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Annie Faulkner
Speakeasies are private and secret salons that in order to enter you had to know the "password". Speakeasies came about after Prohibition became in effect causing many legal businesses to shut down. Men and women wanted a place to drink without worry and enjoy themselves. This was a social aspect of the "Roaring Twenties" it was both negative and positive. The negative side of Speakeasies was that criminals were drawn to them. The article, "The Speakeasies of the 1920s", says, "Al Capone, leader of the Chicago Outfit, made an estimated $60 million a year supplying illegal beer and hard liquor to thousands of speakeasies he controlled in the late 1920s." (para, 3). Many criminals like Al Capone sold and ran many speakeasies. Speakeasies caused the crime rate to increase tremendously. A positive of Speakeasies is that it offered a place for women and men to come together have a good time and have jobs. The article, "The Speakeasies of the 1920s", says, "With thousands of underground clubs, and the prevalence of jazz bands, liquor-infused partying grew during the “Roaring Twenties,” when the term “dating” – young singles meeting without parental supervision — was first introduced." (para, 4). Women and men were getting more chances for work like dancers, singers, and bands. It was also bringing women and men together where everyone could come and drink and have a good time.

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When Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920, many thousands of formerly legal saloons across the country catering only to men closed down. People wanting to drink had to buy liquor from licensed druggists for "medicinal" purposes, clergymen for "religious" reasons or illegal sellers known as bootleggers. Another option was to enter private, unlicensed barrooms, nicknamed "speakeasies" for how low you had to speak the "password" to gain entry so as not to be overheard by law enforcement.

The result of Prohibition was a major and permanent shift in American social life. The illicit bars, also referred to as "blind pigs" and "gin joints," multiplied, especially in urban areas. They ranged from fancy clubs with jazz bands and ballroom dance floors to dingy backrooms, basements and rooms inside apartments. No longer segregated from drinking together, men and women reveled in speakeasies and another Prohibition-created venue, the house party. Restaurants offering booze targeted women, uncomfortable sitting at a bar, with table service. Italian-American speakeasy owners sparked widespread interest in Italian food by serving it with wine.

Organized criminals quickly seized on the opportunity to exploit the new lucrative criminal racket of speakeasies and clubs and welcomed women in as patrons. In fact, organized crime in America exploded because of bootlegging. Al Capone, leader of the Chicago Outfit, made an estimated $60 million a year supplying illegal beer and hard liquor to thousands of speakeasies he controlled in the late 1920s.

The competition for patrons in speakeasies created a demand for live entertainment. The already-popular jazz music, and the dances it inspired in speakeasies and clubs, fit into the era's raucous, party mood. With thousands of underground clubs, and the prevalence of jazz bands, liquor-infused partying grew during the "Roaring Twenties," when the term "dating" - young singles meeting without parental supervision - was first introduced.

Speakeasies were generally ill-kept secrets, and owners exploited low-paid police officers with payoffs to look the other way, enjoy a regular drink or tip them off about planned raids by federal Prohibition agents. Bootleggers who supplied the private bars would add water to good whiskey, gin and other liquors to sell larger quantities. Others resorted to selling still-produced moonshine or industrial alcohol, wood or grain alcohol, even poisonous chemicals such as carbolic acid. The bad stuff, such as "Smoke" made of pure wood alcohol, killed or maimed thousands of drinkers. To hide the taste of poorly distilled whiskey and "bathtub" gin, speakeasies offered to combine alcohol with ginger ale, Coca-Cola, sugar, mint, lemon, fruit juices and other flavorings, promoting the enduring mixed drink, or "cocktail," in the process.

As bootlegging enriched criminals throughout America, New York became America's center for organized crime, with bosses such as Salvatore Maranzano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello. At the height of Prohibition in the late 1920s, there were 32,000 speakeasies in New York alone. The most famous of them included former bootlegger Sherman Billingsley's fashionable Stork Club on West 58 Street, the Puncheon Club on West 49 favored by celebrity writers such as Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, the Club Intime next to the famous Polly Adler brothel in Midtown, Chumley's in the West Village and dives such as O'Leary's in the Bowery. Harlem, the city's black district, had its "hooch joints" inside apartments and the famed Cotton Club, owned by mobster Owney Madden, on 142 Street.

Owners of speakeasies, not their drinking customers, ran afoul of the federal liquor law, the Volstead Act. They often went to great lengths to hide their stashes of liquor to avoid confiscation - or use as evidence at trial - by police or federal agents during raids. At the 21 Club on 21 West 52nd (where the Puncheon moved in 1930), the owners had the architect build a custom camouflaged door, a secret wine cellar behind a false wall and a bar that with the push of a button would drop liquor bottles down a shoot to crash and drain into the cellar.

Near the end of the Prohibition Era, the prevalence of speakeasies, the brutality of organized criminal gangs vying to control the liquor racket, the unemployment and need for tax revenue that followed the market crash on Wall Street in 1929, all contributed to America's wariness about the 18 Amendment. With its repeal via the 21 Amendment in 1933 came an end to the carefree speakeasy and the beginning of licensed barrooms, far lower in number, where liquor is subject to federal regulation and taxes.

Next Story: Bootleggers and Bathtub Gin

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The Speakeasies of the 1920s - Prohibition: An Interactive History

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When Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920, many thousands of formerly legal saloons across the country catering only to men closed down. People wanting to drink had to buy liquor from licensed druggists for "medicinal" purposes, clergymen for "religious" reasons or illegal sellers known as bootleggers.

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The stock market during the 20's was a purely economic positive. Between 1920 and 1929 the stock market quadrupled "as we were approaching 1929, many were quite certain that the United States entered a "new paradigm" of economic prosperity."
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/its-the-roaring-20s-again-begin-to-prepare-for-the-same-ending-2021-05-21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcKlxGI9l9o

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I have read many articles over the years, and it seems that the manner in which the market has acted has caused many to confidently view market declines over the last 12 years as short-term opportunities to make long-term investments in a generally rising market. What I find most interesting about this commonly held perspective is that it presumes a linear expectation for a continuation in a long-term rising market.

Now, most of you that read my analysis know that I have been a staunch bull, especially after we struck my long-term pullback target in the 2200SPX region last year. In fact, my ideal target for this bull market which began in 2009 is in the 6000SPX region.

But, what if we are approaching a point in history where that very long-term bull market finally ends?

In this article, I am going to be using a point of reference that goes back 100 years in history. And since there really is no one left from that generation that is still alive, it is quite clear that we do not have a personal frame of reference from which we can relate to the "Roaring Twenties" of the 1920s. So, can we be doomed to repeat it?

Very few people reading this article even know what we are referring to when we bring up the "Roaring Twenties," and even less understand the implications.

So, let's learn a little history.

In 1918, the Spanish Flu was spreading around the globe and affected 20-40% of the world's population. In fact, it claimed the lives of over 50 million people globally. The U.S. alone lost approximately 675,000 lives to the Spanish Flu. As it abated, the U.S. then moved into the "Roaring Twenties."

The "Roaring Twenties" refers to the decade of the 1920s, which was a period of tremendous economic prosperity. During this period, we saw tremendous technological advancements, including the use of automobiles, telephones, moving pictures, radio, aviation and electronic appliances.

It was also a time where the United States experienced a stock market boom. In fact, the stock market quadrupled from 1920 until 1929.

As we were approaching 1929, many were quite certain that the United States entered a "new paradigm" of economic prosperity. Allow me to present to you what our financial leaders back in the 1920s said about our markets. For those that know their stock market history, you would know that those "in the know" were absolutely certain about the impossibility of a market crash right before the market crashed and led us into the Great Depression. Let me show you a few examples:

We will not have any more crashes in our time.

This was said by John Maynard Keynes in 1927, two years before the stock market crash which led to the Great Depression.

Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as they have predicted. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher within a few months.

This was said on October 17, 1929, a few weeks before the Great Crash, by Dr. Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics at Yale University. Dr. Fisher was one of the leading U.S. economists of his time.

I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future.

- E. H. H. Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928

There will be no interruption of our permanent prosperity.

- Myron E. Forbes, President, Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., January 12, 1928

And, these are just a few of the popular quotes of their day. And, by the way, has anyone heard of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company? You have not? Well, that is because they went bankrupt during the Great Depression. But, I digress.

As we know today, this did not end well for those that became intoxicated by their financial fortunes of the 1920s, as the stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. While the stock market struck its bottom within two years of the onset of the 1929 market crash, the Great Depression lasted almost a full decade.

Is anyone seeing any eerie similarities to our times today?

We are now approaching a year and a half after the onset of the Covid pandemic. And, we have also seen one of the strongest rallies in stock market history, with the stock market almost doubling within a year's time, with much higher likely to be seen. During the market period 90 years ago, the U.S. went through the Spanish Flu, and the market soared four-fold since. These are just two obvious similarities. But, keep in mind, these correlations are clearly not dispositive of my future expectations in and of themselves.

Moreover, since we began rallying off the March 2009 lows, and the conclusion of our last financial debacle, many have become quite confident in our government's ability, along with the Fed, to guide our financial future and prevent any prolonged financial pain. In fact, if you ask the average investor, they will tell you that the chances of another Great Depression are extremely unlikely.

These are just some of the types of comments we all so often see:

"Stonks only go up! If the FED is destroying price discovery and has guaranteed to backstop every crash, stonks only go up baby!""The Market will NEVER fall in a serious way with Democrats in charge... the Government and the Federal Reserve just won't allow it.""I simply do not understand how writers on SA don't comprehend this. The SPX is simply a matter of national security now. Pensions, sovereign wealth funds, everyone is too invested that any pullback will be a matter of national security. In the event of a pullback, the Federal Reserve and The Treasury will issue add'l stimulus to individuals in the form of transfer payments, and then supplement any drop in corporate earnings via transfer payments to corporations under the guise of 'Economic Stability Grants'.""Endless QE, dollar debasement and hyperinflation are all supportive of stock markets, real estate and other bubbly assets."

And, remember, we are still not even close to my ideal targets for the market yet. In fact, I am going to expect many comments to this current article to agree with my perspective. Yet, when we reach the top of the market, most will likely disagree with my perspective, and refuse to believe this can ever occur. That is simply the way markets work.

In fact, many former bears will likely be giving up, with some even turning bullish, before this long term top is finally struck. As an example, one of the foremost market bears, Harry Dent, has recently noted that if we do not top by 2022, then he will retire. If we can take him at his word, he will probably give up and retire next year, with the market then topping not long after he actually gives up.

Furthermore, almost 90 years after the 1929 market crash, Janet Yellen, our former Fed Chairman and current Secretary of the Treasury, pronounced that the banking system is "very much stronger" due to Fed supervision and higher capital levels. She then followed that up with what I believe will be a history-making statement, akin to those quoted above from generations past. Yellen also predicted that because of the measures the Fed has taken, another financial crisis is now unlikely "in our lifetime."

Most investors have been trained quite well over the last decade to expect a V-shaped recovery in the stock market no matter what it does. Our stock market during the last decade has trained investors in a Pavlovian manner to assume we will always be higher a year from now.

In fact, I believe the financial environment within which we have all lived from 2009 forward has only reinforced the belief that the Fed has everything under control. Every market drop has been met with a strong V-shaped recovery rally thereafter. It has reinforced investor's belief that "the market always comes back."

But, what if the next market dip does not lead to a comeback? What if the next market drop ushers in a period of financial devastation on par or even potentially greater than the Great Depression? There are not many who view this potential as realistic, especially since, as I noted at the start of this article, there is no one alive with any personal experience as to what that can mean.

Well, I am sorry to be the purveyor of bad tidings, but that is indeed my expectation. After this current rally fades in the coming year or two, I fear we run the risk of a Great-Depression-type event.

I am sure many of you are reading this and thinking I am absolutely out of my mind. I mean, one of the biggest bulls in the market right now, with targets of 6000SPX, is expecting a Great Depression? So, please allow me to explain.

For those that do not know me well, and are new to my analysis, I am what is known as an "Elliottician." This means that I utilize a form of market analysis based upon the Elliott Wave.

Back in the 1930s, an accountant named Ralph Nelson Elliott identified behavioral patterns within the stock market which represented the larger collective behavioral patterns of society en masse. And, in 1940, Elliott publicly tied the movements of human behavior to the natural law represented through Fibonacci mathematics.

Elliott understood that financial markets provide us with a representation of the overall mood or psychology of the masses. And, he also understood that markets are fractal in nature. That means they are variably self-similar at different degrees of trend.

Most specifically, Elliott theorized that public sentiment and mass psychology move in 5 waves within a primary trend, and 3 waves within a counter-trend. Once a 5 wave move in public sentiment has completed, then it is time for the subconscious sentiment of the public to shift in the opposite direction, which is simply the natural cycle within the human psyche, and not the operative effect of some form of "news."

This mass form of progression and regression seems to be hard wired deep within the psyche of all living creatures, and that is what we have come to know today as the "herding principle," which gives this theory its ultimate power.

And over the last 30 years, many social experiments have been conducted throughout the world which have provided scientific support to Elliott's theories presented almost a century ago.

For, example, in a paper entitled "Large Financial Crashes," published in 1997 in Physica A, a publication of the European Physical Society, the authors, within their conclusions, present a nice summation for market mechanics:

Stock markets are fascinating structures with analogies to what is arguably the most complex dynamical system found in natural sciences, i.e., the human mind. Instead of the usual interpretation of the Efficient Market Hypothesis in which traders extract and incorporate consciously (by their action) all information contained in market prices, we propose that the market as a whole can exhibit an "emergent" behavior not shared by any of its constituents. In other words, we have in mind the process of the emergence of intelligent behavior at a macroscopic scale that individuals at the microscopic scales have no idea of. This process has been discussed in biology for instance in the animal populations such as ant colonies or in connection with the emergence of consciousness.

