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When I think of The roaring twenties I imagine parties, having fun, and rapid change. The twenties was a decade that saw rapid change in things like the economy and it also introduced new trends in lifestyle and culture. Movies, parties, jazz, and radio are some of the things the 20s introduced to us. While most people celebrate and think of the roaring 20s as a great and exciting time to be alive this wasn't the case for everyone. There were a fair amount of issues that happened during this great time. In 1920 was the year prohibition took effect. It was the ¨legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933 under the terms of the Eighteenth Amendment¨. There were a few reasons why prohibition happened such as the fact that Germans who were their enemies to the U.S. in WWI were the majority of the brewers, people started to realize that alcohol was morally wrong another was they believed it would help lower crime. Prohibition failed to do what people hoped would happen as crime increased and organized crime figures like the infamous Al Capone would become rich quickly by transporting and selling alcohol. Many of the police were bribed by these criminals and wouldn't do much to enforce these prohibition laws. In the Roaring 20s prohibition would fail and would later in 1933 get repealed. Being the only amendment to get repealed.
Racism was still alive and well, the white supremacist group KKK would have a resurgence during the '20s, and millions of members would join it. They would continue to do their violent activities in the south, it is reported that they did 64 lynchings in 1918 and 83 in 1919. The Jim Crows laws in the South would also be a factor that led millions of African Americans to move up to North and midwest states in the hope of better living conditions. During the 1920s, 800,000 blacks left the South, But they would be disappointed as not much of their lives would change except for jobs of better pay. African Americans would be segregated and live in ghettos. People who tried to move to better neighborhoods would most likely get their houses bombed or vandalized. As you can tell not everyone would enjoy the roaring twenties as life for African Americans would still suffer from racism and violence from white people. The red summer took place in 1919 and was a result of racial tensions in law and housing. More than three dozen riots would take place all across the country.
The most violent and well-known riot is the one that took place in Chicago From July 27th to August 3rd, 1919, for days the windy city would be a battlefield. Violence escalated daily and it would result in 38 deaths(23 black and 15 white) and over 500 injuries. As mentioned as people left the South to move to the Midwest, they would move for a better life and pay conditions. Since black people were getting paid better and many whites and blacks were competing for the same job it led to whites being scared and angry of the freedom and better pay they now had. Companies discriminated against them and didn't hire or even fire them because of their skin color. Another would be that Black veterans who risked their lives fighting for their country still were treated poorly and not given any respect. All the violence towards black people, injustice, and racism they are facing led to them being fed up and deciding to stand up for themselves. Immigrants would also face similar challenges, AFter world war, the anti-immigration sentiment would During the 20s families and people from southern and eastern Europe since many were coming in large numbers. Many Americans were afraid of the different cultures and were afraid that the Europeans were going to be threats to them. So in response, they decided to restrict them bypassing the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921. which limited the number of European immigrants allowed. This was to limit undesirable ethnic and to keep the country as American as possible.
Over the years the number of immigrants would decrease. The National Origins Act of 1924 would limit more immigrants from arriving. One source Office of the Historian says the act gave ¨visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It also included Asians who wouldn't be allowed to come to America. In the time of The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, people would join worker's unions and it made people think that a revolution would occur and that anarchists would send threats to powerful political figures. These were factors that made Americans believe that communism and anarchism were affecting their country. In response, the government would arrest thousands of suspects nationwide and raid the headquarters of radical organizations. As I said before there were a lot of issues that often aren't brought up when people talk about the Roaring 20s. Since more Americans would have extra money during this time they would spend it on entertainment such as movies.
The movie business grew and thrived. 800 movies were released in a year and there would be more movie theaters with thousands of seats in big cities showing the increasing popularity of it. Southern California would be the center of the movie industry during this time. By the end of the decade, there would be 20 Hollywood studios that would forever be the heart of the American film industry. By the middle of the decade, 50 million people a week went to the movies. As more Americans had free time they would turn to sports more specifically Baseball would become more popular and be a good business. More people played this sport and thousands of spectators would go to the games. Stars like New York Yankees Legend Babe Ruth would be celebrities and help popularize baseball because of his ability to slam home runs. In general, more sports like boxing, golf, and tennis became popular and are still played today. Radio would be another achievement as it would be a household item and hundreds of different radio stations would be introduced throughout the decade, the radio was a way for people to listen to what was happening in the world, people now had the chance to listen to whatever was on like play by play description of sporting events or broadcast news and even political speeches. A revolutionary invention that brought entertainment and relevant information to a wider audience. The roaring twenties was more of a dramatic time and it had many issues at that time. I still consider it a roaring time as it was a time of so much change from its technology to its lifestyles. It was truly an interesting time to be alive,
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