1920s Notes including 16th-19th Amendments, Fads, Harlem Renaissance and pop culture.

1. 16th Amendment
 Established a national
income tax (1913).
 Congress has power to
tax individual and
corporate incomes.

2. 17th Amendment
 Allowed voters to choose US
senators (1913).
 Before 17th amendment US
senators were chosen by state
legislatures.
 Examples of popular
sovereignty

3. Susan B. Anthony
 Leader of SUFFRAGETTE
(women's voting rights)
movement in 19th century.
 1872: arrested in NY for
trying to vote
 19th Amendment
approved 13 years after
her death

4. Life Changes for Women
 Women were told to go back home when the men
came home to the factories after WWI
 Many women stayed in the workforce as typists,
cleaners, cooks, servants, seamstresses, teachers,
secretaries, and store clerks
 Many women bought ready-made clothing instead
of making their own
 Many women bought appliances to help them with
housework after working a full day outside of the
home

5. 19th Amendment
 Equal voting rights for
women in federal and state
elections (1920)
 Suffrage amendment

6. Prosperity
 "Good times" enjoyed by
Americans in 1920s after
World War I.
 Employment and wages
were high and workers
bought more consumer
goods and had more
leisure time.

7. Fundamentalism
 Fundamentalism-a religious movement where the
followers believed every word of the Bible was
literally true.
 This movement led to many social debates in the US.
One of the largest was the teaching of evolution in
public schools.
 Evolution-change over time.

8.  The teaching of evolution was banned in 3 states,
including Tennessee.
 1925 John Scopes, a biology teacher broke the law
and taught his students Darwin’s theory of evolution.
 Scopes trial drew national attention and became
known as Scopes Monkey Trial.
 Scopes was found guilty but TN Supreme Court
reversed decision.

9. Scopes Trial
 Trial in Tennessee in 1925
involving John Scopes,
biology teacher who taught
theory of evolution at a time
when only creation theory
accepted in Tennessee and
12 other states
 "Monkey trial”
 Lawyers – Clarence Darrow
vs. William Jennings Bryan

10. Clarence Darrow
 Famous defense attorney
known for flamboyant
courtroom behavior and
antics, defended Eugene
Debs in 1894 union case
 Defended John Scopes in
1925 "Monkey Trial"

11. William Jennings Bryan
 Nebraska congressman;
candidate for president in
1896;
 Prosecuting attorney in John
Scopes 1925 "Monkey Trial“
 Bible man
 Presidential candidate in 1900
and 1908 elections
 Democrat
 POPULIST movement, which
declared rich should pay more

12. Prohibition
 Eighteenth
Amendment-
Established Prohibition
(1919)
 Prohibition-a total ban
on the manufacture, sale,
and transportation of
liquor throughout the US

15.  Drys-those who
supported Prohibition
 Wets-those who
opposed Prohibition
 Bootlegging-selling
something illegally

16.  Speakeasies-illegal bars and
clubs that sold alcohol.
Could only be entered by
speaking a secret password.
 Organized Crime-a group
of people controlling the
illegal actions being done.
In the case of bootlegging
organized crime controlling
the illegal sale of alcohol.

18. Impact of the Automobile
 Car sales grew
rapidly in the
1920s because
Henry Ford’s
assembly line
made them so
cheap
 General Motors
also became a
popular seller of
cars

19. Changing Lifestyles Due to the
Automobile
 Millions of jobs were
created through
factories, oil refineries,
roads, highways, truck
stops, gas stations,
restaurants and tourist
stops
 Many Americans began
to move to the suburbs
to escape crowded
conditions in cities

20. Mass Culture
 Radio
 Movies
(Above, lines outside a movie theatre)
(Left, family listening to the radio

21. The Jazz Age
 Fashion Fads,  Marathon Dancing
flappers

22.  Fads-interests that many people follow with great
excitement for a short amount of time
 Flappers: Women who wore short skirts (to the
knees), bright red lipstick, hair cut short, smoked
and drank in public, and drove fast cars

24. More Fads
 Flagpole sitting:
Where young people
would sit for hours
and even days on top
of a flagpole. (The
record: 21 days!)