As Elliott stated:

The causes of these cyclical changes seem clearly to have their origin in the immutable natural law that governs all things, including the various moods of human behavior. Causes, therefore, tend to become relatively unimportant in the long-term progress of the cycle. This fundamental law cannot be subverted or set aside by statutes or restrictions. Current news and political developments are of only incidental importance, soon forgotten; their presumed influence on market trends is not as weighty as is commonly believed. - R.N. Elliott - October 1, 1940

So, this all now begs the question as to where we reside within that Elliott Wave structure.
Click image to view full-size version
If you look at our analysis of the long-term Elliott Wave structure (the chart above was provided by Garrett Patten of ElliottWaveTrader), which includes the years prior to the Great Depression, and if you compare some of the points I noted above regarding the time period prior to the Great Depression to our current times, you would see many eerily similar points.

In fact, many in the market are now quite certain that the Fed has conquered the business cycle, and is in full control of our markets, quite similar to the period just prior to the Great Depression. Many people even claim that we no longer have free markets, as the Fed simply manipulates our markets. Moreover, Janet Yellen placed the cherry on top of this perfect storm concoction with her assurance that we will not see another financial crisis such as the one experienced in 2008 in our lifetime.

You see, the markets have now trained us quite well to assume that the only reason we keep going higher and higher is because of the Fed. And, investors mistakenly believe that we will always be able to "safely" buy big drops since it will certainly come back thereafter due to the Fed having our backs. Isn't that what most articles you read confidently claim?

Now, if you look closely at the chart above, you will notice that our analysis suggests that the market can still rally up to the 6000SPX region in the coming years. However, once that rally completes its final Elliott Wave structure, we will likely be topping out in a multi-decade rally that began in the 1930s. Yes, that means we are now completing a 100-year long structure.

In fact, back in 1941, with World War II raging around him, Ralph Nelson Elliott penned the following market prognostication:

[1941] should mark the final correction of the 13 year pattern of defeatism. This termination will also mark the beginning of a new Supercycle. . ., comparable in many respects with the long [advance] from 1857 to 1929. [This] Supercycle is not expected to culminate until about 2012.

For those of you that do not understand this quote, Elliott was predicting the start of a 70-year bull market in the face of World War II raging around him. Quite an amazing prediction, even if he was off by a decade. Still, if we do top out in the coming several years, he would be approximately 88% accurate in his prognostication. I have personally never seen a market prognostication in my lifetime that has been anywhere near as amazing as Elliott's back in 1941. And, again, consider the time in which he made this prediction, and how silly it must have sounded at the time.

In standing upon the shoulders of giants, I am potentially seeing the culmination of this very long-term bull market, and the emergence of a major bear market, the likes of which has not been seen in modern times.

You see, the crash which was seen in 1929 was a wave [II] bear market, whereas we are now moving towards the completion of that 100-year wave [III] bull market. And, once wave [III] completes, it will usher in a wave [IV] bear market.

Now, in Elliott Wave analysis, there is something called the theory of alternation. It suggests that if the 2nd wave was a sharp and fast correction, then the 4th wave of the same degree will likely be a long and drawn-out event. Since the wave [II] which ushered in the Great Depression was a relatively short spike down, then I can reasonably assume that wave [IV] can be a long and drawn-out event.

So, when taking all these factors into consideration, I think it is reasonable to expect that, once we complete wave [III] in the coming several years, we will usher in a long and drawn-out bear market in wave [IV], which is the same wave degree as the wave [II] which ushered in the Great Depression. Maybe we need to expect the Greater Depression based upon these expectations.

Therefore, if one is going to take the position that this next bear market will be a major buying opportunity then you may be holding onto losing positions for over a decade. Of course, there will be bear market rallies along the way, but there is a strong probability that the highs struck within the next few years may not be seen again for many years to come.

Now, I want to go back again to a point I made when I began this article. When it comes down to it, I am neither a perma-bull nor a perma-bear. Rather, I simply want to be on the correct side of the market at all times. Therefore, I am simply perma-profit. To that end, I am not providing my analysis with any form of colored glasses or bias. I am simply explaining to you what I objectively see. And, when you sit back and attempt to understand what I am trying to convey, it should be quite sobering.

Again, I have never been one who is going to continually warn you of an imminent bear market, as many other authors or analysts seem to do for their various reasons. You all know those of which I speak. And, just as a broken clock, they will eventually be right. Rather, I am one who is only interested in being on the correct side of the market trend, with no bias for direction other than what the market presents to me. In fact, many have called me a perma-bull these last few years, thinking I was off my rocker when I called for a rally from the 2200SPX region to 4000+, with an ideal target in the 6000SPX region around the 2023 timeframe.

As just one example, another contributor posted this to me about my prognostication as we were bottoming in March of 2020, and it is a typical type of comment I received at the time:

Coming from someone who still thinks the bull market of January is alive enough to carry us to 4,000, that's highly unmeaningful... Here is the 2200 exactly that you said the S&P would bottom at before taking the trip back up to 4,000... What do you want to bet the ECONOMY is going to pull it down a lot further and that 4,000 is a lot further away than your charts ever said... my own resolution is that this market has a lot further to fall because it is now following the economy, which it long divorced itself from; whereas Avi doesn't believe the economy ever means anything to stocks and has told me so several times last year... So, you have that common sense view, or you can believe Avi's chart magic will get you through all of that and is right about a big bounce off of 2200 all the way back up to 4,000.

After saying all this, I will note that I can always be wrong. But, I must warn you that this analysis with which I am providing this prognostication has been scarily accurate for many years now. Moreover, my "alternative" perspective is that the market will ONLY return to the 1800-2200SPX region from the 6000SPX region. That is an estimated 70% decline. And, as you can see from my zoomed in chart below, that is the alternative wave [2] in dark green, and represents my "good" scenario.
Click image to view full-size version
However, if we are to see the full fury of what these charts suggest, it would seem we have strong potential to return to the 1000SPX region, which would be over an 80% decline, and can take us over a decade to complete. The reason I am expecting it to take longer than a decade is because the 4th wave of one lesser degree occurred from 2000-2009. Therefore, a reasonable expectation would be for this 4th wave of one higher degree to take longer than the 2000-2009 bear market.

This will now bring me full circle to our discussion at the start of the article. The market is potentially approaching the perfect storm. Market participants have become certain that the Fed stands behind the market, and that any decline will be immediately followed by a Fed-driven rally taking us back to new all-time highs again. Investors have been trained in a Pavlovian manner over the last decade to expect this as an almost certainty. In fact, there is almost a "can't-lose" mentality imbued within the current investor psyche, which has spawned the popular acronym "BTFD" (if there are still some of you that don't know what this means, feel free to look it up on Google).

So, does one really believe we will forever remain in an environment that provides us with short-term opportunities to make long-term investments in a generally rising market? Or, has the market simply trained us to believe that this type of environment will continue in a linear fashion unabated for decades to come?

I, for one, do not see the market as a linear environment. That is one of the most valuable lessons that Elliott Wave analysis has taught me. Moreover, one of the most powerful aspects of Elliott Wave analysis is that it provides us with market context, which I have not similarly found in any other type of analysis methodology. This current market context is providing us with a 100+ year perspective.

George Santayana once noted that "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I strongly urge us all to take the lessons learned from the similarities seen between the time frame prior to the Great Depression and our current market structure. And, as we head towards my higher targets over the coming year or two, I will certainly be taking action based upon how the market presents itself at that time.

Again, I can always be wrong, and truly wish I am, since the ramifications of my being correct could have a devastating impact upon most Americans as we look towards the last half of this decade and beyond. And, if the market continues to prove this thesis correct over the coming two years, then we will need to appropriately prepare as we approach the completion of this bull market.

Lastly, I want to note that I am generally a very positive individual. In fact, those that know my own personal story know that the only way I am where I am today, and not lying in some gutter somewhere having given up on life, is due to my positive attitude. (I have linked a post from ElliottWaveTrader which includes my personal story here, for those interested). So, it does pain me to write such an article. Therefore, please recognize the context within which I am presenting this article, as it is certainly not coming from the pen of a perma-bear or one who is always negative, so please take it with the seriousness with which it is meant. We are still a bit early to prepare, but you must at least begin to consider the potential.
Avi Gilburt is a widely followed Elliott Wave analyst and fo under of ElliottWaveTrader.net, a live trading room featuring his analysis on the S&P 500, precious metals, oil & USD, plus a team of analysts covering a range of other markets.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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It's The Roaring '20s Again - Begin To Prepare For The Same Ending

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I have read many articles over the years, and it seems that the manner in which the market has acted has caused many to confidently view market declines over the last 12 years as short-term opportunities to make long-term investments in a generally rising market.

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The rise of the mafia in the 1920s was originally formed by the ban of the alcohol trade in the economy (Prohibition). This caused the rise of an underground economic system that negatively impacted the United States. The mafia began with selling alcohol illegally to people around the nation. The mafia's 'business' caused the U.S. government to lose profit because of money transferring in underground systems. These then became large crime organizations that had heavy influence among the nation.

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Immigration and Prohibition

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, waves of Italians, mostly farmers, craftsmen and unskilled laborers, flocked to America in search of better economic opportunities. In New York City alone, the number of Italians soared from 20,000 to 250,000 between 1880 and 1890, and by 1910, that number had jumped to 500,000 immigrants and first-generation Italian Americans, or one-tenth of the city's population, according to historian Thomas Repetto. The majority of these immigrants were law-abiding, but, as with most large groups of people, some were criminals who formed neighborhood gangs, often preying on those in their own communities.

Did you know? Mafia boss John Gotti (1940-2002) was dubbed the "Teflon Don" for his ability to evade prosecution. However, after mobster Sammy Gravano turned government informant and testified against Gotti, Gotti was convicted on murder and racketeering charges in 1992 and sent to prison, where he died of cancer.

During the 1920s Prohibition era, when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcoholic beverages, Italian-American gangs (along with other ethnic gangs) entered the booming bootleg liquor business and transformed themselves into sophisticated criminal enterprises, skilled at smuggling, money laundering and bribing police and other public officials. During this time, the Sicilian Mafia in Italy, which had flourished since at least the mid-19th century, was under attack from the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Some Sicilian Mafiosi escaped to the United States, where they got involved in bootlegging and became part of the burgeoning American Mafia. The Mafia in the U.S. and Sicily were separate entities, although the Americans adopted some Italian traditions, including omerta, an all-important code of conduct and secrecy that forbid any cooperation with government authorities.

The American Mafia Gets Organized

In the late 1920s, a bloody power struggle known as the Castellammarese War broke out between New York City's two biggest Italian-American criminal gangs. In 1931, after the faction led by Sicilian-born crime boss Salvatore Maranzano (1886-1931) came out on top, he crowned himself the "capo di tutti capi," or boss of all bosses, in New York. Unhappy with Maranzano's power grab, a rising mobster named Lucky Luciano (1897-1962) had him murdered that same year. Luciano then masterminded the formation of a central organization called the Commission to serve as a sort of national board of directors for the American Mafia, which by then consisted of at least 20 crime families across the country.

New York, which had become America's organized-crime capital, had been divided into five main Mafia families; everywhere else the Mafia operated, there was just one crime family per city. The Commission's role was to set policies and mediate disagreements among the families. Each of the five New York families received a vote on the Commission when it was established, while the heads of the families in Chicago and Buffalo also got one vote each.

The U.S. Mafia: Hierarchy and Rituals

Typically, each American Mafia crime family was organized around a hierarchy headed by a boss, who ruled with unquestioned authority and received a cut of every money-making operation taken on by any member of his family. Second-in-command was the underboss and below him were the capos, or captains, who each controlled a crew of 10 or so soldiers (men who had been "made," or inducted into the family). Each family also had a consigliere, who acted as an advisor and ombudsman. At the bottom of the chain were associates, people who worked for or did business with the family but weren't full-fledged members.

Becoming an official member of a Mafia family traditionally involved an initiation ceremony in which a person performed such rituals as pricking his finger to draw blood and holding a burning picture of a patron saint while taking an oath of loyalty. Italian heritage was a prerequisite for every inductee (although some crime families required such lineage only from the father's side) and men often, though not always, had to commit a murder before they could be made. Becoming a member of the Mafia was meant to be a lifetime commitment and each Mafiosi swore to obey omerta, the all-important code of loyalty and silence. Mafiosi were also expected to follow other rules, including never assaulting one another and never cheating with another member's girlfriend or wife.

The Mafia's 20th-Century Dominance

With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the Mafia moved beyond bootlegging and into a range of underworld activities, from illegal gambling to loan-sharking to prostitution rings. The Mafia also sunk its tentacles into labor unions and legitimate businesses, including construction, garbage collection, trucking, restaurants and nightclubs and the New York garment industry, and raked in enormous profits through kickbacks and protection shakedowns. Instrumental to the Mafia's success was its ability to bribe corrupt public officials and business leaders, along with witnesses and juries in court cases.

By the mid-20th century, there were 24 known crime families in America, comprised of an estimated 5,000 full-fledged members and thousands of associates across the country. Prior to the 1960s, some government leaders, including FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, voiced skepticism about the existence of a national Italian-American organized crime network and suggested instead that crime gangs operated strictly on a local level. As a result, law enforcement agencies made few inroads in stopping the Mafia's rise during this period.

Taking Down the Mafia

In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which proved to be a powerful tool in the government's war on the Mafia, as it allowed prosecutors to go after crime families and their sources of revenue, both legal and illegal. During the 1980s and 1990s, RICO laws were used to convict numerous high-level mobsters. Some Mafiosi, faced with long prison sentences, broke the once-sacred code of omerta and testified against their fellow mobsters in exchange for a place in the federal witness-protection program. At the same time, Mafia membership declined as insular Italian-American neighborhoods, once a traditional recruiting ground for mobsters, underwent demographic shifts and became more assimilated into society at large.

