Clarence Darrow
William Jennings Bryan
Henry Ford
Glenn Curtiss
(1860‐1925) A noted politician and orator, William Jennings Bryan supported reforms benefiting ordinary people. He served as a representative to the Illinois legislature where he favored income tax, prohibition, and women's suffrage. He earned the Democratic nomination for president in 1896 but lost the race. He also lost in 1900 and 1908. He served as Woodrow Wilson's secretary of state but resigned in 1915 because he did not support Wilson's aggressive stance toward Germany. Bryan made a fortune in real estate deals in Florida. His last oration was as a spokesman for the prosecution in the Scopes trial in which he supported a literal interpretation of the Bible and denounced the teaching of evolution in the schools. (1878‐1930) A century ago, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, who would one day be considered "The Father of Naval Aviation" and "Founder of the American Aircraft Industry", was manufacturing motorcycles in his hometown of Hammondsport , New York . 1907 was a significant year for Glenn Curtiss. On January 24th he became the "fastest man in the world" when he rode his V‐8 powered motorcycle at a sustained speed of 136.4 MPH to establish a land speed record that stood until 1911 for cars and 1930 for motorcycles. Today, Glenn H. Curtiss is remembered as the inventor of the "Hydroaeroplane" (or seaplane ‐ US patent #1,170,965). His development of this type of aircraft began almost immediately in the fall of 1908 and by the winter of 1911, the Curtiss seaplane had become a reality. (1857‐1938) The most renowned defense attorney of his time, Clarence Darrow was born in Ohio to a working‐class family. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1878. He and his family moved to Chicago in 1887 to further his law career. He defended Eugene V. Debs in 1894 against charges of criminal conspiracy in relation to the American Railway Union strikes. His attraction to social concerns prompted him to argue criminal conspiracy cases and cases involving union violence and labor rights. He opposed the death penalty and supported racial equality. In 1925, he defended John T. Scopes who was charged by fundamentalists for violating a Tennessee statute against teaching evolution in the schools. His closing arguments are models of expository speaking. (1863‐1947) Henry Ford helped create a mobile society by mass producing and marketing the Model T automobile, making it an indispensable part of American life. Through his efforts, the automotive industry became a world‐wide phenomenon. Born on a farm near Detroit, Michigan, Ford worked on the farm, at a shipbuilding firm, and for a company which serviced steam engines. During the winters he experimented on building his own internal‐combustion engines. He drove his first home‐built automobile in 1896. The Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and he developed the Model T by 1908. Ford used mass production to reduce the price of the Model T, and he worked to perfect the assembly line. He retained complete company control and used it to amass billions of dollars. Marcus Garvey
Charles A. Lindberg
Karl Marx
Warren G Harding
(1902‐1974) Born in Detroit to a political family, Charles Lindbergh studied mechanical engineering and flying, gaining a reputation as a mechanic and (1887‐1940) pilot. He completed the U.S. Army Air Cadet Marcus Garvey, a black man from the program in 1925 and was made second West Indies, was the first to forcefully lieutenant. He set a record in aviation history speak about the concept of African when he flew the specially built monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, nonstop from St. Louis nationalism—of black people returning to Africa, the continent of their to Paris on May 20‐21, 1927. Afterward he served as a technical advisor to commercial forefathers, in order to build a great airlines, testing new aircraft and developing nation of their own. His writings and viable routes. He favored neutrality before the ideas would inspire many leaders of the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, then he civil rights movement during the supported the war cause, testing military second half of the twentieth century. aircraft and sharing technical knowledge. His interest in nature led him to support conservation efforts and he directed the World Wildlife Fund. (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) He was the 29th President of the United States (1921–1923), a Republican from Ohio who served in the Ohio Senate and then in the United States Senate where he protected alcohol interests and moderately supported women's suffrage. He was the first incumbent U.S. senator and (self‐made) newspaper publisher to be elected U.S. president. He was the compromise candidate in the 1920 election, when he promised the nation a return to "normalcy", in the form of a strong economy, independent of foreign influence. This program was designed to rid Americans of the tragic memories and hardships faced during World War I. He suddenly collapsed and died. His administration's many scandals have historically earned Harding a low ranking as president, but there has been growing recognition of his fiscal responsibility and endorsement of African‐
American civil rights (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) He was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and has influenced much of subsequent economic thought. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867–
1894). Marx's theories about society, economics and politics – collectively known as Marxism – hold that human societies progress through class struggle: a conflict between an ownership class that controls production and a dispossessed labouring class that provides the labour for production. He called capitalism the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie," believing it to be run by the wealthy classes for their own benefit; and he predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self‐destruction and replacement by a new system: socialism. Calvin Coolidge
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Al Capone
Eliot Ness
(September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) He was the 30th President of the United He was an American author of novels and States (1923–1929). Soon after, he was short stories, whose works are the elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age, a term and succeeded to the Presidency upon the he coined. He is widely regarded as one of the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. greatest American writers of the 20th century. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a He is considered a member of the "Lost reputation as a small‐government Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four conservative, and also as a man who said novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and very little He restored public confidence in Damned, The Great Gatsby (his most famous), the White House after the scandals of his and Tender Is the Night. His work has been predecessor's administration, and left office adapted into films many times. with considerable popularity. (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) He was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables. Following the election of President Herbert Hoover, he was specifically charged with bringing down gangster Al Capone. The federal government approached the problem from two directions: income tax evasion and the Volstead Act. Ness was chosen to head the operations under the Volstead Act, targeting the illegal breweries and supply routes of Capone. He was an American gangster who led a Prohibition‐era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently also became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early 1920s to 1931. Despite his illegitimate occupation, Capone became a highly visible public figure. He made donations to various charitable endeavors using the money he made from his activities, and was viewed by many to be a "modern‐day Robin Hood". His public reputation was damaged in the wake of his supposed involvement in the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven rival gang members were executed. was convicted on federal charges of tax evasion in 1931 and sentenced to federal prison; he was released on parole in 1939. Louis Armstrong
Bessie Smith
Ernest Hemingway
Langston Hughes
(August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971)
He was nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an
(April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937)
American jazz trumpeter and singer from New
Orleans, Louisiana. Coming to prominence in
She was an American blues singer.
the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet
player, Armstrong was a foundational influence Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, she
was the most popular female blues singer of
in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from
collective improvisation to solo performance. the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as
one of the greatest singers of her era and,
With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice,
along with Louis Armstrong, a major
Armstrong was also an influential singer,
influence on other jazz vocalists.
demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser,
bending the lyrics and melody of a song for
expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat
singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables
instead of actual lyrics).
(February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) He was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then‐new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue" which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue". His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the working‐class blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) He was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th‐century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid‐1920s and the mid‐
1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Two of his works were For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. Three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non‐
fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.