Social Changes of the 1920’s

• Women’s Roles– Flapper’s influence women’s fashion and behavior– More Women enter the work force– Women’s vote gradually influences politics• Jeannette Rankin

• Demographics – More people move from rural to urban areas– Rural-urban economic gap widens– Morals and manners differ between rural and

urban areas– African Americans migrate north– Suburbs grow

• Lifestyles– Buses begin to replace trolleys– Automobiles increase people’s mobility– Interest in spectator sports increases

National Heroes are Born

• “Lucky Lindy” Charles Lindbergh• Amelia Earhart• Jack Dempsey• Jim Thorpe• Babe Ruth• Gertrude Ederle

Mass Media• Print or broadcast methods of communicating

information to large numbers of people• Daily Newspapers, 1920-1929, 42% increase in

circulation (39,426,000 a day) • Motion Pictures, 1922-1929, 100% increase in

number of people attending (80 million per week)

• Radios, 1922-1929, 16,983% increase in number of households with radios (10,250,000)

Mass Media

• Led to a shared American culture across the country

• Our nation became less regionalized• The Jazz Age began as music was broadcast

over the radio

Duke Ellington

Louis Armstrong

George Gershwin

Benny Goodman

Jelly Roll Martin

Harlem Renaissance• African American literary awakening of the

1920s.• Harlem, NY• James Weldon Johnson• Alain Locke• Zora Neale Hurston • Claude McKay• Countee Cullen• Langston Hughes

“I, Too”, 1926I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company

comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong.Tomorrow, I'll be at the table when company comes.Nobody'll dare say to me, “eat in the kitchen” then.Besides, they'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed

—I, too, am America.

- Langston Hughes

Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,”Then.Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed—I, too, am America.