By the start of the 21st century, the American Mafia was a shadow of its former self. However, the Mafia remained active in some of its traditional ventures, including loan-sharking and illegal gambling, and its involvement in labor unions and legitimate industries such as construction hadn't been completely eliminated. Contributing to the Mafia's continued survival may be the fact that following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, significant resources devoted to investigating organized crime (which had already seen cuts prior to 9/11) were shifted to counterterrorism work.

PHOTO GALLERIES

Fact Check

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Mafia in the United States - Today, Italian-American & History

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The American Mafia is an Italian-American organized crime network with operations in cities across the United States, particularly New York and Chicago. The mafia rose in power through its illicit trade in alcohol during the 1920s Prohibition era.

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Flapper's of the 1920's were young women and full of energetic freedom. The flappers were a social and political topic. They were a positive impact to the "Roaring Twenties". In 1920, women were allowed to vote which gave the opportunity for women's independence to step forward. With the explosion of jazz music, alcohol, and wide set stages flapper girls appeared. Flapper girl's wore fashionable dresses, high heels, full makeup, and usually wore shorter hairstyles. Flapper girls were the symbol of a stylish young party girl and practiced a sexual freedom that shocked many at the start. Flapper's positively impacted the era since they helped the embrace of women's sexuality.

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Women's Independence

Multiple factors-political, cultural and technological-led to the rise of the flappers.

During World War I, women entered the workforce in large numbers, receiving higher wages that many working women were not inclined to give up during peacetime.

In August 1920, women's independence took another step forward with the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. And in the early 1920s, Margaret Sanger made strides in providing contraception to women, sparking a wave of women's rights to birth control.

The 1920s also brought about Prohibition, the result of the 18th Amendment ending legal alcohol sales. Combined with an explosion of popularity for jazz music and jazz clubs, the stage was set for speakeasies, which offered illegally produced and distributed alcohol.

Henry Ford 's mass production of cars brought down automobile prices, allowing the younger generation far more mobility than in earlier eras. Many people, a number of them young women, drove these cars into cities, which experienced a population boom.

With all these pieces in place, an unprecedented social explosion for young women was all but inevitable.

What Is a Flapper?

No one knows how the word flapper entered American slang, but its usage first appeared just following World War I.

The classic image of a flapper is that of a stylish young party girl. Flappers smoked in public, drank alcohol, danced at jazz clubs and practiced sexual freedom that shocked the Victorian morality of their parents.

Flapper Dress

Flappers were famous-or infamous, depending on your viewpoint-for their rakish attire.

They donned fashionable flapper dresses of shorter, calf-revealing lengths and lower necklines, though not typically form-fitting: Straight and slim was the preferred silhouette.

Flappers wore high heel shoes and threw away their corsets in favor of bras and lingerie. They gleefully applied rouge, lipstick, mascara and other cosmetics, and favored shorter hairstyles like the bob.

Designers like Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Jean Patou ruled flapper fashion. Jean Patou's invention of knit swimwear and women's sportswear like tennis clothes inspired a freer, more relaxed silhouette, while the knitwear of Chanel and Schiaparelli brought no-nonsense lines to women's clothing. Madeleine Vionnet's bias-cut designs (made by cutting fabric against the grain) emphasized the shape of a woman's body in a more natural way.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald found his place in American literary history with "The Great Gatsby" in 1925, but he had already garnered a reputation before that as a spokesperson for the Jazz Age.

The press at the time credited Fitzgerald as the creator of the flapper because of his debut novel, " This Side of Paradise," though the book didn't specifically mention flappers.

The credit stuck and Scott began to write about flapper culture in short stories for the Saturday Evening Post in 1920, opening up the Jazz Age lifestyle to middle-class homes.

A collection of these stories was published that year under the title "Flappers and Philosophers," cementing Fitzgerald as the flapper expert for the next decade.

Zelda Fitzgerald

If Fitzgerald was considered a chronicler of flappers, his wife Zelda Fitzgerald was considered the quintessential example of one.

A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda was a stylish, free-spirited young woman who met Fitzgerald in 1918 while he was stationed there in the military. She was 17 at the time and-as the daughter of a prominent local judge-her hedonistic escapades scandalized her family.

The pair was married in New York City one month after "This Side of Paradise" was released and soon embarked on a lifestyle of reckless partying and publicity-seeking in Europe and across America.

Both publicly claimed that Zelda was Fitzgerald's inspiration for all his female characters, bringing her in as much demand for her insight as he was. She was soon writing articles about the "modern" flapper lifestyle.

Lois Long

Lois Long was another writer chronicling flapper culture in print. Using the pseudonym Lipstick, Long began writing for The New Yorker shortly after its inception.

Her work chronicled the life of a flapper and recounted her real-life adventures of drinking and dancing all night long. She typically wrote her column-first named "When Nights Are Bold" and "Tables For Two," launched in 1925-directly after her nights out, typing into the wee hours.

Flappers in Advertising

Recognizing that women now had disposable incomes of their own, advertising courted their interests beyond household items. Soap, perfume, cosmetics, cigarettes and fashion accessories were all the subjects of ads targeting women.

Helen Lansdowne Resor was the most powerful woman in advertising at the time. The head of women's advertising at the J. Walter Thompson Agency, she worked her way up from secretary thanks to her keen understanding of selling to women. She was the first advertising executive to push sex appeal as a method of marketing to women, often focused on getting male attention.

Flapper style regularly graced the covers of magazines like Vanity Fair and Life, drawn by artists like John Held and Gordon Conway.

Flappers on Film

Anita Loos' book "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and its follow-up "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" were famous satires of the world of flappers. The books focused on flapper Lorelei Lee and her male conquests. The first film version of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" was released in 1928 (another version was released in 1953, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell).

The popularity of movies exploded during the 1920s, though the screen versions of flappers were typically less permissive than the real-world versions. The first popular flapper movie was "Flaming Youth," released in 1923 and starring Colleen Moore, who was soon Hollywood's "go-to" actress for playing flappers onscreen.

Louise Brooks auditioned for a part in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" but failed. Nonetheless, the image of Brooks and her precise bob has become the archetypal vision of a flapper. The Hollywood portion of her film career featured several starring flapper roles before she moved on to more serious dramas.

The 'It' Girl

Clara Bow 's nickname was "the It Girl," referring to her 1927 film "It," which was adapted from a magazine article by Elinor Glyn. Bow was the most successful screen flapper, beloved for the unpretentious manner of her portrayals and her frank sex appeal.

Anna May Wong broke barriers as the first Chinese-American movie star. Her image as a flapper off-screen was encouraged by movie studios to increase her appeal beyond the exotic roles in which they cast her.

Dancing was a crucial part of flapper culture. The Charleston and the Black Bottom were popular and considered more suggestive than any moves that had come before. The acclaimed 1923 British play "The Dancers," which starred Tallulah Bankhead, examined the dance obsessions of two flappers.

Criticism of Flappers

Not everyone was a fan of women's newfound sexual freedom and consumer ethos, and there was inevitably a public reaction against flappers.

Utah attempted to pass legislation on the length of women's skirts. Virginia tried to ban any dress that revealed too much of a woman's throat and Ohio tried to ban form-fitting outfits.

Women who populated beaches in bathing suits that were deemed inappropriate were escorted off the beach by police or arrested if they refused.

Popular Washington, D.C., hostess Mrs. John B. Henderson attempted to start a mass movement against what she considered vulgar fashions, appealing to prominent women's clubs and colleges for help.

Clergymen like Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Baptist pastor Dr. John Roach Straton became known for their tirades against young women's fashions.

Flappers also received criticism from women's rights activists like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Lillian Symes, who felt flappers had gone too far in their embrace of licentiousness.

End of the Flappers

The age of the flapper came tumbling down suddenly on October 29, 1929, with the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. No one could afford the lifestyle any longer, and the new era of frugality made the freewheeling hedonism of the Roaring Twenties seem wildly out of touch with grim new economic realities.

Many film-star flappers had already met their end two years earlier with the advent of talking film, which was not always kind to them. The Hays Code in 1930, which severely limited sexual themes in movies, made independent women in the flapper mold almost impossible to portray onscreen.

Sources

Flapper. Joshua Zeitz.
Flappers: A Guide To An American Subculture. Kelly Boyer Sagert.
Flappers and the New American Woman. Catherine Gourley.
A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character, and the Promise of America. Jenna Weissman Joselit.

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Multiple factors-political, cultural and technological-led to the rise of the flappers. During World War I, women entered the workforce in large numbers, receiving higher wages that many working women were not inclined to give up during peacetime. In August 1920, women's independence took another step forward with the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.

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The 18th amendment is political positive because it decreased the amount of people drinking and helped people with drinking problems stop drinking since it was illegal to buy them. https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/amendment-xviii/interps/169

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In his important study of the passage and repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, Daniel Okrent identified the powerful political coalition that worked successfully in the two decades leading to the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment:

[F]ive distinct, if occasionally overlapping, components made up this unspoken coalition: racists, progressives, suffragists, populists (whose ranks included a small socialist auxiliary), and nativists. Adherents of each group may have been opposed to alcohol for its own sake, but used the Prohibition impulse to advance ideologies and causes that had little to do with it.

Racism was unashamedly blatant. According to Okrent, "it was a familiar characterization, and its reach extended beyond the boundaries of the old Confederacy. Frances Willard herself [a leading progressive advocate of temperance] had adopted the imagery, asserting that 'the grogshot is the Negro's center of power. Better whiskey and more of it is the rallying cry of dark faced mobs.'" Both Prohibition and the suffrage amendment had been "linked in the holy advocacy of politicians who regarded both as expressions of moral virtue" (like William Jennings Bryan), and "had become politically welded to one another, not because of moral congruence," but because of political convenience. With the nation at war with Imperial Germany, populists and nativists joined in moral condemnation of the beer-drinking culture of German-Americans, yet another component of the coalition that carried the Amendment to ratification.

What is all too conspicuous in the coalition supporting the Eighteenth Amendment is not only blatant racism against people of color, but also a racism of ethnic hatred against German-Americans and the more recent immigrants to the United States-the so-called "hyphenated Americanism" against which Theodore Roosevelt inveighed. These groups did not share either the religion (Catholic Italian-Americans and Jews) or the drinking habits of the dominant American Protestant majority that felt increasingly at threat. In effect, the drinking habits of these Americans became a proxy for American racism and religious intolerance, in a way that echoes and anticipates what the Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman acknowledged as the basis for Nixon's War on Crime: "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black . . . but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt these communities."

This essay is part of a discussion about the Eighteenth Amendment with Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Professor of Politics and Parliamentarian, Princeton University. Read the full discussion here.

The Eighteenth Amendment did not, in my judgment, arise from a sober secular reflection on how to deal with the harms of alcohol abuse, which it may have aggravated, but from sectarian and highly idiosyncratic perfectionist Protestant ideals. America, a nation of immigrants, remains, as our contemporary politics shows, vulnerable to sometimes irrational fear of new immigrants of different ethnicities or religions from the dominant majority.

America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was at a vulnerable transitional moment away from the anti-racism of the Reconstruction Amendments to an increasingly racist culture (importantly supported both by American politicians and by the Supreme Court of the United States in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)) attracted for this reason to European models of racist imperialism to its own version of imperialism. The North and South, which had fought a civil war ultimately over slavery and the cultural racism that rationalized it, buried its enduring ethical meaning as white men found common ground in racist imperialist ventures abroad. The suggestion that the solution to civil war in a democracy is war abroad is as old as Athena's patriarchal advice to democratic Athens in Aeschylus's The Oresteia:

Never pluck the heart of the battle cock
And plant it in our people-intestine war
seething against themselves. Let our wars
rage on abroad, with all their force, to satisfy
our powerful lust for fame. But as for the bird
that fights at home-my curse on civil war.

It was this increasingly racist and imperialistic American culture that supported our entering a European war among competing European imperialisms, World War I, which most Americans of that period probably did not want to fight and which, disastrously, set the stage for the even more catastrophic World War II. Those who resisted the unpopular war (which Wilson, as a presidential candidate, had promised not to enter) had already been unjustly prosecuted in violation of what we now regard as our better traditions of free speech; the Prohibition Amendment further demonized them by racializing and indeed criminalizing their ways of life, including the role beer and wine played in their ways of life. The dominance of such fear-ridden irrationalism in support of the Eighteenth Amendment-over any secular concern with how more effectively to lower the harms from alcohol abuse-discredits its normative legitimacy.

Further Reading:

Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (New York: Scribner, 2010).

Richard F. Hamm, Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995).

Edward J. Renehan Jr., The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Stephen Kinzer, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2017).

Kristin L. Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).

David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American History (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001).

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In his important study of the passage and repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, Daniel Okrent identified the powerful political coalition that worked successfully in the two decades leading to the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment: [F]ive distinct, if occasionally overlapping, components made up this unspoken coalition: racists, progressives, suffragists, populists (whose ranks included a small socialist auxiliary), and nativists.

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The women's suffrage movement is the right of women to vote in electrons. It took activists almost 100 years to win the right to vote. By August 18th, 1920 the 19th Amendment was established and allowed American women to have all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. This event was politically positive because it allowed women to be treated equally and have the same rights as men, women were finally allowed to have their own political identities.

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Women's Rights Movement Begins

The campaign for women's suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and '30s, most states had extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had.

At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were proliferating across the United States- temperance leagues, religious movements, moral-reform societies, anti- slavery organizations-and in many of these, women played a prominent role.

Meanwhile, many American women were beginning to chafe against what historians have called the "Cult of True Womanhood": that is, the idea that the only "true" woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.

