The Jazz Era and Roaring Twenties

The Jazz Era and Roaring Twenties

Red Scare After the Communist came to power in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 it spawned a tiny Communist Party in America. The big red scare of resulted in a nationwide crusade against left wingers who Americanism was suspect. Hollywood had a blacklist of actors, producers who were suspected of being communist. 6/18/2018

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Nativism Resurges In the 1920s, racism and nativism increased in a desire to protect the interests of old stock Americans against those of immigrants. Immigrants and demobilized military men and women competed for the same jobs during a time of high unemployment an increased cost of living. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Sacco-Vanzetti Case Shortly after 3:00 P.M. on April 15, 1920 two men shot and killed two employees of the Slater & Morrill Shoe Co. in Massachusetts and robbed the company. Police arrested Nicola Sacco a shoemaker and Bartolomeo Vanzetti a fish peddler. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The Sacco and Vanzetti case created a furor as newspapers around the country revealed that the two immigrants were anarchists- people who oppose all forms of governments. It was discovered that Sacco owned a similar gun to the murder weapon and the bullets matched those in Sacco’s gun. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

At the time no knew if the two men were really guilty, many people leaped to the conclusion because the two men were Italian immigrants and anarchists. Many viewed the case as an example of prejudice against people based on their ethnic origin and political beliefs. 6/18/2018

Over the next 6 years appeals were filed none were successful.
On July 14,1921 the men were found guilty and the judge sentence them to death. Over the next 6 years appeals were filed none were successful. On August 23, 1927 the men were executed while still claiming their innocence. 6/18/2018

Pseudo-Scientific Racism
Nativists used the idea of eugenics the false science of the improvement of hereditary traits to give support to their arguments against immigration. Developed in Europe in the early 1900s eugenics emphasized that human inequalities were inherited and warned against breeding the “unfit” or “inferior.” Political intellectual and cultural figures Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge embraced eugenics. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Return of the Ku Klux Klan
At the forefront of the movement to restrict immigration was the Ku Klux Klan. The new Klan did not just target African Americans but also Catholics, Jews, and immigrants and other groups believed to have “un-American” values. 6/18/2018

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Politicians supported by the Klan were voted out of office.
William J. Simmons founded the new Ku Klux Klan in Atlanta, Georgia in 1915. Because of a publicity campaign in 1924 the KKK had over 4 million members and stretched beyond the South into Northern cities. Scandals and poor leadership led to the decline of the Klan in the late 1920s. Politicians supported by the Klan were voted out of office. 6/18/2018

Communist, nativism , economic competition and eugenics were all reasons many Americans opposed immigration after World War I. 6/18/2018

Controlling Immigration
In 1921 President Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act limiting immigration to 3% of the total number of people in any ethnic group already living in the United States. This discriminated heavily against southern and eastern Europeans. 6/18/2018

The Immigration Act of 1924 made immigrant restriction a permanent policy. The act lowered the quotas to 2% of each national group living in the U.S. in 1890. This further restricted immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. The act exempted immigrants from the Western Hemisphere from quotas. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 reduced the labor pool in the U.S. Employers needed laborers for agriculture, mining and railroad work. Mexican immigrants began pouring into the U.S. between 1914 and the end of 1920s. The immigrants fled their country in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The Hispanic immigrants would help to shape the identity of the U.S. by making the U.S. more ethnically and linguistically diverse. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The New Morality A “new morality” challenged traditional ideas and glorified youth and personal freedom. New ideas about marriage, work, and pleasure affected the way people lived. Women in the work force began to define the new morality. Many broke away from families as they entered the workforce, earned their own living and attended college. The automobile also played a role encouraging the new morality. The auto gave the youth an opportunity to pursue interests away from their parents. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Women in 1920s Fashion changed drastically during the 1920s as women “bobbed” or shortened their hair wore flesh-colored silk stocking and admired the youthful look of movie stars. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Not typical of most women the flapper a young dramatic stylish woman exemplified the change in women’s behavior. She smoked cigarettes, drank illegal liquor, and wore revealing clothes. Zelda Fitzgerald symbolized the flapper spirit. She urged women to be light hearted and unconventional rather than focused on “ a career that calls for hard work.” While flappers pursued social freedoms other women sought financial independence by entering the workforce. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Professionally women made advances in the fields of science, medicine and in literature Edith Wharton received the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence. In 1928 Margaret Mead one of the first woman anthropologists published the highly regarded study, Coming of Age in Samoa. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Fundamentalists Movement
Some Americans feared the new morality and worried about America’s social decline. Many of these people especially those in small rural towns responded by joining a religious movement known as Fundamentalism a name derived from a series of pamphlets. 6/18/2018

Fundamentalist rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution- which said that human beings had developed from lower forms of life over the course of millions of years. 6/18/2018

