, steel, etc.

Changing Roles of Women in the 20s

Changing Role of Women in the 20s 

WWI had seen women working outside of the home more than ever. 

A new independent attitude appeared in many women. No longer would they stay in the home; they wanted more rights and freedoms. This new woman became called a FLAPPER. 

FLAPPERS cut their hair, wore more revealing clothes, danced, smoked, and took more risks than ever before!

Harlem Renaissance/The Great Migration

Harlem Renaissance/The Great Migration

The end of the Civil War saw constitutional amendments

giving rights to African Americans. 

Millions of African Americans left the South; they wanted to escape poverty and discrimination and find a better life in the northern cities. 

This mass movement from the South became known as the GREAT MIGRATION.

The HARLEM RENAISSANCE was the rebirth

in the interest of African American culture of music, art, and literature.

Stock Market Crash

Stock Market Crash: October 29, 1929

The Roaring 20s came to an end when the stock market crashed, on "Black Tuesday". 

Millions of dollars were lost overnight.

The crash did not cause the Great Depression,

but it did signal its beginning.