Put together, all of these contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen of the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists-mostly women, but some men-gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights. They were invited there by the reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Most of the delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention agreed: American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments that the delegates produced, "that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

What this meant, among other things, was that they believed women should have the right to vote.

Civil Rights and Women's Rights During the Civil War

During the 1850s, the women's rights movement gathered steam, but lost momentum when the Civil War began. Almost immediately after the war ended, the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution raised familiar questions of suffrage and citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, extends the Constitution's protection to all citizens-and defines "citizens" as "male"; the 15th, ratified in 1870, guarantees Black men the right to vote.

Some women's suffrage advocates believed that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. As a result, they refused to support the 15th Amendment and even allied with racist Southerners who argued that white women's votes could be used to neutralize those cast by African Americans.

In 1869, a new group called the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. They began to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Others argued that it was unfair to endanger Black enfranchisement by tying it to the markedly less popular campaign for female suffrage. This pro-15th-Amendment faction formed a group called the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for the franchise on a state-by-state basis.

Gallery: The Progressive Campaign for Suffrage

This animosity eventually faded, and in 1890 the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the organization's first president.

By then, the suffragists' approach had changed. Instead of arguing that women deserved the same rights and responsibilities as men because women and men were "created equal," the new generation of activists argued that women deserved the vote because they were different from men.

They could make their domesticity into a political virtue, using the franchise to create a purer, more moral "maternal commonwealth."

This argument served many political agendas: Temperance advocates, for instance, wanted women to have the vote because they thought it would mobilize an enormous voting bloc on behalf of their cause, and many middle-class white people were swayed once again by the argument that the enfranchisement of white women would "ensure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained."

Did you know? In 1923, the National Woman's Party proposed an amendment to the Constitution that prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sex. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment has never been ratified.

Winning the Vote at Last

Starting in 1910, some states in the West began to extend the vote to women for the first time in almost 20 years. Idaho and Utah had given women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century.

Still, southern and eastern states resisted. In 1916, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt unveiled what she called a "Winning Plan" to get the vote at last: a blitz campaign that mobilized state and local suffrage organizations all over the country, with a special focus on those recalcitrant regions.

Meanwhile, a splinter group called the National Woman's Party founded by Alice Paul focused on more radical, militant tactics-hunger strikes and White House pickets, for instance-aimed at winning dramatic publicity for their cause.

World War I slowed the suffragists' campaign but helped them advance their argument nonetheless: Women's work on behalf of the war effort, activists pointed out, proved that they were just as patriotic and deserving of citizenship as men.

Finally, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. And on November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.

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Women's Suffrage - The U.S. Movement, Leaders & 19th Amendment

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The women's suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

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The Harlem Renaissance was positive for the roaring '20s because throughout 1910-1930 there was a cultural boom of music, art, and literature for the African American Community. Some notable names that gained a lot of credit and recognition for their work were Langston Hughes, Du Bois, and many more. They did this while still fighting for the rights and liberties of African Americans in a white-dominated Manhatten
https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance

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"The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Age#:~:text=The%20Jazz%20Age%20was%20a,States%2C%20the%20birthplace%20of%20jazz.)

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The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New Orleans as mainly sourced from the culture of the diaspora, jazz played a significant part in wider cultural changes in this period, and its influence on popular culture continued long afterwards. The Jazz Age is often referred to in conjunction with the Roaring Twenties, and in the United States, it overlapped in significant cross-cultural ways with the Prohibition Era. The movement was largely affected by the introduction of radios nationwide. During this time, the Jazz Age was intertwined with the developing youth culture. The movement also helped start the beginning of the European Jazz movement. American author F. Scott Fitzgerald is widely credited with coining the term, first using it in his 1922 short story collection titled Tales of the Jazz Age.

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. New Orleans provided a great opportunity for the development of jazz because it was a port city with many cultures and beliefs intertwined. While in New Orleans, jazz was influenced by Creole music, ragtime, and blues.

Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music". In the beginning of the 20th century, dixieland jazz developed as an early form of jazz. In the 1920s, jazz became recognized as a major form of musical expression. It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African-American and European-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. From Africa, jazz got its rhythm, "blues", and traditions of playing or singing in one's own expressive way. From Europe, jazz got its harmony and instruments. Both used improvisation, which became a large part of jazz.

Louis Armstrong brought the improvisational solo to the forefront of a piece. Jazz is generally characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation.

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.

In the 1920s, the laws widely were disregarded, and tax revenues were lost. Well-organized criminal gangs took control of the beer and liquor supply for many cities, unleashing a crime wave that shocked the U.S. This prohibition was taken advantage of by gangsters, led by Al Capone earning $60 million from illegally selling alcohol. The resulting illicit speakeasies that grew from this era became lively venues of the "Jazz Age", hosting popular music that included current dance songs, novelty songs and shows tunes.

By the late 1920s, a new opposition mobilized across the U.S. Anti-prohibitionists, or "wets," attacked prohibition as causing crime, lowering local revenues, and imposing rural Protestant religious values on urban America. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Some states continued statewide prohibition, marking one of the latter stages of the Progressive Era.

Speakeasies/records

Formed as a result of the eighteenth amendment, speakeasies were places (often owned by organized criminals) where customers could drink alcohol and relax or speakeasy. Jazz was played in these speakeasies as a countercultural type of music to fit in with the illicit environment and events going on. Jazz artists were therefore hired to play at speakeasies. Al Capone, the famous organized crime leader, gave jazz musicians previously living in poverty a steady and professional income. A Renegade History of the United States states: "The singer Ethel Waters fondly recalled that Capone treated her 'with respect, applause, deference, and paid in full.'" Also from A Renegade History of the United States, "The pianist Earl Hines remembered that 'Scarface [Al Capone] got along well with musicians. He liked to come into a club with his henchmen and have the band play his requests. He was very free with $100 tips.'" The illegal culture of speakeasies lead to what was known as "black and tan" clubs which had multiracial crowds. There were many speakeasies, especially in Chicago and New York. New York had, at the height of Prohibition, 32,000 speakeasies. At speakeasies, both payoffs and mechanisms for hiding alcohol were used. Charlie Burns, in recalling his ownership of several speakeasies employed these strategies as a way to preserve his and Jack Kriendler's illegal clubs. This includes forming relationships with local police and firemen. Mechanisms that a trusted engineer created include one that when a button was pushed, tongue blocks under shelves of liquor would drop, making the shelves drop back and liquor bottles fall down a chute, break, and drain the alcohol through rocks and sand. An alarm also went off if the button was pushed to alert customers of a raid. Another mechanism used by Burns was a wine cellar with a thick door flush with the wall. It had a small, almost unnoticeable hole for a rod to be pushed in to activate a lock and open the door.

Rum running/bootlegging

As to where speakeasies obtained alcohol, there were rum runners and bootleggers. Rum running, in this case, was the organized smuggling of liquor by land or sea into the U.S. Decent foreign liquor was high-end alcohol during prohibition, and William McCoy had some of the best of it. Bill McCoy was in the rum-running business, and at certain points of time was ranked among the best. To avoid being caught, he sold liquor just outside the territorial waters of the United States. Buyers would come to him to pick up his booze as a precaution for McCoy. McCoy's liquor speciality was selling high-quality whiskey without diluting the alcohol. Bootlegging was making and or smuggling alcohol around the U.S. As selling the alcohol could make plenty of money, there are several major ways this was done. One strategy used by Frankie Yale and the Genna brothers gang (both involved in organized crime) was to give poor Italian Americans alcohol stills to make alcohol for them at $15 per day's work. Another strategy was to buy liquor from rumrunners. Racketeers would also buy closed breweries and distilleries and hire former employees to make alcohol. Another person famous for organized crime named Johnny Torrio partnered with two other mobsters and legitimate brewer Joseph Stenson to make illegal beer in a total of nine breweries. Finally, some racketeers stole industrial grain alcohol and redistilled it to sell in speakeasies.

From 1919, Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz Band of musicians from New Orleans played in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where in 1922 they became the first black jazz band of New Orleans origin to make recordings. The year also saw the first recording by Bessie Smith, the most famous of the 1920s blues singers. Chicago, meanwhile, was the main center developing the new " Hot Jazz", where King Oliver joined Bill Johnson. Bix Beiderbecke formed The Wolverines in 1924.

The same year, Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson dance band as featured soloist, leaving in 1925. The original New Orleans style was polyphonic, with theme variation and simultaneous collective improvisation. Armstrong was a master of his hometown style, but by the time he joined Henderson's band, he was already a trailblazer in a new phase of jazz, with its emphasis on arrangements and soloists. Armstrong's solos went well beyond the theme-improvisation concept, and extemporized on chords, rather than melodies. According to Schuller, by comparison, the solos by Armstrong's bandmates (including a young Coleman Hawkins), sounded "stiff, stodgy," with "jerky rhythms and a grey undistinguished tone quality." The following example shows a short excerpt of the straight melody of "Mandy, Make Up Your Mind" by George W. Meyer and Arthur Johnston (top), compared with Armstrong's solo improvisations (below) (recorded 1924). (The example approximates Armstrong's solo, as it does not convey his use of swing.)

Armstrong's solos were a significant factor in making jazz a true 20th-century language. After leaving Henderson's group, Armstrong formed his virtuosic Hot Five band, which included instrumentalist's Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo), and wife Lil on piano, where he popularized scat singing.

Jelly Roll Morton recorded with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in an early mixed-race collaboration, then in 1926 formed his Red Hot Peppers. There was a larger market for jazzy dance music played by white orchestras, such as Jean Goldkette's orchestra and Paul Whiteman's orchestra. In 1924, Whiteman commissioned Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, premiered by Whiteman's Orchestra. By the mid-1920s, Whiteman was the most popular bandleader in the U.S. His success was based on a "rhetoric of domestication" according to which he had elevated and rendered valuable a previously inchoate kind of music. Other influential large ensembles included Fletcher Henderson's band, Duke Ellington's band (which opened an influential residency at the Cotton Club in 1927) in New York, and Earl Hines' Band in Chicago (who opened in The Grand Terrace Cafe there in 1928). All significantly influenced the development of big band-style swing jazz. By 1930, the New Orleans-style ensemble was a relic, and jazz belonged to the world.

Several musicians grew up in musical families, where a family member would often teach how to read and play music. Some musicians, like Pops Foster, learned on homemade instruments.

Urban radio stations played African-American jazz more frequently than suburban stations, due to the concentration of African Americans in urban areas such as New York and Chicago. Younger demographics popularized the black-originated dances such as the Charleston as part of the immense cultural shift the popularity of jazz music generated.

The 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the "big" jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Harry James, Jimmie Lunceford, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to "solo" and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be complex "important" music.

Over time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in America: white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians and black bandleaders recruit white ones. In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. In the 1930s, Kansas City Jazz as exemplified by tenor saxophonist Lester Young marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s. An early 1940s style known as "jumping the blues" or jump blues used small combos, uptempo music and blues chord progressions, drawing on boogie-woogie from the 1930s.

The introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts enabled the rapid national spread of jazz in 1932. The radio was described as the "sound factory." Radio made it possible for millions to hear music for free - especially people who never attended expensive, distant big city clubs. These broadcasts originated from clubs in leading centers such as New York, Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. There were two categories of live music on the radio: concert music and big band dance music. The concert music was known as "potter palm" and was concert music by amateurs, usually volunteers. Big band dance music is played by professionals and was featured from nightclubs, dance halls, and ballrooms.

Musicologist Charles Hamm described three types of jazz music at the time: black music for black audiences, black music for white audiences, and white music for white audiences. Jazz artists like Louis Armstrong originally received very little airtime because most stations preferred to play the music of white American jazz singers. Other jazz vocalists include Bessie Smith and Florence Mills. In urban areas, such as Chicago and New York, African-American jazz was played on the radio more often than in the suburbs. Big-band jazz, like that of James Reese Europe and Fletcher Henderson in New York, attracted large radio audiences.

Young people in the 1920s used the influence of jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations. This youth rebellion of the 1920s included such things as flapper fashions, women who smoked cigarettes in public, a willingness to talk about sex freely, and radio concerts. Dances like the Charleston, developed by African Americans, suddenly became popular among the youth. Traditionalists were aghast at what they considered the breakdown of morality. Some urban middle-class African Americans perceived jazz as "devil's music", and believed the improvised rhythms and sounds were promoting promiscuity.

With women's suffrage-the right for women to vote-at its peak with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920, and the entrance of the free-spirited flapper, women began to take on a larger role in society and culture. With women now taking part in the work force after the end of the First World War there were now many more possibilities for women in terms of social life and entertainment. Ideas such as equality and open sexuality were very popular during the time and women seemed to capitalize on these ideas during this period. The 1920s saw the emergence of many famous women musicians, including Bessie Smith. Bessie Smith also gained attention because she was not only a great singer but also an African-American woman. She has grown through the ages to be one of the most well respected singers of all time. Singers such as Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin were inspired by Bessie Smith.

Lovie Austin (1887-1972) was a Chicago-based bandleader, session musician (piano), composer, singer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong often are ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period.

Piano player Lil Hardin Armstrong was originally a member of King Oliver's band with Louis, and went on to play piano in her husband's band the Hot Five and then his next group called the Hot Seven It was not until the 1930s and 1940s that many women jazz singers, such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday were recognized as successful artists in the music world. Another famous female vocalist, dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was the one of the more popular female jazz singers in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. Her voice was flexible and wide-ranging. She could sing ballads, jazz, and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. These women were persistent in striving to make their names known in the music industry and to lead the way for many more women artists to come.

