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Billy Sunday
Former ballplayer who rose to national prominence as a powerful leading fundamentalist preacher. Reflected the values of many white, rural Americans by condemning radicals and criticizing the changing attitudes of women. -
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Warren G. Harding (as President)
Historical Theme: Economics. Favored policies that gave businesses the maximum freedom to achieve and succeed. -
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W.E.B. Du Bois
Key figure in the rise of Harlem. Founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which worked to end discrimination and mistreatment of African Americans throughout the United States. Served as editor of a magazine called The Crisis; Du Bois and The Crisis helped promote the Harlem Renaissance. -
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Calvin Coolidge (as President)
Historical Theme: Economics. Favored policies that gave businesses the maximum freedom to achieve and succeed. His famous remark "The chief business of the American people is business" was popular with the majority of voters and he remained widely popular throughout his term in office. -
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Herbert Hoover (as President)
Historical Theme: Politics, Economics. Came to presidency with a set of core beliefs. Believed that government should not provide direct aid, but should instead find ways to help people help themselves. Voluntary action and cooperation between business and government failed. Blamed for the Great Depression. His efforts to directly address the economic crisis failed or backfired. He lost favor with the people. -
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Frances Perkins
First woman to head an executive department. Played a leading role in the formation of major New Deal policies, including the Social security system. Served in Roosevelt's cabin until after his death. Her example advanced the cause of women in government. -
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (as President)
Historical Theme: Politics, Domestic Policy. Introduced the New Deal and the Second New Deal. -
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John Maynard Keynes
British economist whose theories supported Roosevelt's new spending. Contrary to classical economic theory, which stressed balanced budgets, Keynes argued that deficit spending could provide jobs and stimulate the economy. -
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Marcus Garvey
Famous Harlem figure of the World War I era. His Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) encouraged African Americans to take pride in their African heritage and promoted self-reliance for African Americans. Highly critical of W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP as he believed that it undermined and discouraged African American pride and self-confidence. Du Bois and the NAACP were suspicious of Garvey and the UNIA. Garvey went to prison for mail fraud, later forced to leave the country. -
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Dorothea Lange
Photographer. Another celebrated chronicler of the Great Depression. Most famous subjects were the rural poor. In 1935, began working on behalf of the Farm Security Administration, an organization which focused on the lives oof tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Her pictures helped raise awareness about the poorest of the poor, and in 1937, the federal government began to provide help to tenant farmers and sharecroppers. -
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
May be the writer most closely linked with the 1920s. His work "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" helped create the image of the flapper and "Tales of the Jazz Age" provided a lasting nickname for the decade. -
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Amelia Earhart
First woman to fly across the Atlantic. Disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to fly around the world. No definitive traces of her remains has ever been found. -
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Louis Armstrong
Legendary jazz musician. Leading performer on the Harlem jazz scene. -
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Langston Hughes
A celebrated Harlem Renaissance poet and writer. Wrote of black defiance and hope. His works recorded the distinctive culture of Harlem during the 1920s iteself. Had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance and on Amercan literature. -
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Charles Lindbergh
First pilot to succeed on a nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (transatlantic flight). Achieved what one newspaper called "the greatest feat of a solitary man in the history of the human race." Became perhaps the most beloved American hero in an era of heroes. -
Fundamentalism
A literal interpretation of the Bible. While many people believed that certain stories in the Bible were meant to be symbolic rather than literal, fundamentalists believed that historic events occurred exactly as the Bible described. -
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The Great Migration
Major relocation of African Americans to find freedom and economic opportunities unavailable to them in the South. 6 million African-Americans moved out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West. -
Federal Reserve System
Founded Dec. 23, 1913. Nation's central bank. Concerned with the nation's fascination with stocks and with buying on margin. Federal Reserve Board takes actions and sets policies to regulate the nation's money supply in order to promote healthy economic activity. In the late 1920s, the Board decided to make it more difficult and costly for brokers to offer margin loans to investors. -
Prohibition
Ban on alcohol through 18th Amendment and Volstead Act. Alcohol was seen as the source of unhappiness and outlawing it would seemingly promote family stability, and reduce crime. Impossible to enforce and later repealed. -
