1920's Women |
Louis Armstrong |
A woman of 1920 would be surprised to know that she would be remembered as a “new woman.” Many changes would enter her life in the next ten years. Significant changes for women took place in politics, the home, the workplace, and in education. Some were the results of laws passed, many resulted from newly developed technologies, and all had to do with changing attitudes toward the place of women in society.The most far-reaching change was political. Many women believed that it was their right and duty to take a serious part in politics. They recognized, too, that political decisions affected their daily lives. When passed in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote
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Louis Armstrong nickname Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and an influential figure in jazz music. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. Armstrong was also an influence singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general.
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Education & Popular Culture |
Langston Hughes |
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The public schools met another challenge in the 1920s--teaching the children of new immigrants families. The years before World War I had seen the largest stream of immigrants in the nation's history--close to 1 million a year. Unlike the earlier English and Irish immigrants, many of the new immigrants spoke no English . By the 1920s their children filled city classrooms. Determined teachers met the challenge and created a large pool of literate Americans.
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Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called 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".
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Changing Way of Life |
Bessie Smith |
To obtain liquor illegally, drinkers went underground to hidden saloons and nightclubs known as speakeasies--so called because when inside, one spoke quietly or "easily," to avoid detection. Speakeasies could be found everywhere--in penthouses, cellars, office buildings, rooming houses, tenements, hardware stores, and tearooms. To be admitted to a speakeasy, one had to present a card or use a password. Inside, one would find a mix of fashionable middle-class and upper-middle-class men and women.
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Bessie Smith was an American blues singer. Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on the other jazz vocalists. She recorded on black oriented labels produced by major record companies. She achieve enormous popularity and in 1927 became the high-paid black artist in the world.
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Business Boom! |
Paul Robeson |
The 1920's saw new discoveries and inventions in nearly every field of endeavor that became the foundation of thriving businesses. Patent attorneys did a roaring trade and nearly every man fancied himself as an inventor if the number of patent submission was anything to go by. New business and production methods along with progressive business philosophies allowed manufacturers to boost turnover and to make large profits which they plowed back into new factories and wage rises. Department store and service station chains used massive buying power and operating efficiencies to lower prices while increasing service and choice, helping wages to go further. Henry Ford used his huge buying power to setup discount grocery stores selling cheap groceries for his employees, much to the annoyance of local store owners.
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Paul Robeson was an American singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Right Movement. At Rutgers College, he was outstanding football player, then had international career in singing, as well as acting in theater and movies. He became politically involved in response to Spanish Civil War, fascism, and social injustices. His advocacy of anti-imperialism, affiliation with communism, and criticism of the Untied States government caused him to be blacklist during the McCarthy era.
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