The birth of jazz is credited to African Americans. But it was modified to become socially acceptable to middle-class white Americans. Those critical of jazz saw it as music from people with no training or skill. White performers were used as a vehicle for the popularization of jazz music in America. Although jazz was taken over by the white middle-class population, it facilitated the mesh of African American traditions and ideals with white middle-class society.

The migration of African Americans from the American South introduced the culture born from a repressive, unfair society to the American north where navigating through a society with little ability to change played a vital role in the birth of jazz.

Some famous black artists of the time were Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.

As only a limited number of American jazz records were released in Europe, European jazz traces many of its roots to American artists such as James Reese Europe, Paul Whiteman, and Lonnie Johnson, who visited Europe during and after World War I. It was their live performances which inspired European audiences' interest in jazz, as well as the interest in all things American (and therefore exotic) which accompanied the economic and political woes of Europe during this time. The beginnings of a distinct European style of jazz began to emerge in this interwar period.

British jazz began with a tour by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1919. In 1926, Fred Elizalde and His Cambridge Undergraduates began broadcasting on the BBC. Thereafter jazz became an important element in many leading dance orchestras, and jazz instrumentalists became numerous.

This style entered full swing in France with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which began in 1934. Much of this French jazz was a combination of African-American jazz and the symphonic styles in which French musicians were well-trained; in this, it is easy to see the inspiration taken from Paul Whiteman since his style was also a fusion of the two. Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt popularized gypsy jazz, a mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall " musette", and Eastern European folk with a languid, seductive feel; the main instruments were steel-stringed guitar, violin, and double bass. Solos pass from one player to another as guitar and bass form the rhythm section. Some researchers believe Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti pioneered the guitar-violin partnership characteristic of the genre, which was brought to France after they had been heard live or on Okeh Records in the late 1920s.

During this time period, jazz began to get a reputation as being immoral, and many members of the older generations saw it as threatening the old cultural values and promoting the new decadent values of the Roaring Twenties. Professor Henry van Dyke of Princeton University wrote: "... it is not music at all. It's merely an irritation of the nerves of hearing, a sensual teasing of the strings of physical passion." The media too began to denigrate jazz. The New York Times used stories and headlines to pick at jazz: Siberian villagers were said by the paper to have used jazz to scare off bears, when in fact they had used pots and pans; another story claimed that the fatal heart attack of a celebrated conductor was caused by jazz.

As jazz flourished, American elites who preferred classical music sought to expand the listenership of their favored genre, hoping that jazz would not become mainstream. Controversially, jazz became an influence on composers as diverse as George Gershwin and Herbert Howells.

Bibliography

Allen, Frederick Lewis (1931). Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties. online edition

Barlow, William. "Black music on radio during the jazz age." African American Review 29.2 (1995): 325-328.

Best, Gary Dean. The Dollar Decade: Mammon and the Machine in 1920s America. Praeger Publishers, 2003.

Doerksen, Clifford J. American Babel: Rogue Radio Broadcasters of the Jazz Age (2005) online review

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Hill and Wang, 1995.

Fass, Paula. The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s. Oxford University Press, 1977.

Kyvig, David E.. Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939: Decades Promise and Pain. Greenwood Press, 2002. online edition

Leuchtenburg, William. The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932 University of Chicago Press, 1955.

Lynd, Robert S. and Lynd, Helen Merrell. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture. Harcourt, Brace and World, 1929. Famous sociological study of Muncie, Indiana, in the 1920s.

Mowry; George E. (ed.). The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, & Fanatics. Prentice-Hall, 1963; readings.

Parrish, Michael E. Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941. W.W. Norton, 1992.

Peretti, Burton W. "The Great Travelers." The Creation of Jazz: Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America.

Savran, David. "The Search for America's Soul: Theatre in the Jazz Age". Theatre Journal.

Snelson, Tim. "'They'll Be Dancing in the Aisles!': Youth audiences, cinema exhibition and the mid-1930s swing boom." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 37.3 (2017): 455-474.

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The Jazz Age was a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz.

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Al Capone could be social or economic. Al Capone was an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo mob. He took advantage of illegal brewing, distilling, and distribution of liquor. He was sentenced 11 years for tax invasion and prohibition charges. Capone then was released but suffered from paresis which left him mentally incapable of returning to the gangland. This is negative for him positive for the liquor and brewing industries. 

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Al Capone could be social or economic. Al Capone was an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo mob. He took advantage of illegal brewing, distilling, and distribution of liquor. He was sentenced 11 years for tax invasion and prohibition charges. Capone then was released but suffered from paresis which left him mentally incapable of returning to the gangland. This is negative for him positive for the liquor and brewing industries. 

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In the "roaring twenties," Al Capone ruled an empire of crime in the Windy City: gambling, prostitution, bootlegging, bribery, narcotics trafficking, robbery, "protection" rackets, and murder. And it seemed that law enforcement couldn't touch him.

The early Bureau would have been happy to join the fight to take Capone down. But we needed a federal crime to hang our case on-and the evidence to back it up. Eventually, that day would come.

Early Years

Born of an immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York in January 1899, Al Capone quit school after the sixth grade and associated with a notorious street gang, becoming accepted as a member. Johnny Torrio was the street gang leader and among the other members was Lucky Luciano, who would later attain his own notoriety.

About 1920, at Torrio's invitation, Capone joined Torrio in Chicago where he had become an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo mob. The rackets spawned by enactment of the Prohibition Amendment, illegal brewing, distilling and distribution of beer and liquor, were viewed as "growth industries." Torrio, abetted by Al Capone, intended to take full advantage of opportunities. The mob also developed interests in legitimate businesses in the cleaning and dyeing field and cultivated influence with receptive public officials, labor unions, and employees' associations.

Torrio soon succeeded to full leadership of the gang with the violent demise of Big Jim Colosimo, and Capone gained experience and expertise as his strong right arm.

In 1925, Capone became boss when Torrio, seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, surrendered control and retired to Brooklyn. Capone had built a fearsome reputation in the ruthless gang rivalries of the period, struggling to acquire and retain "racketeering rights" to several areas of Chicago. That reputation grew as rival gangs were eliminated or nullified, and the suburb of Cicero became, in effect, a fiefdom of the Capone mob.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929, might be regarded as the culminating violence of the Chicago gang era, as seven members or associates of the "Bugs" Moran mob were machine-gunned against a garage wall by rivals posing as police. The massacre was generally ascribed to the Capone mob, although Al himself was in Florida.

The Bureau Gets Involved

The investigative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Investigation during the 1920s and early 1930s was more limited than it is now, and the gang warfare and depredations of the period were not within the Bureau's investigative authority.

The Bureau's investigation of Al Capone arose from his reluctance to appear before a federal grand jury on March 12, 1929 in response to a subpoena. On March 11, his lawyers formally filed for postponement of his appearance, submitting a physician's affidavit dated March 5, which attested that Capone had been suffering from bronchial pneumonia in Miami, had been confined to bed from January 13 to February 23, and that it would be dangerous to Capone's health to travel to Chicago. His appearance date before the grand jury was re-set for March 20.

On request of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Bureau of Investigation agents obtained statements to the effect that Capone had attended race tracks in the Miami area, that he had made a plane trip to Bimini and a cruise to Nassau, that he had been interviewed at the office of the Dade County Solicitor, and that he had appeared in good health on each of those occasions.

Arrest and Convictions

Capone appeared before the federal grand jury in Chicago on March 20, 1929 and completed his testimony on March 27. As he left the courtroom, he was arrested by agents for contempt of court, an offense for which the penalty could be one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. He posted $5,000 bond and was released.

On May 17, 1929, Al Capone and his bodyguard were arrested in Philadelphia for carrying concealed deadly weapons. Within 16 hours they had been sentenced to terms of one year each. Capone served his time and was released in nine months for good behavior on March 17, 1930.

On February 28, 1931, Capone was found guilty in federal court on the contempt of court charge and was sentenced to six months in Cook County Jail. His appeal on that charge was subsequently dismissed.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department had been developing evidence on tax evasion charges-in addition to Al Capone, his brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Frank Nitti, and other mobsters were subjects of tax evasion charges.

On June 16, 1931, Al Capone pled guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges. He then boasted to the press that he had struck a deal for a two-and-a-half year sentence, but the presiding judge informed him he, the judge, was not bound by any deal. Capone then changed his plea to not guilty.

On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted after trial and on November 24, was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes. The six-month contempt of court sentence was to be served concurrently.

While awaiting the results of appeals, Capone was confined to the Cook County Jail. Upon denial of appeals, he entered the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, serving his sentence there and at Alcatraz.

Release From Prison

On November 16, 1939, Al Capone was released after having served seven years, six months and fifteen days, and having paid all fines and back taxes.

Suffering from paresis derived from syphilis, he had deteriorated greatly during his confinement. Immediately on release he entered a Baltimore hospital for brain treatment and then went on to his Florida home, an estate on Palm Island in Biscayne Bay near Miami, which he had purchased in 1928.

Following his release, he never publicly returned to Chicago. He had become mentally incapable of returning to gangland politics. In 1946, his physician and a Baltimore psychiatrist, after examination, both concluded Capone then had the mentality of a 12-year-old child. Capone resided on Palm Island with his wife and immediate family, in a secluded atmosphere, until his death due to a stroke and pneumonia on January 25, 1947.

Bibliography on Al Capone

1. "Farewell, Mr. Gangster!" Herbert Corey, D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., New York, New York, 1936
2. "The FBI Story," Don Whitehead, Random House, New York, New York, 1956
3. "Organized Crime In America," Gus Tyler, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1962
4. "The Dillinger Days," John Toland, Random House, New York, New York, 1963
5. "The Devil's Emissaries," Myron J. Quimby, A. S. Barnes and Company, New York, New York, 1969
6. "Capone," John Kobler, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, New York, 1971
7. "Mafia, USA," Nicholas Gage, Dell Publishing Company, Inc., New York, New York, 1972
8. "The Mobs And The Mafia," Hank Messick and Burt Goldblatt, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, New York, 1972
9. "Bloodletters and Badmen," Jay Robert Nash, M. Evans and Company, Inc., New York, New York, 1973
10. "G-Men: Hoover's FBI in American Popular Culture," Richard Gid Powers, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois, 1983

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Al Capone | Federal Bureau of Investigation

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Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone rose to infamy as a gangster in Chicago during the 1920s and early 1930s.

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The Great Depression was a negative economic event that occurred in the "Roaring Twenties". The Great Depression happened after the stock market crash of October 1929. It  sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. For the next seven years declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off. The Great Depression lasted 10 years, World War ll lifted the U.S out of the Great Depression. workers.https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history

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This event was negative and had to deal with economics because it was about the corruption of the federal government.
https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/teapot-dome-scandal

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Teapot Dome Scandal - Definition, Dates & Effects

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The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal government. In the end, the scandal would empower the Senate to conduct rigorous investigations into government corruption.

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After the 18th amendment went into effect, bootlegging (or illegal manufacturing and selling liquor) became a common business for aspiring entrepreneurs. Speakeasies and rum-runners made millions selling alcohol, while bootlegging gang organizations made even more. Bootlegging was a social and economic negative trend considering that some gangs became infamous and outlasted the prohibition law. They also made high amounts of money behind the scenes.
Explore more using this link!
https://classroom.synonym.com/bootleggers-roaring-twenties-22887.html

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Based in the Pacific Northwest and educated at the University of Washington, Rosanne Tomyn has been writing historical, cultural and political articles since 2005. Tomyn was awarded the International Labor Communicators Award for Best Profile and Best Labor History Story in 2011.

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Bootleggers in the "Roaring Twenties" | Synonym

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The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1919 and went into effect in 1920. A huge win for temperance advocates, the new law made alcoholic beverages illegal in America. But it didn't take long for the federal government to realize enforcing the ban would be difficult. Bootlegging, or illegally ...

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The widespread racist attacks in 1919 were known as the Red Summer. These attacks were often initiated by white servicemen against black veterans from World War I who, with their military service, were seen as a threat to fighting against segregation. Between April 1919 and November 1919 there were about 25 riots, 97 recorded lynchings, and a three-day-long massacre in Elaine, Arkansas where over 200 black people were killed.

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The ink had barely dried on the Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended World War I, when recently returned black veterans grabbed their guns and stationed themselves on rooftops in black neighborhoods in Washington D.C., prepared to act as snipers in the case of mob violence in July of 1919. Others set up blockades around Howard University, a black intellectual hub, creating a protective ring around residents.

White sailors recently home from the war had been on a days-long drunken rampage, assaulting, and in some cases lynching, black people on the capitol's streets. The relentless onslaught proved contagious, escalating in dozens of cities across the U.S. in what would become known as the The Red Summer.

The racist attacks in 1919 were widespread, and often indiscriminate, but in many places, they were initiated by white servicemen and centered upon the 380,000 black veterans who had just returned from the war. "Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination," notes a report by the Equal Justice Initiative.

Indeed, many African American soldiers returned from the war armed with a renewed determination to fight segregation and a near-constant barrage of brutality.

A postal official wrote at the time that "As far back as the first movement of the American troops to France the negro publicists began to avail themselves of the argument that since the negro was fit to wear the uniform he was, therefore, fit for everything else." In Texas, a federal agent reported, "One of the principal elements causing concern is the returned negro soldier who is not readily fitting back into his prior status of pre-war times."

At the same time, cities across the north were being reshaped by the Great Migration. By the end of 1919, about 1 million African Americans had fled segregation and a total lack of economic opportunities in the south for northern cities. Between 1910 and 1920, the black population in Chicago grew by 148 percent and in Philadelphia by 500 percent, creating massive anxiety among white people in northern cities that black people were taking jobs, housing, and security from them.