25. The Dance Craze
 The Charleston
 Has a quick beat
 Dancers kick out their
feet

26. New Music
Jazz: Born in New Orleans, created by African
Americans, combination of West African rhythms,
African American songs and spirituals, European
harmonies
Famous jazz musicians: Louis Armstrong, Bessie
Smith, “Jelly Roll” Morton

27. A New Generation of American Writers
 Depressed about their awful experiences in World
War I
 Criticized Americans for being obsessed with money
and fun
 Many became expatriates (people who leave their
own country to live in a foreign land) and moved to
Europe

28. Ernest Hemingway
 Wrote about
experiences of
Americans during
WWI and in Europe
 Wrote A Farewell to
Arms, The Sun Also
Rises, The Old Man in
the Sea

29. F. Scott Fitzgerald
 Wrote about wealthy
young people who go
to constant parties
but cannot find
happiness
 He wrote The Great
Gatsby
 His characters had
flappers, bootleggers,
and movie makers

30. Sinclair Lewis
 Grew up in a small
town in Minnesota
and moved to New
York City
 He wrote books about
rural people from a
city person’s
perspective (making
them look stupid)
 Wrote Main Street
and Babbitt

31. The Harlem Renaissance
 In the 1920s, many
African American
artists settled in
Harlem, New York
City
 Black artists,
musicians, and writers
celebrated their
African and American
heritage

33. Harlem Renaissance Poets
Claude McKay: From
Jamaica, wrote the poem,
“If We Must Die” that
condemned lynchings
Countee Cullen: Taught high
school in Harlem, wrote of
the experiences of African
Americans

34. Zora Neale Hurston
 Write novels, short
essays, short stories
 Traveled throughout the
South in a battered car
collecting folk tales,
songs, and prayers of
black southerners
 Published these in her
book, “Mules and Men”

35. Langston Hughes
 Most well-known of
the Harlem
Renaissance poets
 Also wrote plays, short
stories, and essays
 First poem, “The
Negro Speaks of
Rivers”
 Encouraged African
Americans to be proud
of their heritage
 Protested racism and
acts of violence
against blacks

36. “The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful also, is the sun.
Beautiful also, are the souls of my
people.”
-Langston Hughes, “In My

37. Heroes of the 1920s
 Athletes:
 Bobby Jones: Won nearly every golfing championship
 Jack Dempsey: Heavyweight boxing champion for 7 years
 Bill Tilden and Helen Willis: Tennis champions
 Gertrude Ederle: 1st woman to swim the English Channel

38. Babe Ruth
 Grew up in an
orphanage
 Often in trouble as a
boy
 Hit 60 homeruns in
one season, and 714
overall
 Called the “Sultan of
Swat”

39. Charles Lindbergh
 The greatest hero of the
1920s
 The first person to fly an
airplane across the
Atlantic Ocean alone
 Flew from New York to
Paris
 Called “Lucky Lindy”
because he had to fly for
33 ½ hours and didn’t
carry a parachute, a radio,
or a map

40. Women Gain the Right to Vote
 19th Amendment in
1920 gave women the
right to vote
 Carrie Chapman Catt
set up the League of
Women Voters
 This group tried to
educate voters and
ensure the right of
women to serve on
juries

41. Vice President Calvin Coolidge Becomes
President
 “Silent Cal” spoke and spent little (Harding loved to
throw parties and give long speeches)
 He forced corrupt officials to resign
 He was re-elected in 1924 with the slogan “Keep Cool
With Coolidge”

42. From War Goods to Consumer Goods
 Coolidge cut regulations
on businesses
 Americans’ incomes rose
 People began to buy
refrigerators, radios,
vacuums, and other
appliances
 Businesses began to
advertise their products

43. “Coolidge Prosperity”
 “The business of America is business. The man who
builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works
there worships there.
 Calvin Coolidge
What does President Calvin Coolidge believe American
Prosperity rests on?

44. Buying on Credit
 Installment Buying= Buying on Credit (Buy now, pay
later)
 Credit-pay a small amount each month until an item
was paid for.
 Interest-a charge for borrowed money
 Demands for goods jumped, but so did Americans’ debt
“If we want anything, all we have to do is go and buy
it on credit. So that leaves us without any economic
problems whatsoever, except that perhaps some
day to have to pay for them.”
–Comedian Will Rogers

45. Soaring Stock Market
 By the late 1920s, more
people were investing in
the stock market
 People became rich
overnight
 Bull Market: Period of
rapidly increasing stock
prices
 Prices of stocks rose
more quickly than the
value of the companies
themselves