African-American Culture During The 1920's

Though the 1920s were remembered primarily as a decade of firsts, bold innovation, and experimentation, it was also an age of extreme contradiction. The unique prosperity and promotion of politics, laws, cities, movements, culture, scientific discovery, and equality were underlined and accompanied by intense social anxiety and reaction; bearing witness to organized crime, nativism, discrimination, and resistance. This prosperous age heralded a dramatic break between America’s past and future and showed how great things can be accomplished from the low points of life. Before World War I, the nation remained culturally and psychologically entrenched in the nineteenth century. However, the end of the First World War brought in a period of ambiguity,

When World War I ended on November 11, 1918, President Warren G. Harding proposed “a return to normalcy”. This promised a return of the United States prewar mentality, without the thought of war contaminating the minds of the American people. With this in mind, the 1920s began- but Americans in the 1930s witnessed dramatic changes in their lives from the 1920s. The 1920s was a period of prosperity and economic success, while the 1930s was a time of economic downfall. The economy fluctuated between times of great prosperity and times of undoubtable depression. Following these economic downturns was a period of rigorous attempts to recover from severe economic loss. It did not take long for this economic hardship to lead to some more

The 1920s, often referred to as the Roaring Twenties, was a time of great change and a time of powerful enthusiasm in many areas of society. The world had just finished the biggest war in history, the First World War, and the United States was left almost unharmed by the war. The United States was able to experience a decade of peace and success following the war. During this decade, America became the wealthiest country in the world (Trueman, 2000). The people in the United States went through a colorful period during the twenties. However, at the same time the 1920s was also a very rebellious and difficult time for many. The culture of the 1920s has influenced the culture of America’s society today.

The birth of jazz music is often credited to African Americans, though it didn’t take long to expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterised by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class societies. Big cities like New York and Chicago were

After World War I ended, the 1920’s brought on dramatic political and social changes. For most people, the 1920’s brought them more conflict. They did not like the new changes and were trying to keep them from happening. However, for a small group of young people the 1920’s was a great time to make progress and move forward from the conservative norm. After women got suffrage, they pushed through the double standards and tried and got jobs in factories and offices, instead of only doing domestic work. African Americans pushed through the discrimination they were facing and moved to the northern states, where they got better jobs and better opportunities to pursue their dreams in literature, art, music, and stage performance.

In the 1920s America was changing we just came home for the first world war and everything from economy to culture changed. The culture changed due to the Jazz Movement in 1929. Jazz became part of everyday culture in America due to its smooth and new sound. The creation of the Jazz movement in america is largely credited to African Americans, because they were the ones who originated it. One of the key people in the Jazz Movement was Louis Armstrong a famous trumpeter, composer, singer and actor who changed the 1920s with his musicianship, his fashion, and he eased the racial tension between blacks and whites at his time.

The Roaring Twenties started in North America and spread to Europe as the effects of World War I diminished. In Europe, the years following the First World War (1919-1923) were marked by a deep recession. Europe spent these years in rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. Unlike in the aftermath of World War II, the United States did little to try to rebuild Europe. Instead, it took an increasingly isolationist stance (Answers, 2006).

After World War I had ended, Americans found themselves living in an exciting time, often called the “Roaring Twenties”. This Features such as the prevalence of Automobiles, women finally receiving suffrage, and the rise in the variety of entertainment, all had a positive impact on America at the time. There were also social problems such as high levels of racism, constant infringement of the eighteenth amendment, and nativism. The “Roaring Twenties” were, in fact, the transitioning years to the twentieth century. The Twenties, as people had said, was a great time to be alive, because of all the positive aspects of it.

Laws are guidelines to help keep a society in tact and to give some sort of structure for the people of the United States. Our founding fathers started these laws and gave the people a starting line to perfect and make changes to them. But is it possible that some laws overstep some boundaries? Throughout the years, America has changed for the good and for the bad. Even though it may take time, we, as a country are making changes that people from the past would have never thought would happen. For example, back then, it was wrong and frowned upon for one gender to love their same gender, or for a girl to want to be a boy and vice versa. But we see today, though some may still not agree, a great amount of the population has started accepting

During the early 1900’s, a new style of music began to take shape in the colorful city of New Orleans. People from all over the world came to exchange stories, conversation, and music. Although it is a very hard genre of music to define, it is said that Jazz is the combination of European and African music that was brought in via the ports. With mostly an African American population, the musicians shared their music in Storyville - a cultural melting pot, and began to spread the “New Orleans Sound”. They contributed to what would soon be known as Jazz in 1917. The spontaneous nature of Jazz’s syncopation and sound makes it a very humanistic style of music and makes every performance original. Every day we improvise, whether it is in conversation or spur of the moment decisions. These truly unique elements caused Jazz to become a symbol of America, and changed music forever.

The 1920’s was a great and important decade for the United States. After World War I, the United States went through events and changes that, overall, made the United States a much better place to live. New advances in technology and industry improved American life in more ways than just one. Americans had better wages during this time, more leisure time, and overall, had a better life than ever before. In addition, the 1920’s advocated social and cultural change as well. During this time period, the United States did not return to Normalcy, and instead developed attitudes that changed the life of the people of the United States forever thanks to social changes, cultural changes and changes in technology.

Brendan Campbell 12/8/14 In the 1900’s African Americans faced two main struggles in the South: segregation and discrimination. Due to these hardships, the Southern African Americans migrated North. This was called the Great Migration; which was a movement of 6 million Southern African Americans into Northern cities like Chicago and Harlem.

     The unique art form know as Jazz, was able to thrive initially in New Orleans. The most celebrated part of New Orleans was known as Storyville because it was a melting pot for Jazz. Storyville was so celebrated because it was the only region in the city that had brothels and pubs that allowed African Americans. Unfortunately, in 1970, President Roosevelt shut down the district in fear of violence between the natives and sailors. This resulted in a dispersion of jazz. Many artists traveled directly to Chicago after the closing of Storyville to restart their music.


Jazz blossomed in the city of New Orleans in the 1900s after the slave trade ended. It was a very multicultural

“Jazz is a term which came into general use for a type of music which developed in the Southern States of United States of America in the late 19th century and came into prominence at the turn of the century in New Orleans, chiefly (but not exclusively) among black musicians”