During the Red Summer, massive anxiety became mass violence. Between April and November of 1919, there would be approximately 25 riots and instances of mob violence, 97 recorded lynchings, and a three day long massacre in Elaine, Arkansas during which over 200 black men, women, and children were killed after black sharecroppers tried to organize for better working conditions. The Ku Klux Klan, which had been largely shut down by the government after the Civil War, experienced a resurgence in popularity and began carrying out dozens of lynchings across the south.

Just a few years earlier, many young black men had heeded Wilson's call to make the world " safe for democracy " and gone off to fight for America in one of history's bloodiest wars. Now they had come back to a country that recognized neither their service nor their humanity. Having just returned from battle, however, black veterans were not inclined to take the abuse lying down. Across the country, former soldiers used their government-provided weapons training to defend their neighborhoods against vicious white mobs.

"Black people [formed] ad hoc self-defense organizations to try to keep white folks from terrorizing their communities," says Simon Balto, a Professor of African American History at The University of Iowa and author of Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power. "Black veterans are instrumental in that."

Black veterans were a large part of what made the summer of 1919, in the words of historian David F. Krugler, the year that African Americans fought back.

"This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought!" W.E.B DuBois, a civil rights activist and prominent intellectual, wrote in Crisis Magazine in May 1919, a month after the earliest event of the Red Summer, a riot in Georgia where six people-two white officers and four black men-were killed at a church. "But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that that war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land."

Riots at the Steps of the Capitol

Washington D.C had 5,000 black veterans and for many of them, self-defense was a last resort after weeks-and indeed decades-of government inaction.

One of the first people killed in Washington D.C.'s violence was a 22-year-old black veteran named Randall Neal. At a high point of the mayhem, one Washington newspaper reported that the city had "passed through its wildest and bloodiest night since Civil War times." Many of the city's white-owned newspapers fanned the flames of terror, reporting on fabricated instances of black men assaulting white women. In one case, The Washington Post ran a front page story advertising the location for white servicemen to meet and carry out further attacks on black people in the city.

Washington D.C. had a vibrant black middle class that in many ways epitomized black people's slow but expanding economic and social advances. The cities' black population was growing rapidly thanks to the Great Migration and in 1919, they made up a quarter of the population. They also held many jobs in the federal government and at the country's first black-owned bank, the Industrial Savings bank. It was a limited but steady march forward-one that many white people felt needed to be stopped.

"I knew it to be true, but it was almost an impossibility for me to realize as a truth that men and women of my race were being mobbed, chased, dragged from street cars, beaten and killed within the shadow of the dome of the Capitol, at the very front door of the White House," wrote James Weldon Johnson, who coined the term " Red Summer," in Crisis Magazine.

As the situation escalated, Wilson refused to act. He worried that the riots would damage the image he was cultivating of the United States as a global paragon of justice. Wilson also had a demonstrated record of racism (including, among other things, tacit support of the Ku Klux Klan).

After four days of racist mob violence in Washington D.C., an estimated 40 people were killed and dozens more were injured. The chaos was only quelled when 2,000 federal troops were deployed onto the city streets at the end of the month-just in time for the riots to spread to Chicago.

A Murder in Chicago Ignites a City

Just two days after federal troops withdrew from Washington D.C., a Black teenager was killed by a white man in Chicago, lighting the match that would kick off a week of violent riots. By the end, 15 white people and 23 black people would be dead, over 500 people would be injured, and over 1,000 black families would be homeless after their homes were burned down.

The teenager, 17-year-old Eugene Williams, was floating on a homemade raft off the shores of Lake Michigan, trying to escape the city's oppressive summer heat, when a white man named George Stauber started pelting him with rocks. Williams had unwittingly drifted past the line that divided the white beach from the black beach.

A rock hit Williams in the head, knocking him unconscious. His body went limp and slipped into the lake. No one got to Williams in time to save him.

A white police officer refused to arrest Stauber, despite a growing crowd of angry witnesses to the murder. By the time Williams' lifeless body had been removed from the lake, a crowd of around a thousand black people had gathered, demanding action. For many, Williams' death was a microcosm of the longstanding violence perpetrated against black people without consequence.

In response to the protest, armed white men jumped in cars and tore through the city streets, firing into black homes and businesses. A white mob marched down the street, assaulting black pedestrians and torching black homes. Still, police refused to act.

"When the riot explodes it's not so much some kind of a spontaneous event as it is a culmination," Balto explains. In the two previous years, white supremacists had bombed over 25 black homes in an effort to keep black people out of the city. The police never intervened.

Veterans in Chicago formed militias to defend black homes, neighborhoods, and families when the police and government refused. In the time following Williams' death, one group of black veterans broke into an armory and stole weapons they then used to beat back a white mob. "Because many of them have actually seen battlefield combat, they are willing and capable of using violence for the purpose of self-defense," says Balto.

Throughout the summer, black veterans around the country took inspiration from the actions of their brethren in Washington D.C. and Chicago and followed suit. In a riot in South Carolina, one preacher reportedly said of the black self-defense units: "The males carried their guns with as much calmness as if they were going to shoot a rabbit in a hunt, or getting ready to shoot the Kaiser's soldiers."

For Veterans, a Broken Promise

As bloodshed spread nationally-to South Carolina, Nebraska, Florida, Ohio, among others-veterans continued to be targeted. At least 13 veterans were lynched across the United States after the war. Many of them were in uniform which, when worn in public, many white people saw as an affront to America's racial caste system.

It was the opposite of the reception many black soldiers believed they would receive when returning home, their choice to serve in the war spurred on by intellectuals like DuBois who believed it would be a path to equality.

"World War I was very much a broken promise for basically all African Americans, but the people who felt the brokenness of that promise most acutely [were the veterans] who had gone and risked their lives for this supposed war to make the world safe for democracy and then came home to find that the country was still going to deny African Americans the privilege of democracy," says Balto.

This wasn't unique to the Red Summer-or even World War I. A report by the Equal Justice Initiative found that, from Reconstruction to just after World War II, "thousands of black veterans were assaulted, threatened, abused, or lynched following military service...No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and targeted racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II."

Despite the events of the Red Summer, 1.2 million black men would enlist in World War II.

The conclusion of the summer of 1919 would not be the end of mass violence against black Americans-far from it. Two years later would see one of the worst instances of racial violence in American history, The Tulsa Race Massacre, during which a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly black Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa. News reports were largely squelched, despite the fact that up to 300 people were killed and thousands left homeless

It did, however, signal a permanent shift in the way black people responded to white violence in the United States and presaged increasing self-defense tactics, including when black veterans once again mobilized during the violence in Tulsa. For many black people, the way veterans responded to the bloodshed added a sliver of inspiration to the terror of that summer.

Before the war, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had 9,000 members yet by the early 1920s it had 100,000, signaling a growing boldness and cohesion to the organizing that would eventually plant the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Red Summer of 1919: How Black WWI Vets Fought Back Against Racist Mobs | HISTORY

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When dozens of brutal race riots erupted across the U.S. in the wake of World War I and the Great Migration, black veterans stepped up to defend their communities against white violence.

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Advertising in the 1920's was a positive economic influence. After the war, new tabloid newspapers launched which achieved large circulation through covering crime, sports, and scandals. After reaching millions of consumers by reporting such stories, they hired sports figures and movie stars to promote products from beauty to tobacco. Thanks to advertising, business became America's secular region. "Coca-Cola serves as a good example of how product advertising changed over this forty-year period. When first introduced in the 1880s, the product was marketed as a medicine, with claims that it cured headaches, and that it "revived and sustained" a person. Seeking to build repeat business and brand loyalty, by the 1920s the company emphasized it as a refreshment and a "fun food". Consumers demanding the cola at soda fountains could pressure storeowners to stock it, or risk losing their business." http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpmech4.htm

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Advertising as it is known today finds its roots in the industrial expansion of the 1880s. The mass production and the lowering of prices on consumer goods meant that more items were available to more people than ever before. The construction of the transcontinental railroads provided a national market for a company's goods.

Advertising a product changed from simply announcing the existence of a product in a dull, dry fashion to persuading the public they needed and deserved to own the product. By developing repeat customers, advertising also helped build brand loyalty for the company. Brand loyalty helps sell other existing and new products to these same customers.
Prior to World War One, muckraking journals like McClure's achieved widespread circulation by exposing corruption and greed in business and politics. Changes in print technology in the 1890s and a heavy dependence upon advertisers allowed publishers to drop their prices from thirty-five cents to a nickel. Readership for profitable magazines soared from 10,000 readers prior to 1890 to a circulation of around a half-million. But by 1914, readers grew weary and bored with the magazines' campaigns for reform. More importantly, advertisers objected strongly to the investigative articles, which reflected badly on their own kind.

After the war, general circulation magazines dropped the theme of reform and picked up on the culture of consumerism. Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, featuring Norman Rockwell's paintings on its cover, became fixtures in middle-class homes around the country. Hoping to attract serious newsreaders, Henry Luce began publishing Time in 1923. New tabloid newspapers launched after the war, like the New York Daily News,

achieved large circulation by covering crime, sports and scandals. Advertisers, now reaching millions of consumers on a daily or weekly basis, hired movie stars and sports figures to persuade Americans to buy all types of products, from coffee to tobacco products. Business had become America's secular religion, thanks to advertising. Bruce Barton's 1925 book comparing religion and business, The Man Nobody Knows, declared Jesus Christ's parables as "the most powerful advertisements of all time.... He would be a national advertiser today."
Coca-Cola serves as a good example of how product advertising changed over this forty-year period. When first introduced in the 1880s, the product was marketed as a medicine, with claims that it cured headaches, and that it "revived and sustained" a person. Seeking to build repeat business and brand loyalty, by the 1920s the company emphasized it as a refreshment and a "fun food". Consumers demanding the cola at soda fountains could pressure storeowners to stock it, or risk losing their business. Today Coca-Cola is one of the largest and most visible companies in the world thanks to its successful advertisement campaigns.

References:
Pope, Daniel A, The Making of Modern Advertising (1983); Tedlow, Richard, New and Improves: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (1990).

How To Cite This Article:
"Advertising in the 1920s," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).

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Advertising as it is known today finds its roots in the industrial expansion of the 1880s. The mass production and the lowering of prices on consumer goods meant that more items were available to more people than ever before. The construction of the transcontinental railroads provided a national market for a company's goods.

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https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/19th-amendment

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19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote

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Español Enlarge PDF Link 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote Joint Resolution of Congress proposing a constitutional amendment extending the right of suffrage to women, May 19, 1919; Ratified Amendments, 1795-1992; General Records of the United States Government; Record Gr…

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Society changed in the twenties; women were seen as more independent, technology advanced, and Jazz music hit off. Communication also increased greatly due to a rise in radios and telephone usage(Article).

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The Red Scare "is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism, or other leftist ideologies by a society or state." During The Red Scare of 1919-1920, many individuals in the U.S feared recent immigrants and dissidents would throw the U.S government. At the end of WW1, many workers joined labor unions and then labor strikes such as the Boston Police Strike in Sept 1919 also contributed to fears that radicals intended to spark a revolution. Self-proclaimed anarchists were mailing bombs to prominent Americans and the government became enraged and in response raided the headquarters of radical organizations and arrested thousands of suspected people which were then deported. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/sacco-vanzetti-the-red-scare-of-1919-1920

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Causes of the Red Scare

During the Red Scare of 1919-1920, many in the United States feared recent immigrants and dissidents, particularly those who embraced communist, socialist, or anarchist ideology. The causes of the Red Scare included:

World War I, which led many to embrace strong nationalistic and anti-immigrant sympathies;

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, which led many to fear that immigrants, particularly from Russia, southern Europe, and eastern Europe, intended to overthrow the United States government;

The end of World War I, which caused production needs to decline and unemployment to rise. Many workers joined labor unions. Labor strikes, including the Boston Police Strike in September 1919, contributed to fears that radicals intended to spark a revolution;

Self-proclaimed anarchists' mailing bombs to prominent Americans, including United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice (and former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The government responds

Enraged by the bombings, the United States government responded by raiding the headquarters of radical organizations and arresting thousands of suspected radicals. Several thousand who were aliens were deported. The largest raids occurred on January 2, 1920 when over 4000 suspected radicals were seized nationwide. Over 800 were arrested in New England from locations that included Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Fitchburg, Lawrence, and Lynn.

On April 29, 1920, several days before the arrests of Sacco and Vanzetti, Attorney General Palmer warned the nation that the Department of Justice had uncovered plots against the lives of over twenty federal and state officials as part of planned May Day (May 1st) celebrations. May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, was celebrated by many socialists, communists, anarchists, and unionists.

The failure of these plots to materialize, coupled with increased criticism of the Palmer Raids, brought these raids to an end.

Massachusetts prisoners seized during government raids awaiting transport to Deer Island on January 4, 1920

November 1919 photo of Boston police with seized radical literature

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Sacco & Vanzetti: The Red Scare of 1919-1920

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Learn about how the Red Scare influenced the Sacco & Vanzetti case.

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19th amendment

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I believe that the Tulsa race riot was social negative effects. the Tulsa race riot was a massacre in which a white mob attacked residents, homes, and businesses in the predominantly Black Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  This was a negative effect on social events because this event is not showing unity it's showing the difference between the two races and showing all the negative these white people had to the black people. This event is known to still be the worst incident of racial violence in U.S. history. https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

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The 21st amendment is repealing the 18th amendment and bringing an end to the national prohibition of alcohol in the United States. This is political and negative affect because the usage of alcohol has many negative effects on people and abuse of this product. Alcohol is just as dangerous as many drugs but those drugs are illegal but alcohol is legal. We know alcohol usage is a concern because the text stated, "The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies,"(History.com editors, 2010,21st amendment is ratified; Prohibition ends).

