The KKK was targeting Catholics, blacks, and Jews with its terrorism. In 1921 a revival of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) took place. Modern civil rights laws for minorities were still many years away.Īs mentioned in the beginning of this article, the decade also represented the worst of times. Yet segregation, or separation of the races, continued to be practiced in North Carolina and in the South. The Fourteenth Amendment had already given African Americans citizenship in 1866. In 1924 Congress passed a law that made all American Indians citizens of the United States. Before the decade was over, commercial passenger air travel had begun. On May 20–21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris, and on June 17, 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1924 the United States Air Service circumnavigated the world in airplanes, just twenty-one years after Orville Wright flew the first powered plane for only forty yards here in North Carolina. Up to this time only a few daredevils and barnstormers had flown. In 1928 Mickey Mouse first appeared in the cartoon Steamboat Willie, and in 1929 Popeye first appeared in the comic strip Thimble Theater.Īviation represented another area in which things were changing quite rapidly, helped by advances and improvements in aircraft during World War I. In 1927 The Jazz Singerbecame the first successful “talking picture.” Before that time, motion pictures had been silent. In 1925 the flappers found a new dance craze, called the Charleston. In 1922 Louis Armstrong started improvising and adding personal musical variations with his trumpet, playing in a style known as jazz. Musical styles were also changing in the 1920s. The first North Carolina radio station, WBT, started broadcasting in Charlotte in 1922. Everyone would gather around the radio and listen to the news, the comedy shows, and the music. In North Carolina, women voted for better roads and better education for their children. And on November 2 the first commercially licensed radio broadcast was heard, from KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On August 18 the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote. Two events in 1920 kicked off the era of change that Americans experienced. After seeing Europe, they wanted some of the finer things in life for themselves and their families. Most of the soldiers had never been far from home before the war, and their experiences had changed their perspective of life around them. They were coming back to their families, friends, and jobs. The 1920s began with the last American troops returning from Europe after World War I. In 1933 the amendment was abolished, and it became the only Constitutional amendment to be repealed.
The amendment forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. Constitution was passed, creating the era of Prohibition. In 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. In 1920 the average time a student spent in school each year was 75 days, and today it’s about 180 days. In 1920 the average life span in the United States was about fifty-four years, whereas today it’s about seventy-seven years. Women shortened, or “bobbed,” their hair, flappers danced and wore short fancy dresses, and men shaved off their beards. Some rural farmers were leaving their farms in order to receive a regular paycheck in the factories. A substantial growth of industry occurred in North Carolina, especially in the areas of tobacco, textiles, and furniture. Prosperity was on the rise in cities and towns, and social change flavored the air. The telephone connected families and friends.
The radio brought the world closer to home. The cars brought the need for good roads. The 1920s was a decade of change, when many Americans owned cars, radios, and telephones for the first time. To paraphrase Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, and sometimes it was the worst of times.”
The decade began with a roar and ended with a crash. Have you ever heard the phrase “the roaring twenties?” Also known as the Jazz Age, the decade of the 1920s featured economic prosperity and carefree living for many. Related Entry: How the Twenties Roared in North Carolina Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian.
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