Instead the fundamentalist believed in creationism- that God created the world as described in the Bible. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

McPherson conducted her revivals and faith healings in Los Angeles.
Two popular evangelical preachers Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson stirred Fundamentalists’ passion by preaching traditional religious and moral values in very nontraditional ways. Sunday a former professional baseball player drew huge crowds with his rapid-fire sermons and on stage showmanship. McPherson conducted her revivals and faith healings in Los Angeles. 6/18/2018

Scope Trail The evolutionist and creationists would eventually clash.
In 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act which made it illegal to teach anything that denied creationism and taught evolution instead. The debate between evolutionists and creationists came to a head with the Scope Trial. 6/18/2018

After the trail many fundamentalists withdrew from political activism.
Answering the request of the ACLU John T. Scopes a biology teacher volunteered to test the Butler Act by teaching evolution in his class. After being arrested and put on trail, Scopes was found guilty but the case was later overturned. After the trail many fundamentalists withdrew from political activism. 6/18/2018

Prohibition Many people felt the passage of the 18th Amendment which prohibited alcohol would help reduce unemployment, domestic violence, and poverty. 6/18/2018

To try to enforce the amendment Congress passed the National Prohibition Act also known as the Volstead Act. Until the 1900s, police powers – a government’s power to control people and property in the public’s interests, had been the job of the state governments. 6/18/2018

The 18th Amendment granted the federal and state governments the power to enforce Prohibition, marking a dramatic increase in federal police powers. The Treasury Department’s new Prohibition Unit struggled to enforce Prohibition. During the 1920s treasury agents made more than 540,000 arrest but Americans continued to ignore the prohibition laws. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Bootlegging became common.
People went to the secret bars known as speakeasies where they could purchase alcohol. Bootlegging became common. Organized crime became big business and gangsters corrupted many of local politicians and governments. 6/18/2018

Huge profits were being made off liquor .
Some people became smugglers bringing the alcohol into the United States from Canada and Caribbean. Smuggling and the consumption of liquor by millions helped create an illegal billion dollar industry for many gangsters. More than 70 federal agents were killed while enforcing Prohibition in the 1920s. 6/18/2018

Al Capone aka. Scarface Al Capone one of the most successful and violent gangsters of the era he had many police officers, judges and other officials on his payroll. 6/18/2018

Capone dominated organized crime in Chicago where he ran bootlegging and other criminal rackets.
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Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899, of an immigrant family, Al Capone quit school after the sixth grade and joined a notorious street gang. About 1920 Capone joined the Colosimo mob where he had became an influential lieutenant. In 1925, Capone became boss when Johnny Torrio, seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, surrendered control and retired to Brooklyn. 6/18/2018

Capone had built a fearsome reputation in the ruthless gang rivalries of the period, struggling to acquire and retain "racketeering rights" to several areas of Chicago. Perhaps the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929, might be regarded as the culminating violence of the Chicago gang era, as seven members or associates of the "Bugs" Moran mob were machine-gunned against a garage wall by rivals posing as police. The massacre was generally ascribed to the Capone mob, although Al himself was then in Florida. 6/18/2018

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department had been developing evidence on tax evasion charges - in addition to Al Capone, his brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Frank Nitti and other mobsters were subjects of tax evasion charges. On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted after trial, and on November 24, was sentenced to eleven years in Federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes. 6/18/2018

Suffering from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his confinement. Immediately on release he entered a Baltimore hospital for brain treatment. Capone resided on Palm Island with his wife and immediate family, in a secluded atmosphere, until his death due to a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947. 6/18/2018

Eliot Ness And The FBI 6/18/2018

Eliot Ness was popularly credited with the downfall of Chicago organized crime czar Alphonse Capone. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Slang of the 1920's Bank's Closed - no kissing or making out - i.e. - "Sorry, Mac, the bank's closed." Beef - a complaint or to complain Big Cheese - The most important or influential person; boss. Same as big shot Bimbo - a tough guy Bull - (1) a policeman or law-enforcement officer including FBI Caper - a criminal act or robbery Doll - an attractive woman Ducky - very good 6/18/2018

New Words Partygoers urged fellow dancers-Get hot Get hot
2 New Words Partygoers urged fellow dancers-Get hot Get hot Young Americans also invented such terms as- beauts, cats pajamas and cat’s whisker to describe attractive young women. Terms lounge lizards, jelly beans, and jazzbos described attractive young men. Hard-boiled eggs described tough guys. 6/18/2018

Art and Literature The modern age symbolized by Charles (Lindy)Lindbergh’s historic transatlantic flight was reflected strongly in American art, literature and popular culture. 6/18/2018