Eighteenth Amendment
Amendment that made it illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell alcohol in the United States. -
Flappers
In the 1920s, one of the many changes affecting women was the flapper. Flappers were young women of the era who defied traditional ideas of proper dress and behaviour. They cut off their hair, raised their hemlines, wore makeup, smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and danced in clubs all night. It represented a lifestyle of great independence and freedom. -
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The Harlem Renaissance
African American arts movement in New York City, promoted by W.E.B. Du Bois. Included literature, performing arts, and fine arts. Work produced during this time often reflected a strong and growing sense of racial pride and confidence. Lasted to the mid 1930s. -
The Scopes Trial
John Scopes violated the Tennessee law and taught evolution to students. Clarence Darrow, the most famous criminal lawyer in the country represented Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, three-time candidate for President, led the prosecution. Both sides focused on larger issues than Scopes's guilt; Bryan called it a contest between the competing ideas of Christianity and evolution, while Darrow stated it was trying to make a point about freedom of speech. Scopes was convicted and fined $100 -
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The Great Depression
The most severe economic downturn in the history of the United States. Caused by bank failures, farm failures, and unemployment. -
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Stock Market Crash
Economic factors were poor distribution of wealth, many consumers relying on credit, credit dried up, consumer spending dropped, industry struggled. Financial factors were stock markets rise in mid-1920s, speculation in stock increases, margin buying encouraged by Federal Reserve policies, stock prices rise to unrealistic levels. On October 24th, some nervous investors began selling stocks, leading into a huge sell-off. October 29th was the worst day. -
Black Tuesday
Investors dumped more than 16 million shares of stock. Affected the stock of even the most solid cmpanies. -
Dust Bowl
Dust storms that wreaked destruction. Hardest hit areas were parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Robbed many farmers of their livelihood. By the end of the 1930s, some 2.5 million people had left the Great Plains. The migrants were called Okies after the state of Oklahoma, but was inaccurate since the migrants came from different states. Great Plains migrants were often met by resistance and outright discrimination. -
Hoovervilles
Shantytowns that sprang up on the outskirts of town or in public parks. Housed the newly homeless. Named as a bitter reference to President Hoover, whom many people blamed for the Great Depression. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
One of Hoover's major efforts to address the economic crisis that backfired badly. The new tariff raised the cost of imported goods for American consumers, making it moe likely that they would purchase the cheaper American goods. European nations responded with tariffs on American goods and trade plunged. By 1934 global trade was down roughly two thirds from 1929 levels. -
Construction of the Hoover Dam
The dam would harness the Colorado River to provide electricity and a safe, reliable water supply to a vast area that included parts of seven states. A group of 6 independent companies joined together to design and construct it. The project's success demonstrated the creative power of partnerships between private business and the federal government. -
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Hoover's direct action to help the Great Depression. Created by Congress, a key clause in the RFC legislation authorized up to $2 billion in direct government loans to struggling banks, insurance companies, and other institutions. For many citizens, Hoover's actions were too little, too late. -
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The New Deal
A wide range of measures aimed at accomplishing three goals: 1) relief for those suffering the effects of the Great Depression, 2) recovery of the depressed economy, and 3) reforms that would help prevent serious economic crises in the future. Marked a significant shift in the relationship between government and the American people; never before had government assumed such a central role in the business and personal lives of its citizens. Reformers wanted more change, conservatives attacked it -
The First Hundred Days
Critical period of government activity. During this time Roosevelt pushed Congress to put in place many of the key parts of his program, the New Deal. -
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The Second New Deal
Congress passed laws extending government oversight of the banking industry and raising taxes for the wealthy. It funded new relief programs for the still-struggling population. Introduced emergency relief and social security. -
Social Security Act
A centerpiece of the Second New Deal. Provided a pension for people 65 and older. Included a system of unemployment insurance run jointly by the federal government and the states. Promoting Social Security responded to a number of Roosevelt's critics, however it excluded certain workers from the new program to avoid a huge tax hike that could hamper economic recovery. In the end, millions of Americans (farmworkers, household workers, government employees) were left out of Social Security. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
Law established a minimum wage and set the maximum number of required hours for a work week. Included a requirement that workers receive the overtime rate of payment at one-and-a-half times their normal rate for any hours over the weekly maximum. Marked a major victory for millions of workers. Opposed by Southern Democrats as they argued it would hurt the nation's industries.