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21st amendment is ratified; Prohibition ends

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The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states’ approval…

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Al Capone was a notorious businessman and gangster and is known as the co-founder and boss of Chicago-Outfit, which is an organized crime syndicate from the 1920s. they were bootleggers that sold illegal alcohol during the prohibition. I think this was a social and economical negative because the bootleggers were creating an underground economy and they were putting illegal substances on the street for people to consume illegally.

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The Chicago Outfit is that city's branch of the American Mafia. Its modern organization dates to the beer wars of Prohibition and its most notorious leader, Al Capone. It has a seat, along with the Five Families of New York City, on the Commission that governs the Italian mob in America.

The Outfit's roots reach back to the early 1900s and an influx of Italian immigrants to Chicago. Street gangs, some of them Italian in background, controlled various criminal activities in the city.

At the same time, extortionists practiced the "Black Hand" scheme imported from Italy.

This involved threatening residents with violence unless money was paid. Extortion letters were stamped with a hand in ink, hence the name. Many Black Hands worked independently, but some joined forces, forming organized criminal syndicates.

But the Chicago Outfit truly came into its own in the 1920s. Giacomo "Big Jim" Colosimo, who ran hundreds of brothels, had solidified power over large portions of the underworld during the Black Hand era. He welcomed his nephew, Giovanni "Papa Johnny" Torrio, to the scene, and in 1919 Torrio introduced a new face: Alphonse "Scarface" Capone.

Prohibition took effect in 1919, but Chicago, like other cities, simply sent its liquor underground. Torrio urged his boss to go into the booze business, but Colosimo refused. To remove this impediment, Torrio had Colosimo killed. What followed were the "beer wars," the most violent episode of organized crime in American history.

Before Prohibition, the Outfit had focused on gambling and prostitution. Now that bootlegging had joined the repertoire, frequent bouts of murder followed. Torrio's gang controlled the South Side and the Loop but soon began to expand into the Gold Coast, where Dean O'Banion and the Irish-American North Side Gang ruled.

For a while the two sides managed a truce, but it didn't last long. O'Banion scammed Torrio out of half a million dollars, and Torrio retaliated. On November 10, 1924, O'Banion was murdered in his flower shop. His death resulted in all-out urban warfare.

Tommy-gunfire raged back and forth. The North Siders tried to kill Torrio but failed. The experience jarred him, and he retired. He handed the reins of the Outfit to Capone, whose fortunes soared.

Then, in 1929, after five years of gunfire between the North and South sides, Capone made a move intended to cripple his enemies. It had the opposite effect. On February 14, he sent a group of men to a garage on North

Clark Street, where they unloaded their guns into seven members of the North Side Gang. The "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" drew so much negative publicity the city was forced to crack down on organized crime.

The federal government joined the effort, prosecuting Capone for tax evasion. He went to prison, and his criminal enterprise suffered without him, but it didn't die. In fact, it soon bounced back and began to spread its wings.

After Capone left in 1932, control of the Outfit passed to Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, a former bodyguard who had risen to become a leader of the organization's bootlegging operations. But the real decisions were made by his underboss, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, the Outfit was forced to focus on other criminal enterprises, such as prostitution, labor racketeering and especially gambling. Under Nitti and Ricca, it also began to expand. The organization set up shop in Wisconsin, Missouri, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where it eventually took over control of legal casinos from the Five Families.

These expansion tactics led to a major scandal and a raft of indictments in 1943, when the FBI caught Chicago gangsters shaking down the movie industry in Hollywood. Nitti was set to take the blame, but he had served time before, was severely claustrophobic, and decided he couldn't handle prison again. Instead he shot himself in the head while wandering a Chicago rail yard.

Ricca formally became boss and appointed Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo his lieutenant. Together they ran the Outfit for the next 30 years, though their titles and roles changed. After Ricca's death in 1972, Accardo led the Outfit for another 20 years. Accardo is considered one of the smartest bosses of the American Mafia: Over a criminal career that spanned 70 years, he spent only one night behind bars.

The Outfit grew to encompass most mob operations in the Western United States during the Ricca-Accardo years. It reached its peak during the 1960s, when Accardo's flashy front man, Sam "Momo" Giancana, attempted to orchestrate the assassination of Fidel Castro for the CIA and briefly had an affair with a woman who was also sleeping with President John F. Kennedy. Giancana was kicked out of the Outfit in 1966 and murdered in 1975.

His job as titular head of the Outfit was filled by Joey "Doves" Aiuppa, who held that position until his conviction in 1986 for skimming profits from Las Vegas casinos. Though he spent 11 years in prison, he had his revenge: He allegedly ordered one of the most famous hits in Mafia history, the murders of Michael and Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who were beaten, strangled and buried in an Indiana cornfield in retaliation for the mismanagement of the casinos. These killings, and the Las Vegas history that led to them, were depicted in the movie Casino.

After Aiuppa went to prison, control of the Outfit was handed to several other mobsters, while James "Little Jimmy" Marcello acted as front man. In the years to follow, the organization began to lose much of its power in Chicago and the Western United States. Las Vegas went legitimate, labor unions began to purge themselves of gangsters, and federal trials sent large numbers of Mafiosi to prison for long terms.

The Outfit was dealt perhaps its most crushing blow in 2007. The FBI managed to flip several high-ranking members in an operation dubbed " Family Secrets," one of the most successful federal investigations of organized crime. The resulting trial ended with the conviction of five men on charges of conspiracy and racketeering for crimes that included several murders. Another six pleaded guilty, two died before trial and a ninth was too ill to face prosecution. Marcello was convicted in part for the murder of the Spilotro brothers. The Outfit has dwindled in recent years, but it isn't dead. As the Family Secrets investigation demonstrated, racketeering is still at the heart of its operations. It doesn't have the reach it once did, but it remains a major part of the world of crime in Chicago.

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The Chicago Outfit is that city's branch of the American Mafia. Its modern organization dates to the beer wars of Prohibition and its most notorious leader, Al Capone. It has a seat, along with the Five Families of New York City, on the Commission that governs the Italian mob in America.

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The middle class is a class of people in the middle of the social hierarchy. The middle class was economic positive because a powerful middle class provided a solid consumer base that encourages prolific investment.
https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/20/growth-and-the-middle-class/

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Flappers: The 'New Woman'

Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the "Roaring Twenties" is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said "unladylike" things, in addition to being more sexually "free" than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms.

They could vote at last: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed that right in 1920, though it would be decades before Black women in the South could fully exercise their right to vote without Jim Crow segregation laws.

Millions of women worked in blue-collar jobs, as well as white-collar jobs (as stenographers, for example) and could afford to participate in the burgeoning consumer economy. The increased availability of birth-control devices such as the diaphragm made it possible for women to have fewer children.

In 1912, an estimated 16 percent of American households had electricity; by the mid-1920s, more than 60 percent did. And with this electrification came new machines and technologies like the washing machine, the freezer and the vacuum cleaner eliminated some of the drudgeries of household work.

Did you know? Because the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act did not make it illegal to drink alcohol, only to manufacture and sell it, many people stockpiled liquor before the ban went into effect. Rumor had it that the Yale Club in New York City had a 14-year supply of booze in its basement.

Fashion, Fads and Film Stars

During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend-and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios.

The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh's KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years later Warren G. Harding became the first president to address the nation by radio -and three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households.

People also swarmed to see Hollywood movies: Historians estimate that, by the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week, and actors like Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino and Tallulah Bankhead became household names.

But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities.

By 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers' needs-as did the burgeoning oil industry.

The Jazz Age

Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. (Some pundits called them "bedrooms on wheels.") What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom and the flea hop were popular dances of the era.

Jazz bands played at venues like the Savoy and the Cotton Club in New York City and the Aragon in Chicago; radio stations and phonograph records (100 million of which were sold in 1927 alone) carried their tunes to listeners across the nation. Some older people objected to jazz music's "vulgarity" and "depravity" (and the "moral disasters" it supposedly inspired), but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor.

The novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the hedonism and excitement of the Jazz Age-Fitzgerald once claimed that the 1920s were "the most expensive orgy in history"-while other writers, artists, musicians and designers ushered in a new era of experimental Art Deco and modernist creativity.

Prohibition Era

During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were curtailed. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of "intoxicating liquors," and at 12 a.m. on January 16, 1920, the federal Volstead Act closed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on, it was illegal to sell any "intoxication beverages" with more than 0.5 percent alcohol.

This drove the liquor trade underground-now, instead of ordinary bars, people simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies, where liquor was controlled by bootleggers, racketeers and other organized crime figures such as Chicago gangster Al Capone. (Capone reportedly had 1,000 gunmen and half of Chicago's police force on his payroll.)

To many middle-class white Americans, Prohibition was a way to assert some control over the unruly immigrant masses who crowded the nation's cities. For instance, to the so-called "Drys," beer was known as "Kaiser brew." Drinking was a symbol of all they disliked about the modern city, and eliminating alcohol would, they believed, turn back the clock to an earlier and more comfortable time

Immigration and Racism in the 1920s

Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. An anti- Communist "Red Scare" in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist and anti-immigrant hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Europeans and Asians) in favor of others (Northern Europeans and people from Great Britain, for example).

Immigrants were hardly the only targets in this decade. The Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of Black culture-jazz and blues music, for example, and the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance-discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people, not just in the South but across the country, joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

By the middle of the decade, the KKK had two million members, many of whom believed the Klan represented a return to all the "values" that the fast-paced, city-slicker Roaring Twenties were trampling. More specifically, the 1920s represented economic and political uplift for Black Americans that threatened the social hierarchy of Jim Crow oppression.

Early Civil Rights Activism

During this decade, Black Americans sought stable employment, better living conditions and political participation. Many who migrated to the North found jobs in the automobile, steel, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries. But with more work came more exploitation.

In 1925, civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph founded the first predominantly Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to draw attention to the discriminatory hiring practices and working conditions for Blacks. And as housing demands increased for Black people in the North, so did discriminatory housing practices that led to a rise of urban ghettos, where Black Americans-excluded from white neighborhoods-were relegated to inadequate, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions.

Black Americans battled for political and civil rights throughout the Roaring Twenties and beyond. The NAACP launched investigations into Black disenfranchisement in the 1920 presidential election, as well as surges of white mob violence, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

The NAACP also pushed for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, a law to make lynching a federal crime, but it was defeated by a Senate filibuster in 1922. A political milestone for Black Americans finally occurred when Oscar De Priest, a Chicago Republican, became the first Black congressman since Reconstruction to be elected to the House of Representatives in 1928.

The Roaring Twenties ushered in several demographic shifts, or what one historian called a "cultural Civil War" between city-dwellers and small-town residents, Protestants and Catholics, Blacks and whites, "New Women" and advocates of old-fashioned family values.

But coming immediately after the hardships of World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic, the Roaring Twenties also gave many middle-class Americans an unprecedented taste of freedom, unbridled fun and upward economic mobility unsurpassed in U.S. history.

Sources

What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably). Smithsonian Magazine.
The Roaring Twenties. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
The Roaring 20s. PBS: American Experience.

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Roaring Twenties: Flappers, Prohibition & Jazz Age - HISTORY

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The Roaring Twenties were a Jazz Age burst of prosperity and freedom for flappers and others during the Prohibition era, until the economy crashed in 1929.

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Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929-1933, being a member of the Republican political party. Although he seemed like he could help since he was president, he didn't try and get help but tried to do the work himself. He refused to involve the federal government in helping the economy get better but instead wanted to try it himself, by creating government agencies and supporting local aid for work. Herbert's efforts to rebuild the American government seem like an economic negative because although he tried to rebuild the economy, he wasn't fully prepared since he was just getting into his presidency. He also thought he could do it on his own without the federal government, which proved to be wrong.

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The stock market crashed on Thursday, October 24, 1929, less than eight months into Herbert Hoover's presidency. Most experts, including Hoover, thought the crash was part of a passing recession. By July 1931, when the President wrote this letter to a friend, Governor Louis Emmerson of Illinois, it had become clear that excessive speculation and a worldwide economic slowdown had plunged America into the midst of a Great Depression. While Hoover wrote to Emmerson that "considerable continuance of destitution over the winter" and perhaps longer was unavoidable, he was trying to "get machinery of the country into . . . action." Since the crash, Hoover had worked ceaselessly trying to fix the economy. He founded government agencies, encouraged labor harmony, supported local aid for public works, fostered cooperation between government and business in order to stabilize prices, and struggled to balance the budget. His work focused on indirect relief from individual states and the private sector, as reflected in this letter's emphasis on "support[ing] each state committee more effectively" and volunteerism-"appeal[ing] for funds" from outside the government.

As the Depression became worse, however, calls grew for increased federal intervention and spending. But Hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices, controlling businesses, or manipulating the value of the currency, all of which he felt were steps towards socialism. He was inclined to give indirect aid to banks or local public works projects, but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens, believing the dole would weaken public morale. Instead, he focused on volunteerism to raise money. Hoover's opponents painted him as uncaring toward the common citizen, even though he was in fact a philanthropist and a progressive before becoming president. During his reelection campaign, Hoover tried to convince Americans that the measures they were calling for might seem to help in the short term, but would be ruinous in the long run. He asserted that he cared for common Americans too much to destroy the country's foundations with deficits and socialist institutions. He was soundly defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.

Roosevelt promised Americans a "New Deal" when he took office, and during his first "Hundred Days" as president, he signed a number of groundbreaking new laws. Roosevelt's aides later admitted that most New Deal agencies were closely modeled on those that Hoover had attempted, but Roosevelt's plans differed in financing and scope. New Deal bills supported direct federal aid, tightened government control over many industries, and eschewed volunteerism in favor of deficit spending, all in the hopes of jump starting both consumer confidence and the economy.