Greenwich Village and the South Side
The artistic and unconventional or Bohemian lifestyle of these neighborhoods offered young artists and writers new lifestyles. These areas were considered centers of creativity, enlightenment, and freedom from conformity to old ideas. 6/18/2018

Poets and Writers Writing styles and subject matter varied. Chicago poet Carl Sandburg used common speech to glorify the Midwest and expansive nature of American life. Playwright Eugene O’Neill’s work focused on the search for meaning in modern society. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Some poets concentrated on what they considered the negative effects of modernism. T.S. Eliot in the poem Hollow Men described a world filled with empty dreams and hollow men and he foresaw a world that would end and not with a bang or whimper. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Many novelists affected by World War I wrote of the experiences. Ernest Hemingway who served as an ambulance driver in Italy was one such writer. His fiction presented a new literary style characterized by direct simple and concise prose as when he wrote about such works as For Whom the Bell Tolls and A farewell to Arms. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

F. Scott Fitzgerald The chief quality of Fitzgerald's talent was his ability to be both a leading participant in the high life he described, and a detached observer of it. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Popular Culture The economic prosperity of the 1920s afforded many Americans leisure time for enjoying sports, music, theater entertainment. They also fell in love with radio shows and motion pictures. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Sports Thanks to radio and motion pictures sports like boxing and baseball reached new heights of popularity in the 1920s. It made sports figures into heroes. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Motion Pictures Although sports became popular in the 1920s nothing quite matched the allure of motion pictures. Technology had not yet made sound possible in films, so theaters hired piano players to provide music during the features. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The first talking picture “The Jazz Singer” was made in This was the start of the golden age of Hollywood. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Radio and Music Radio also enjoyed a large following during the Jazz Age. In the 1920s it one of the first commercial radio broadcasts in history, listeners tuned in to KDKA in Pittsburg learned the news of Warren G. Harding winning the presidential election. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The mass media radio, movies, newspaper and magazines aimed at a broad audience did more than just entertain. Mass media also helped unify the nation and spread new ideas and attitudes. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Alabama’ Contribution to the Jazz Age
William Christopher Handy** (W.C.)- from Florence entered the decade of the 1920s already having established his reputation as the “Father of the Blues.” His “St. Louis Blues” as recorded by Bessie Smith and Louie Armstrong is considered one of the finest songs of the era. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Harlem Renaissance The Great Migration occurred when hundreds of thousands of African Americans from rural South headed to industrial cities in the North with the hope of a better life. In large northern cities, especially in New York City’s neighborhood of Harlem, African Americans created environments that stimulated artistic development racial pride, a sense of community and political organization, which led to massive creative outpouring of African American arts. Known as the Harlem Renaissance. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Writers Claude McKay- became the first important writer of the Harlem Renaissance. His work expressed defiance and contempt of racism which were very strong writing characteristics of this era. Harlem Shadows one of the most famous writings. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

One of the most prolific original and versatile writers of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes. He became the leading voice of the African American experience in the United States. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Zora Neale Hurston published her first novels Jonah’s Gourd Vine and Their Eyes Were Watching God. These writings influenced Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison. These 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Jazz and Blues Louis Armstrong (Pops, Sweet Papa and Satchmo) introduced jazz a style of music influenced by Dixieland music and ragtime. He became the first great cornet and trumpet soloist in jazz music. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Many African American entertainers got their start at the Cotton Club one of the famous Harlem nightspots. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Bessie Smith seemed to symbolize soul. Her emotional style and commanding voice earned her the title “the Empress of the Blues.” Smith sang of unfulfilled love, poverty and oppression- the classic themes of the blues a soulful style of music that evolved from African American spirituals. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The Harlem Renaissance also brought about the theater arts. Shuffle Along became the first musical written and produced by African Americans made its debut on Broadway in 1921. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

African Americans helped to shape our nation through the use of music with the development of rhythms and sound of jazz and blues. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

African American Politics
After World War I many African Americans wanted a new role in life and in politics. The Great Migration led to African Americans becoming powerful voting blocs which influenced election outcomes in the North. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Oscar DePriest was elected as the first African American representative in Congress from a Northern state after African Americans voted as a block. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) battled against segregation and discrimination. The NAACP efforts led to passage of anti-lynching legislation in the House of Representatives but the Senate defeated the bill 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Black Nationalism Jamaican black leader Marcus Garvey idea of “Negro Nationalism” glorified black culture and tradition. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which promoted black pride and unity. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Garvey encouraged education as the way for African Americans to gain economic and political power; but he also voiced the need for separation and independence from whites. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

Gravey’s plan to create a settlement in Liberia in Africa for African Americans caused middle class African Americans to distance themselves from Gravey. His ideas however led to a sense of pride and hope in African Americans that resurfaced during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. 6/18/2018 Template copyright

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