Addendum:
FAILURE OF PROHIBITION
 Federal government did not
fund Prohibition enforcement
Employed only 1500 underpaid
agents
In mid 1920s: 19% popular
support
Believed that Prohibition caused
more problems than it solved
 The 21st Amendment repealed
Prohibition in 1933
Federal agents pour wine down a sewer
SCIENCE AND RELIGION CLASH
 Fundamentalist
religious
groups vs. secular society
(scientific discovery)
Protestant movement
grounded in the literal
interpretation of the Bible =
fundamentalism
 All truth in the bible –
including science & evolution
SCOPES TRIAL
 March 1925, TN law made teaching evolution a crime
ACLU promised to defend any teacher willing to challenge the law
hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the era, to defend
Scopes
William Jennings Bryan (3x D-presidential nominee) was prosecutor
John Scopes was a biology teacher who
dared to teach his students that man
derived from lower species
 Began 7/10/25 – instant
sensation
 Darrow called Bryan to the
stand
Asked Should the bible be
interpreted literally?
Bryan admitted that the
Bible can be interpreted in
different ways
Nonetheless, Scopes was found
guilty and fined $100
(more) WRITERS OF THE 1920S
http://www.
youtube.com
/watch?v=K0
bENHsyGPg
http://www.
youtube.com
/watch?v=F4
hyKOJ4Zpw
 Edith Warton’s Age of
Innocence dramatized the
clash between traditional
and modern values
 Willa Cather celebrated
the simple, dignified lives
of immigrant farmers in
Nebraska in My Antonia
WRITERS OF THE 1920s
 Ernest Hemingway,
wounded in World War I,
became one of the best-known
authors of the era
 In his novels, The Sun Also
Rises and A Farewell to Arms, he
criticized the glorification of
warhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djnn
41p-ayk
Hemingway - 1929
 His simple, straightforward
style of writing set the literary
standard
Describe the ways in which cultures clashed in the U.S. during the 20’s.
DO THIS NOW – 3 minutes
CULTURE CLASH IN THE 1920s
• Old
• New
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
 The Great
Migration  100s of
thousands of African
Americans move
north to big cities
 By 1920 over 40%
of US blacks lived in
cities
Migration of the Negro by
Jacob Lawrence
AFRICAN AMERICAN GOALS
NAACP
 Founded in 1909
 W.E.B Dubois
Urged African Americans
to protest racial violence
led a march of 10,000 black
men in NY to protest violence
UNIA
 Founded in 1914
 Marcus Garvey
Believed that African
Americans should build a
separate society (Africa)
 1 million by mid-1920s
 Powerful legacy of black pride,
economic independence and
Pan-Africanism
HARLEM, NEW YORK
 Largest black urban community
Overcrowding, unemployment and
poverty
 Home to a literary and artistic revival
known as the Harlem Renaissance
Historical Footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bc2Tekynis
 The Harlem Renaissance was
primarily a literary movement
 Led by well-educated blacks with a
new sense of pride in the AfricanAmerican experience
AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS
 Langston Hughes - poet
 Described the difficult lives of
working-class blacks
Dream Deferredhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Yj
XKYeWCk
Some of his poems were put to
music, especially jazz and blues
 Zora Neale Hurston wrote novels, short stories
and poems
 Wrote about lives of poor, uneducated,
Southern blacks
Focused on folk culture – customs and values
“Please God, please suh, don't let him love nobody
else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say,
but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin',
Jesus. Ah done waited uh long time.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Have you dug the spill
Of Sugar Hill?
Cast your gims
On this sepia thrill:
Brown sugar lassie,
Caramel treat,
Honey-gold baby
Sweet enough to eat.
Peach-skinned girlie,
Coffee and cream,
Chocolate darling
Out of a dream.
Walnut tinted
Or cocoa brown,
Pomegranate-lipped
Pride of the town.
Rich cream-colored
To plum-tinted black,
Feminine sweetness
In Harlem’s no lack.
Glow of the quince
To blush of the rose.
Persimmon bronze
To cinnamon toes.
Harlem Sweeties
Blackberry cordial,
Virginia Dare wine—
All those sweet colors
Flavor Harlem of mine!
Walnut or cocoa,
Let me repeat:
Caramel, brown sugar,
A chocolate treat.
Video:
Molasses taffy,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_W3FXD4ZRI
Coffee and cream,
Licorice, clove, cinnamon
To a honey-brown dream.
Ginger, wine-gold,
Persimmon, blackberry,
All through the spectrum
Harlem girls vary—
So if you want to know beauty’s
Rainbow-sweet thrill,
Stroll down luscious,
Delicious, fine Sugar Hill.
By Langston Hughes
Read by Mos Def
AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERFORMERS
 Paul Robeson, son of a slave, dramatic actor
 Othello was widely praised- http://youtu.be/IynoOLAk3bM?t=40s
Show Boat & Musicals http://youtu.be/ijHjvFAz0lo?t=36s
JOSEPHINE BAKER
US born French dancer, singer, and actress
Nicknamed "Black Pearl," "Bronze Venus, " and
"Creole Goddess"
1st black female star in a major film, Zouzou
(1934)
1st to play to integrated American concern hall
Refused to perform for segregated audiences in
US.
http://youtu.be/064oYkj1LBw?t=15s