In a letter to a friend written seven months after he left office, Hoover expressed his fears about the flurry of New Deal legislation. Hoover saw the country already "going sour on the New Deal." He believed revolution inevitable "unless there is a halt" to the fundamental changes in government and the deficit spending. Roosevelt's reforms had led Americans to "cast off all moorings," and Hoover predicted that the United States would veer dangerously "to the 'left,'" followed by a reaction leading to "some American interpretation of Hitler or Mussolini." In 1934, after two years out of the public eye, Hoover made these same thoughts public in an article titled "The Challenge to Liberty."

Hoover was correct when he predicted that the role of American government would fundamentally change because of the New Deal.

A full transcript is available for Hoover's letter to Louis Emmerson.

TRANSCRIPT

Herbert Hoover to Louis L. Emmerson, July 10, 1931

July 10, 1931

Confidential

Hon. Louis L. Emmerson
Governor of Illinois
Springfield, Ill.

My dear Governor Emmerson:

No matter what improvement there may be in our economic situation during the fall, we shall unquestionably have considerable continuance of destitution over the winter. I am wondering if it would not be advisable for us to get the machinery of the country into earlier action than last year in order that there may be provision for funds substantially made before the winter arrives.

Your organization last winter was one of the most admirable in the whole country and I had some thought that if all organizations were to begin their appeals for funds some time in October and run them over Thanksgiving we could make it more or less a national question and thereby support each state committee more effectively.

This, however, is just thinking aloud on the general situation and I would like your views.

I wish again to express my appreciation for the fine courtesies we received at the hands of Mrs. Emmerson and yourself and with kind regards to you both, I am

Yours faithfully,
Herbert Hoover

A full transcript is available for Hoover's letter to Bruce Barton.

TRANSCRIPT

Herbert Hoover to Bruce Barton, October 3, 1933

October 3, 1933

Personal

My dear Barton:

I have compiled with your momentous wish. Your friend does not need to send an exchange. A smoking President receives enough pipes to last a life time. Likewise fishing tackle. It is the only endowment he gets, except a troubled soul.

It seems useless to discuss the situation. The country is going sour on the New Deal, despite the heroic efforts of the Press. unless there is a halt, the real question will be that, having cast off all moorings, will we swing to the "right" or to the "left". I fear first the "left" and then when the great middle class (80% of America) realizes its ruin, it will drive into some American interpretation of Hitler or Mussolini.

There is no trouble finding a large occupation in California doing nothing and conducting a detached observatory of national trends.

You better come out here!

Yours sincerely,
Herbert Hoover

Mr. Bruce Barton
383 Madison Avenue
New York City, New York

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herbert hoover on the great depression and new deal

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1931–1933 | the stock market crashed on thursday

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less than eight months into herbert hoover’s presidency. most experts

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thought the crash was part of a passing recession. by july 1931

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when the president wrote this letter to a friend

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it had become clear that excessive speculation and a worldwide economic slowdown had plunged america into the midst of a great depression. | the stock market crashed on thursday

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less than eight months into herbert hoover’s presidency. most experts

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thought the crash was part of a passing recession. by july 1931

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
when the president wrote this letter to a friend

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it had become clear that excessive speculation and a worldwide economic slowdown had plunged america into the midst of a great depression. while hoover wrote to emmerson that "considerable continuance of destitution over the winter" and perhaps longer was unavoidable

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he was trying to "get machinery of the country into . . . action." since the crash

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hoover had worked ceaselessly trying to fix the economy. he founded government agencies

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fostered cooperation between government and business in order to stabilize prices

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and struggled to balance the budget. his work focused on indirect relief from individual states and the private sector

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as reflected in this letter’s emphasis on "support[ing] each state committee more effectively" and volunteerism—"appeal[ing] for funds" from outside the government. as the depression became worse

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calls grew for increased federal intervention and spending. but hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices

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or manipulating the value of the currency

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all of which he felt were steps towards socialism. he was inclined to give indirect aid to banks or local public works projects

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but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens

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believing the dole would weaken public morale. instead

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he focused on volunteerism to raise money. hoover’s opponents painted him as uncaring toward the common citizen

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even though he was in fact a philanthropist and a progressive before becoming president. during his reelection campaign

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hoover tried to convince americans that the measures they were calling for might seem to help in the short term

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but would be ruinous in the long run. he asserted that he cared for common americans too much to destroy the country’s foundations with deficits and socialist institutions. he was soundly defeated by franklin d. roosevelt in 1932. roosevelt promised americans a "new deal" when he took office

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and during his first "hundred days" as president

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he signed a number of groundbreaking new laws. roosevelt’s aides later admitted that most new deal agencies were closely modeled on those that hoover had attempted

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but roosevelt’s plans differed in financing and scope. new deal bills supported direct federal aid

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tightened government control over many industries

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and eschewed volunteerism in favor of deficit spending

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all in the hopes of jump starting both consumer confidence and the economy. in a letter to a friend written seven months after he left office

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hoover expressed his fears about the flurry of new deal legislation. hoover saw the country already "going sour on the new deal." he believed revolution inevitable "unless there is a halt" to the fundamental changes in government and the deficit spending. roosevelt’s reforms had led americans to "cast off all moorings

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" and hoover predicted that the united states would veer dangerously "to the ‘left

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’" followed by a reaction leading to "some american interpretation of hitler or mussolini." in 1934

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hoover made these same thoughts public in an article titled "the challenge to liberty." hoover was correct when he predicted that the role of american government would fundamentally change because of the new deal. a full transcript is available for hoover’s letter to louis emmerson. transcript herbert hoover to louis l. emmerson

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1931 confidential hon. louis l. emmerson governor of illinois springfield

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ill. my dear governor emmerson: no matter what improvement there may be in our economic situation during the fall

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we shall unquestionably have considerable continuance of destitution over the winter. i am wondering if it would not be advisable for us to get the machinery of the country into earlier action than last year in order that there may be provision for funds substantially made before the winter arrives. your organization last winter was one of the most admirable in the whole country and i had some thought that if all organizations were to begin their appeals for funds some time in october and run them over thanksgiving we could make it more or less a national question and thereby support each state committee more effectively. this

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is just thinking aloud on the general situation and i would like your views. i wish again to express my appreciation for the fine courtesies we received at the hands of mrs. emmerson and yourself and with kind regards to you both

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herbert hoover a full transcript is available for hoover’s letter to bruce barton. transcript herbert hoover to bruce barton

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1933 personal my dear barton: i have compiled with your momentous wish. your friend does not need to send an exchange. a smoking president receives enough pipes to last a life time. likewise fishing tackle. it is the only endowment he gets

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except a troubled soul. it seems useless to discuss the situation. the country is going sour on the new deal

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despite the heroic efforts of the press. unless there is a halt

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will we swing to the "right" or to the "left". i fear first the "left" and then when the great middle class (80% of america) realizes its ruin

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it will drive into some american interpretation of hitler or mussolini. there is no trouble finding a large occupation in california doing nothing and conducting a detached observatory of national trends. you better come out here! yours sincerely

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herbert hoover mr. bruce barton 383 madison avenue new york city

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Herbert Hoover on the Great Depression and New Deal, 1931-1933

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Herbert Hoover on the Great Depression and New Deal, 1931-1933 | The stock market crashed on Thursday, October 24, 1929, less than eight months into Herbert Hoover's presidency. Most experts, including Hoover, thought the crash was part of a passing recession.

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The Jazz Age is a period during the 1920s-1930s where Jazz music and dancing styles are gaining popularity in the United States. It is a social change in American because it was a cultural period where new styles of dance music emerge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Age#:~:text=The%20Jazz%20Age%20was%20a,States%2C%20the%20birthplace%20of%20jazz.

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Tariffs are used to restrict imports. Simply put, they increase the price of goods and services purchased from another country, making them less attractive to domestic consumers. ... There are two types of tariffs: A specific tariff is levied as a fixed fee based on the type of item, such as a $1,000 tariff on a car.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tariff.asp#:~:text=Tariffs%20are%20used%20to%20restrict,less%20attractive%20to%20domestic%20consumers.&text=There%20are%20two%20types%20of,%241%2C000%20tariff%20on%20a%20car.

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What Is a Tariff?

A tariff is a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country.

Understanding a Tariff

Tariffs are used to restrict imports. Simply put, they increase the price of goods and services purchased from another country, making them less attractive to domestic consumers.

A key point to understand is that the tariff imposed affects the exporting country indirectly as the domestic consumer might shy away from their product due to the increase in price. If the domestic consumer still chooses the imported product then the tariff has essentially raised the cost for the domestic consumer.

There are two types of tariffs:

A specific tariff is levied as a fixed fee based on the type of item, such as a $1,000 tariff on a car.

An ad-valorem tariff is levied based on the item's value, such as 10% of the value of the vehicle.

Why Governments Impose Tariffs

Governments may impose tariffs to raise revenue or to protect domestic industries-especially nascent ones-from foreign competition. By making foreign-produced goods more expensive, tariffs can make domestically produced alternatives seem more attractive.

Governments that use tariffs to benefit particular industries often do so to protect companies and jobs. Tariffs can also be used as an extension of foreign policy as their imposition on a trading partner's main exports may be used to exert economic leverage.

Unintended Side Effects of Tariffs

Tariffs can have unintended side effects:

They can make domestic industries less efficient and innovative by reducing competition.

They can hurt domestic consumers since a lack of competition tends to push up prices.

They can generate tensions by favoring certain industries, or geographic regions, over others. For example, tariffs designed to help manufacturers in cities may hurt consumers in rural areas who do not benefit from the policy and are likely to pay more for manufactured goods.

Finally, an attempt to pressure a rival country by using tariffs can devolve into an unproductive cycle of retaliation, commonly known as a trade war.

History of Tariffs

Pre-Modern Europe

In pre-modern Europe, a nation's wealth was believed to consist of fixed, tangible assets, such as gold, silver, land, and other physical resources. Trade was seen as a zero-sum game that resulted in either a clear net loss or a clear net gain of wealth. If a country imported more than it exported, a resource, mainly gold, would flow abroad thereby draining its wealth. Cross-border trade was viewed with suspicion, and countries much preferred to acquire colonies with which they could establish exclusive trading relationships, rather than trading with each other.

This system, known as mercantilism, relied heavily on tariffs and even outright bans on trade. The colonizing country, which saw itself as competing with other colonizers, would import raw materials from its colonies, which were generally barred from selling their raw materials elsewhere. The colonizing country would convert the materials into manufactured wares, which it would sell back to the colonies. High tariffs and other barriers were put in place to make sure that colonies purchased manufactured goods only from their colonizers.

New Economic Theories

The Scottish economist Adam Smith was one of the first to question the wisdom of this arrangement. His Wealth of Nations was published in 1776, the same year that Britain's American colonies declared independence in response to high taxes and restrictive trade arrangements.

Later writers, such as David Ricardo, further developed Smith's ideas, leading to the theory of comparative advantage. It maintains that if one country is better at producing a certain product, while another country is better at producing another, each should devote its resources to the activity at which it excels. The countries should then trade with one another, rather than erecting barriers that force them to divert resources toward activities they do not perform well. Tariffs, according to this theory, are a drag on economic growth, even if they can be deployed to benefit certain narrow sectors under some circumstances.

Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Relatively free trade enjoyed a heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the idea took hold that international commerce had made large-scale wars between nations so expensive and counterproductive that they were obsolete. World War I proved that idea wrong, and nationalist approaches to trade, including high tariffs, dominated until the end of World War II.

From that point on, free trade enjoyed a 50-year resurgence, culminating in the creation in 1995 of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which acts as an international forum for settling disputes and laying down ground rules. Free trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)-now known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)-and the European Union (EU), also proliferated.

Skepticism of this model-sometimes labeled neoliberalism by critics, who tie it to 19th-century liberal arguments in favor of free trade-grew, however, and Britain in 2016 voted to leave the European Union. That same year Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election on a platform that included a call for tariffs on Chinese and Mexican imports, which he implemented when he took office.

Critics of tariff-free multilateral trade deals, who come from both ends of the political spectrum, argue that they erode national sovereignty and encourage a race to the bottom in terms of wages, worker protections, and product quality and standards. The defenders of such deals, meanwhile, counter that tariffs lead to trade wars, hurt consumers, hamper innovation, and encourage xenophobia.

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A tariff is a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country. Tariffs are used to restrict imports. Simply put, they increase the price of goods and services purchased from another country, making them less attractive to domestic consumers.

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He was the 30th president of the United States. He helps the US economically. During his presidency, he helped shrank the federal debt the US had. He also signed the immigration act of 1924. Calvin help with producing cheap federal electrical power for Americans.

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As America's 30th President (1923-1929), Calvin Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts of frugality amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era.

At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible.

Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement," wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith. "His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history ... in a time of extravagance and waste...."

Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. Slowly, methodically, he went up the political ladder from councilman in Northampton to Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. En route he became thoroughly conservative.

As President, Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying. He refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. His first message to Congress in December 1923 called for isolation in foreign policy, and for tax cuts, economy, and limited aid to farmers.

He rapidly became popular. In 1924, as the beneficiary of what was becoming known as "Coolidge prosperity," he polled more than 54 percent of the popular vote.

In his Inaugural he asserted that the country had achieved "a state of contentment seldom before seen," and pledged himself to maintain the status quo. In subsequent years he twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee River.

The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...."

Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more."

But no President was kinder in permitting himself to be photographed in Indian war bonnets or cowboy dress, and in greeting a variety of delegations to the White House.

Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose." And in 1928, while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he issued the most famous of his laconic statements, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."

By the time the disaster of the Great Depression hit the country, Coolidge was in retirement. Before his death in January 1933, he confided to an old friend, ". . . I feel I no longer fit in with these times."
The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from "The Presidents of the United States of America," by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.
Learn more about Calvin Coolidge 's spouse, Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge.

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At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible.