Whos Who of The 1920s

Unit Title: 1920s

Lesson Title: The Big Cheese

Lesson Focus: Important individuals of the 1920s and their impact on American
society.
Includes (from TEKS): Eugene Debs, Henry Ford, W. E. B. Du Bois; (from HRC
Website): Margaret Sanger, T.S. Elliot, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, Emily Post
Other Possibilities: (from TEKS) Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, Charles A.
Lindbergh, Georgia OKeefe, Upton Sinclair (The Jungle); (from HRC website): Gloria
Swanson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gordon Conway,
Grade Level/Course: 11th Grade/US History

Time allotment: 2 -3 days
Authors: Errin Jennings, [email protected]
Carol Curtiss, [email protected]
Tina Melcher, [email protected]
Lesson Summary:
Students will investigate important individuals of the 1920s; explore the economic,
political, and social climate of the times; and explain the significance and impact of
individuals on American society.
Materials Needed
Access to Harry Ransom Centers reading and images via computer or copies
Charts student drawn or copies
Mask template
Documents Used
Textbook, websites
Readings from Harry Ransom Centers online exhibit Teaching the American Twenties
Strategies Used
ABC Brainstorm
Note taking Graphic Organizer
Jigsaw Mixer
Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

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Objective: Students will be able to identify key individuals of the 1920s and explain their points
of view and their impact on society; including: Henry Ford, Eugene Debs, W. E. B. Du Bois, and
others (Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, and Charles Lindbergh)
Enduring Understandings:
Individuals, events, and ideas change.
People contribute to communities in many different ways.
Issues and events can be viewed from different perspectives.
Essential Questions:
What political, economic and social impact did individuals have during the 1920s? (Include
Henry Ford, Eugene Debs, W. E. B. Du Bois; also Clarence Darrow, William Jennings
Bryan, and Charles Lindbergh)
What were the points of view of these people?
Concepts
Change Industrialization
Reform Leadership
Capitalism Progress
Socialism
Vocabulary
Feminist Scopes Monkey Trial
Harlem Renaissance Red Scare
Labor
TEKS/SEs (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills/Student Expectations)

(4) History. The student understands the effects of reform and third party movements on
American society. The student is expected to:
(B) evaluate the impact of reform leaders such as Susan B. Anthony, W.E.B. DuBois,
and Robert LaFollette on American society.
(5) History. The student understands significant individuals, events, and issues of the 1920s. The
student is expected to:
(A) analyze causes and effects of significant issues such as immigration, the Red Scare,
Prohibition, and the changing role of women; and
(B) analyze the impact of significant individuals such as Clarence Darrow, William Jennings
Bryan, Henry Ford, and Charles A. Lindbergh.
(24) Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information
acquired from a variety of sources including electronic technology. The student is expected to:
(A) locate and use primary and secondary sources such as computer software, databases,
media and news services, biographies, interviews, and artifacts to acquire information about
the United States;
(B) analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect
relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making
generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions;
(D) use the process of historical inquiry to research, interpret, and use multiple sources of
evidence;

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(E) evaluate the validity of a source based on language, corroboration with other sources,
and information about the author;
(F) identify bias in written, oral, and visual material;
(G) support a point of view on a social studies issue or event; and
(25) Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms.
The student is expected to:
(D) create written, oral, and visual presentations of social studies information.
Background Information
The Big Cheese is a 1920s slang term for the most important or influential person; boss; same
as big shot. This term was chosen because the lesson focuses on important or influential people
from the 1920s.1
FEMINISM
Emily Post Margaret Sanger
Daughter of a wealthy architect, Emily Price Dismayed by infant mortality, Sanger became
Post wrote her Etiquette to try to bring a vocal advocate of contraception and
common sense and flexibility to good manners. established a medically supervised family
She published ten editions of her book and for planning clinic.3
many years also wrote a syndicated newspaper
column and for a time also hosted a radio
program. Before becoming known for her
Etiquette book, she also wrote fiction and
nonfiction for magazines and wrote several
novels.2
LEADERSHIP
W. E. B. Du Bois Marcus Garvey
W. E. B. Du Bois was a leading African- African American leader from 1919 to 1926
American intellectual. He believed in the who urged African Americans to return to their
ability of the Talented Tenth, the intellectual motherland of Africa; provided early
black elites, to advance the cause for all blacks. inspiration for black pride movements.5
Du Bois was active in the formation of the
NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People). He served as
director of publicity and research and edited
The Crisis until 1934 when he broke with the
organization. He increasingly favored black
separatism.4
1
"Slang of the 1920's." Brass-Nickel Touring Region. 3 Dec 2006 <http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm>.
2
"About: Emily Post." The New York Times Company. 3 Dec 2006
<http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_emily_post.htm>.
3
"Significant Women in America." U-S-History.com. 3 Dec 2006 <http://home.u-s-history.com/pages/h1551.html>.
4
TEA SSC, "TEKS Biographies - US History." 3 Dec 2006
<http://www.tea.state.tx.us/ssc/teks_and_taas/teks/bioushist.htm#dubois>.
5
Cayton, Andrew, Elisabeth Israels Perry, Linda Reed, and Allan Winkler.America Pathways to the Present. Needham,
MA: Prentice Hall, 2003.

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LITERATURE
T. S. Eliot Langston Hughes
T.S. Eliot was one of the most influential poets Langston Hughes was one of the most
of the early 20th century, he was born in St. important writers and thinkers of the Harlem
Louis, Missouri, but moved to England after Renaissance, which was the African American
college and spent his adult life in Europe. artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated
The Waste Land, a poem was written in black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius
1922, is considered the foundation of was influenced by his life in New York City's
modernist, 20th century poetry. It contrasts the Harlem, a primarily African American
spiritual bankruptcy of modern Europe with neighborhood. His literary works helped shape
the values and unity of the past and it displayed American literature and politics. Hughes, like
profound despair.6 others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a
strong sense of racial pride. Through his
poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's
books, he promoted equality, condemned
racism and injustice, and celebrated African
American culture, humor, and spirituality.7
BUSINESS
Henry Ford Eugene V. Debs
Henry Ford helped create a mobile society by Eugene Debs supported unionization and labor
mass producing and marketing the Model T reforms, opposed strikes, and favored
automobile, making it an indispensable part of negotiation as a means to improve the
American life. Through his efforts, the conditions for laborers. He founded the
automotive industry became a world-wide American Railway Union (ARU) in 1893 to
phenomenon. Born on a farm near Detroit, organize railroad workers, coal miners, and
Michigan, Ford worked on the farm, at a longshoremen employed in the industry,
shipbuilding firm, and for a company which regardless of their skills. Failure of the ARU in
serviced steam engines. During the winters he 1894 convinced Debs of the value of socialism
experimented on building his own internal- as an economic system and he joined the
combustion engines. He drove his first home- Socialist Democratic Party (Socialist Party of
built automobile in 1896. The Ford Motor America) in 1901. He ran for president five
Company was founded in 1903 and he times on the socialist ticket, once from prison.
developed the Model T by 1908. Ford used He used his campaigns to further the causes of
mass production to reduce the price of the women's suffrage, the abolition of child labor,
Model T, and he worked to perfect the and shorter workdays.9
assembly line. He retained complete company
control and used it to amass billions of dollars.8
6
T. S. Eliot. HighBeam Encyclopedia. 3 Dec 2006 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Eliot-Th.html>.
7
"Langston Hughes." America's Story from America's Library. The Library of Congress. 3 Dec 2006
<http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/hughes>.
8
9

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RELIGION AND SCIENCE
William Jennings Bryan Clarence Darrow
A noted politician and orator, William The most renowned defense attorney of his
Jennings Bryan supported reforms benefiting time, Clarence Darrow was born in Ohio to a
ordinary people. He served as a representative working-class family. He was admitted to the
to the Illinois legislature where he favored Ohio Bar in 1878. He and his family moved to
income tax, prohibition, and women's suffrage. Chicago in 1887 to further his law career. He
He earned the Democratic nomination for defended Eugene V. Debs in 1894 against
president in 1896 but lost the race. He also lost charges of criminal conspiracy in relation to
in 1900 and 1908. He served as Woodrow the American Railway Union strikes. His
Wilson's secretary of state but resigned in 1915 attraction to social concerns prompted him to
because he did not support Wilson's aggressive argue criminal conspiracy cases and cases
stance toward Germany. Bryan made a fortune involving union violence and labor rights. He
in real estate deals in Florida. His last oration opposed the death penalty and supported racial
was as a spokesman for the prosecution in the equality. In 1925, he defended John T. Scopes
Scopes trial in which he supported a literal who was charged by fundamentalists for
interpretation of the Bible and denounced the violating a Tennessee statute against teaching
10
teaching of evolution in the schools. evolution in the schools. His closing arguments
are models of expository speaking.11
POLITICS (Red Scare)
J. Edgar Hoover Sacco and Vanzetti
Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar Hoover), 1895- Immigrant and anarchist executed, in a highly
1972. Hoover found work at the U.S. controversial case, for a 1920 murder of a
Department of Justice. He soon demonstrated Massachusetts factory.13
his ability and was named to head the Enemy
Aliens Registration Section. In 1919, he was
appointed as an assistant to Attorney General
A. Mitchell Palmer and became head of the
new General Intelligence Division. In this role
he supervised the Palmer Raids on aliens
alleged to hold radical views. From there, in
1921, he joined the Bureau of Investigation as
deputy head, and in 1924 the attorney general
made him the director. When the division
became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in
1935, Hoover was named its director.12
10
11
12
"J. Edgar Hoover." U-S-History.com. 3 Dec 2006 <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1593.html>.
13
Cayton, Andrew, Elisabeth Israels Perry, Linda Reed, and Allan Winkler.America Pathways to the Present. Needham,
MA: Prentice Hall, 2003.

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HEROES
Charles A. Lindbergh Al Capone
Born in Detroit to a political family, Charles Al Capone is America's best known gangster
Lindbergh studied mechanical engineering and and the single greatest symbol of the collapse
flying, gaining a reputation as a mechanic and of law and order in the United States during the
pilot. He completed the U.S. Army Air Cadet 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading
program in 1925 and was made second role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its
lieutenant. He set a record in aviation history reputation as a lawless city.15
when he flew the specially built monoplane,
The Spirit of St. Louis, nonstop from St. Louis
to Paris on May 20-21, 1927. Afterward he
served as a technical advisor to commercial
airlines, testing new aircraft and developing
viable routes. He favored neutrality before the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, then he
supported the war cause, testing military
aircraft and sharing technical knowledge. His
interest in nature led him to support
conservation efforts and he directed the World
Wildlife Fund.14
Procedure
A. Anticipatory Set (Hook)
ABC Brainstorm
As a class or in small groups that then report to the class, brainstorm characteristics of
people who make a difference. Come up with one characteristic (word or phrase) for
each letter of the alphabet. Remind students of the end-or-year lists of significant
people of the year, etc. Discuss citizenship, contributions to society, heroes, etc.
B. Information gathering (Line)
1. Divide students into pairs who will work together to learn about two people with
differing points of view on important topics of the period.
2. Students research the people using the HRC website (plus textbook and other
information) making sure to investigate important issues, personal background and
ideals, and point of view. Use the Significant People Research Notes or other graphic
organizer to help when gathering information.
C. Processing Activity (Sinker)
Option A
1. After completing the research, the pairs work together (using the information on their
Research) to write a plausible dialogue (2-3 minutes) that they will perform for the class.
Each student becomes one of the people studied, and the dialogue expresses the points of
14
15
"Al Capone." Chicago Historical Society. 3 Dec 2006 <http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html>.

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view of the people and shares important information about issues during the 1920s. To
help, students create a mask to wear during the dialogue.
2. While others are performing their dialogues, the students in the audience take notes on
the Notes Matrix.
Option B
1. After the research portion of the lesson is complete, students participate in a mixer
where they are the person they researched. Instead of performing for the class, students
mingle with classmates as if attending a party. They introduce themselves to others in
attendance and share pertinent information and discuss issues of the while staying in
character.
2. While visiting with others, students take notes about others on the Notes Matrix.
Closure
1. Review the people studied, including what they did, the impact they had, and what
characteristics of people who make a difference they exhibit. (Tie to lessons anticipatory
set)
Assessment
1. Write a well developed response (essay) comparing two of the people studied. Explain
the significance of the people; make sure to discuss the impact they had on American
society. Use the Venn diagram as a pre-write to help in planning.
Differentiation and Accommodation

Gifted/Talented Learners
Students may perform a press conference with all of the key individuals discussing their
individual impact on the 1920s and their significance, including answering questions from
reporters and other of the people of the 1920s.
English Language Learners

Students use words and pictures in the tables to describe the significance of specific
individuals, especially those specifically mentioned in the TEKS. Use additional or different
materials for the research with visuals, appropriate language, etc. Illustrate using storyboard
or window pane configuration instead of writing an essay.
Special Needs Students

The teacher could create two sets of cardsone set has the name and picture of key
individuals on them and the other set has explanations of the individuals. Students may
match the key individuals to their significance, focusing especially on those people
specifically mentioned in the TEKS. Provide materials appropriate for research that provide
appropriate accommodations. Write about one person rather than comparing two.
Remediation
Students may create note-cards with the name and picture of an individual on one side and
their significance on the other, focusing especially on those people specifically mentioned in
the TEKS.

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Location of Material on the HRC Website
www.utexas.edu/teachingthetwenties
Feminism
Emily Post: Small Town, Big City / House and Home / Emily Posts Modernization of Manners
Margaret Sanger: Big Debates / Rise of Women / Margaret Sanger and Womens Health
Leadership
W.E.B. DuBois: Defining American Culture / Harlem Renaissance / Leadership
Marcus Garvey: Defining American Culture / Harlem Renaissance / Leadership
Literature
T.S. Eliot: Big Debates / After the War / The Lost Generation
America Encounters the Modern / New Forms, New Ideas / Modern American
Poetry
Langston Hughes: Defining American Culture / Harlem Renaissance / Image Gallery
Big Debates / After the War / The Colored Soldier (Hughes)
Business
Henry Ford: Big Debates / Capital and Labor / The Automobile
Eugene Debs: Big Debates / Capital and Labor / Labor Leaders

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ABC Brainstorm
Think about the people who make a difference in society. What characteristics do they exhibit? Find
one characteristic (word or phrase) for each letter of the alphabet.
A ____________________ O ____________________
B ____________________ P ____________________
C ____________________ Q ____________________
D ____________________ R ____________________
E ____________________
S ____________________
F ____________________
T ____________________
G ____________________
U ____________________
H ____________________
V ____________________
I ____________________
W ____________________
J ____________________
K ____________________ X ____________________
L ____________________ Y ____________________
M ____________________ Z ____________________
N ____________________

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Significant People of the Twenties-Research Notes
Person Researched: Topic:
Personal Background
Source
Issues/Ideas
Source
Point of View
Source
Significance
How successful was

this person in getting
across his/her ideas
and point of view?
What characteristics
of people who make a
difference does this
person exhibit?

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Mask Template
Add facial features to resemble the person you researched. Cut it out and wear your mask
as you become the person for your performance of the dialogue you wrote.

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Significant People of the Twenties
Notes Matrix
Area of People and
Similarities Differences Impact on American Society
Interest Point of View
Emily Post
Feminism
Margaret
Sanger
W.E.B. DuBois
Leadership
Marcus Garvey
T.S. Eliot
Literature Langston
Hughes

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Notes Matrix (Continued)
Area of People and
Similarities Difference Impact on American Society
Interest Point of View
Henry Ford
Business
Eugene V. Debs
William
Jennings Bryan
Religion
&
Science Clarence
Darrow
J. Edgar
Hoover
Politics
Sacco and
Vanzetti
Charles
Lindbergh
Heroes
Al Capone

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Significant People of the Twenties - Prewrite
Name of Person Area of Interest Name of Person
What impact did these people have in their area of interest on American society?

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Wrote Etiquette Emily Post
Advocate of family planning Margaret Sanger
NAACP, Talented Tenth W.E.B. DuBois
Advocated return to Africa

Marcus Garvey
movement
Model T assembly line, fought

Henry Ford
unions
Supported unionization and labor

Eugene V. Debs
reforms, 1920 Socialist party
candidate
Supported racial equality,

Clarence Darrow
defended John T. Scopes
The Big Cheese Documents

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Supported literal interpretation of the
Bible, Prosecutor in Scopes trial William Jennings Bryan
Director of FBI J. Edgar Hoover
Defendants in controversial
Sacco and Vanzetti
murder case, Executed by
electrocution
Wrote "The Wasteland" T.S. Eliot (1922)
Wrote "The Enormous Room" E.E. Cummings (1920)
First Female Senator Rebecca Ann Latimar (1922)
Wrote The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

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First Solo Flight Across the Charles Lindbergh (1927)
Atlantic
Invented Quick-Freeze Machine Clarence Birdseye (1925)
Discovered Penicillin Alexander Fleming (1928)
First Instrument-Only Flight Jimmy Doolittle
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" Langston Hughes
Inventor of Lead Gasoline Thomas Midgeley, Jr.
President who Reinstated High

William G. Harding
Tariff

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President Associated With the
Calvin Coolidge
20s Economic Boom
President During "Black Tuesday" Herbert Hoover
Writer of "Mein Kampf" Adolf Hitler

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Reading and Images Excerpts
Feminism
Contrasting Feminine Perspectives
Many feminists of the day advocated for temperance because they saw the link between
men's alcoholism, domestic violence, and family poverty.
Margaret Sanger, an outspoken proponent of birth control, believed that given women's
economic and physical vulnerability-especially among rural women-they must be able to
control the number of children they have. Sanger labored for decades to get information
to women about safe contraception and venereal disease. This effort challenged the
predominant cultural belief that to keep women ignorant was to keep them virtuous.
Vilified by the church and once arrested by the state, Sanger dauntlessly promoted
women's freedom from lifelong childbearing.
In Motherhood in Bondage, Sanger presents letters she had received from women across
the country crying out to her for help. These women, some having been married at the
age of twelve or thirteen and having had ten or more children by their late twenties,
spoke of the health problems, poverty, isolation, fear, abuse, and despair they
experienced as a result of their "incessant pregnancies and childbearing."
Back cover of Motherhood in Bondage

Margaret Sanger
Caption: Throughout Margaret Sanger's twenty-five-year-long careerfirst as a nurse

to poor urban women and later as an activist for birth controlmany women shared
their personal, and often desperate, stories with her. She later published many of the letters
women had written to her over the years in Motherhood in Bondage.

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Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage
Margaret Sanger
Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage.

Margaret Sanger
Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

Margaret Sanger

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Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger

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Photograph of residents of Granger, Texas
Jno P. Trlica
Caption: Jno P. Trlica photographed the residents of Granger, Texas in his studio
throughout the 1920s. In rural and urban areas, large families like this one were not
uncommon.

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Emily Post's Modernization of Manners
Emily Post was born into privilege in Baltimore in 1873, educated by private tutors, and
trained in the social graces at a finishing school before she made her debut. Because of
her background and her marriage into a wealthy New York family, she was well
acquainted with the most formal social manners. By the turn of the century, she had
divorced her husband for infidelity and had ventured into fiction writing as a career.
Having limited success with her novels, she switched course and wrote the enormously
successful Etiquette in 1922.
Etiquette
Responding to Americans' growing desire to be less "backward," and at the same time
expressing her desire to "democratize" manners, Post preached etiquette as a form of
ethics. Moreover, she challenged the common association of manners with wealth,
arguing that plenty of wealthy people were boorish. She insisted that the basic rule of all
good manners was to consider the comfort of others, and took pains to adapt codes of
behavior to the way that people actually behaved. One example of this flexibility was her
acceptance of the "vulgar sounding" greeting "hello." Saying "hello" instead of the more
formal "How do you do?" was fine, according to Post, as long as it was not shouted and
was only used to greet intimate friends. Her scope extended beyond the dining room to
sportsmanship and driving manners. Her modern approach was evident in the many
revisions her book had undergone-ten-by the time of her death in 1960.
"The Personality of the House" from Etiquette

Emily Post
Caption: Emily Post's belief that even a small house could reflect its owners' good
manners and taste challenged common notions of manners as the province of the very
rich.

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"The Child at the Table" from Etiquette
Emily Post
Caption: Children were the heirs not only to their parents' property, but also to their
store of social wisdom according to Post. This meant rigorous early training in the arts of
civilization.
"Good Loser" and "Playing the Game" from Etiquette

Emily Post
Caption: Post abhorred bad sportsmanship and gave specific rules of conduct for games
ranging from bridge to golf.

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Leadership
W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois, a founder of the N.A.A.C.P. and a longtime editor of its publication, The
Crisis, had worked since before the war to publish literary works by black authors and to
promote racial pride. Du Bois believed that the most "talented tenth" of the race should
help uplift the African-American masses. He encouraged the scholars, writers, and artists
in the forefront of the "New Negro" movement, a term which utilized the preferred racial
designation of the day and countered negative racial epithets.
Just as Emerson and Whitman had called for and developed a distinctly American
literature based largely on the experience of pioneering expansion across the majestic
continent, Du Bois initiated an African-American aesthetic. And just as Emerson's and
Whitman's American sublime was to be judged by American and not European standards,
Du Bois's black aesthetic was to conform to black and not white artistic values. This
independent stance opened the door for poetry and fiction influenced by Negro spirituals,
blues compositions, jazz, and African-American folklore, all cultural forms born out of a
history of oppression and cultural marginalization.
Marcus Garvey
Inspired by Booker T. Washington's life and work at the Tuskegee Institute, Marcus
Garvey established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) on his native
island of Jamaica in 1914. Washington died before the two men could meet, but Garvey
persisted in his vision for an organization that would unite and uplift of peoples of African
descent throughout the world.
In 1916, Garvey moved to Harlem and shifted the headquarters of the UNIA as well. That
same year, he solicited the cooperation and support of W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois,
however, was uninterested and the two ultimately became foes, squaring off at each
other from the pages of their respective publications.
Garvey's message of racial pride and autonomy found a willing membership among
Harlem's citizens, and the UNIA hosted a mass meeting in1920, bringing together
thousands of delegates from the UNIA's many branches in the U.S. and abroad.
Garvey and his followers, often attired in military dress, planned a return to Africa and
professed African nationalism. Drafted in 1920, the "Declaration of Rights of the Negro
Peoples of the World" proclaimed, "We believe in the freedom of Africa for the Negro
people of the world, and by the principle of Europe for the Europeans and Asia for the
Asiatics; we also demand Africa for the Africans at home and abroad."
J. Edgar Hoover distrusted Garvey and eventually charged him with mail fraud. Following
his trial, imprisonment, and 1927 deportation, Garvey's support declined significantly.
The UNIA continued to exist, but did not command the attention it did during the first half
of the decade.

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Photograph of W. E. B. Du Bois from Black Manhattan
Caption: Du Bois's portrait from the 2nd printing of Black Manhattan, named the "W. E.
Du Bois Prize Edition."
Excerpt from The Negro

W. E. B. Du Bois
Caption: In this work predating the Harlem Renaissance, Du Bois demonstrated his
interest in the cultural productions of African Americans. Du Bois's belief that art should
be used in the service of racial uplift eventually put him at odds with artists who felt their
work should not be subject to social and political goals.

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Photograph of Marcus Garvey
New York Evening Journal
Caption: Marcus Garvey press photograph from the New York Evening Journal archive. (
Canadian Railway Press)
Article "Negro Ship Line Head Charged with Fraud" from the New York Evening
Journal, Jan. 13, 1922
Caption: Marcus Garvey rarely received positive press coverage outside UNIA
publications. This article from the New York Evening Journal details his arrest on fraud
charges. J. Edgar Hoover believed that Marcus Garvey was a threat to the United States
and actively pursued him until Garvey's deportation.

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Literature
The Lost Generation (T.S. Eliot)
Many critics consider Soldiers' Pay to be Faulkner's commentary on the "lost generation"
of Americans who reached adulthood during World War I and the early 1920s. In general,
this generation was disillusioned by the large number of deaths in the War and rejected
many of the previous generations' ideas of appropriate behavior, morality, and gender
roles.
The phrase "Lost Generation," as coined by Gertrude Stein, refers specifically to ex-
patriot writers who left the United States to take part in the literary culture of cities such
as Paris and London during the 1920s. This group, including Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot, is considered to have been skeptical about out-moded
traditional forms of literary and artistic work, particularly in America, though its members
were prolific writers and many produced classics.
Though Faulkner is not considered to be a member of this Lost Generation, his texts of
the time are often compared to the works of the Lost Generation writers, particularly
those of Ernest Hemingway. Both Hemingway and Faulkner had wished to be war heroes
but were denied the chanceHemingway was too young to enlist in the United States
military, and Faulkner was too small. Faulkner signed up with a British troop in Canada,
but the war ended before he finished his training. Hemingway volunteered to drive
ambulances for the American Red Cross in Italy and was injured there.
"The Colored Soldier" by Langston Hughes
When black soldiers returned home, they encountered increased hatred and violence; in
April of 1919, ten black veterans in uniform were lynched, some of them burned alive in
the South. Langston Hughes addressed this vicious homecoming and the unanswered
promise of equality to African-Americans in his dramatic poem "The Colored Soldier." The
poem's narrator dreams that his brother, the fallen soldier, takes pride at the equality for
which he fought and died. The narrator cries out, "It's a lie! It's a lie! Every word they
said. And it's better a thousand times you're in France dead." Written to be performed on
stage, this poem dramatizes Hughes's response to post-war discrimination and violence.
Under Hughes's stage direction, the rising sense of outrage expressed by the narrator is
reflected in the "fierce and angry" reaction of the listening crowd.

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"The Colored Soldier" from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
Caption: Langston Hughes' "The Colored Soldier"

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Business
Capital and Labor
Introduction
"I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth.
I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and
while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in
prison, I am not free."
Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Federal Court of Cleveland, September 18,
1918
"After all, the chief business of the American people is business. . . Of course
the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence. .
. We make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are
many other things that we want very much more. We want peace and honor,
and that charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief
ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that
America is a nation of idealists. That is the only motive to which they ever
give any strong and lasting reaction."
President Calvin Coolidge, Speech to the American Society of Newspaper
Editors, January 1925
The Twenties was an era marked by a vigorous tug-of-war between the small but
alarmingly powerful capitalist community and the plentiful but powerless laborers. Big
Business, founded on revolutionary technological innovations, new organizational
strategies, the practice of standardization, and an enthusiastic optimism, usually
prevailed. The heroes of the day were men like Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, and Owen D.
Young (chairman of General Electric), the latter two being Time magazine's "Man of the
Year" for 1927 and 1928 respectively. Under their leadership, and that of their
competitors and colleagues, corporate profits rose 80% between 1923 and 1929. The
assembly line's profound effect on the American pocketbook, lifestyle, and culture had
fully taken root, and the consumer marketplace brought amazing innovations into even
the most modest of homes.
Under the banner of welfare capitalism, both workers and companies made progress, as
several large industries and corporations adopted changes such as shorter workdays and
the five-day workweek. Still, inflation, unemployment, and lockouts reminded everyone
who was the boss, while strikes, bombs, and union fervor antagonized management
through the early Twenties. Before World War I, the Union movement had experienced
considerable growth and was a powerful if chaotic force in American politics. Eugene
Debs, Robert La Follette, Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn were the popular
advocates of labor. For a period of time in America, there was a wide variety of political
positions, including communism, socialism, and anarchism. In the end, these political
alternatives were systematically vilified and ultimately destroyed. The "red scares" of the
turn of the decade, a number of trials, deportations, and murders, as well as increased

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prosperity and the growth of the middle class, turned the tide. The struggle for the soul of
America was fierce on both sides.
Cover of The Liberator from September 1921
Caption: Originally published as The Masses, The Liberator was co-founded in 1918 by
Max Eastman, his sister, Crystal Eastman, and a group of writers and artists as a digest
of worldwide Socialist political and cultural movements. As an intellectual concerned with
the role of art in politics, Eastman served as editor until 1924. Pro-labor and sympathetic
to the Bolshevik Revolution, Eastman believed art should avoid pretentious pseudo-
intellectualism. These cover illustrations show the mixture of a strong political message
and simple artistic form he favored.
Cover of The Liberator from October 1921


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Cover of The Liberator from April 1922

Cover of The Liberator from March 1924

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Cover of The Liberator from May 1922

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American Business
A string of vigorously pro-business presidents and their equally ardent administrations
made the Twenties a particularly fertile era for business growth. Indeed, Calvin Coolidge's
pro-capital fervor mirrored that of thousands of business and government leaders. "The
man who builds a factory," said Coolidge in his January 1925 speech, "builds a temple.
The man who works there worships there."
Indeed, many such temples were built. Factories producing everything from sewing
machines (which themselves had revolutionized the garment industry) to newfangled
gadgets like vacuum cleaners sprung up all over the country. The "Steel Belt" developed
across urban centers located on the Great Lakes. The waterways provided easy access for
receiving raw materials and shipping out finished goods.
The need for rapid production of tanks and other war machines during WWI resulted in
technological innovations and inspired much of the vigor that characterized 1920s
industrial America. After the war, Europe had little energy (or capital) with which to
compete with the momentum of American productivity.
High tariff policies, reductions in corporate income taxes, a dramatic decline in the power
of the Federal Trade Commission, and the weakening of what little social legislation
existed further invigorated industry. With the rise of advertising, "consumer culture," and
buying on credit, many Americans craved luxury and enjoyed convenience never before
imagined. The time was ripe for giddy stockholders and flush C.E.O.s.
Photograph of President Calvin Coolidge

Caption: The very pro-business President Calvin Coolidge giving his inaugural address in
January 1923. New York Evening Journal press photograph.

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Photograph of industry on the Great Lakes
Caption: The new industrial landscape grew on the banks of the Great Lakes. The tractor
being loaded onto the Ford-branded freighter could be bound for ports as disparate as
Houston or Capetown. It would return with raw materials and component parts to build
more tractors, only to leave again with more new machinery bound for other exotic
locales. New York Evening Journal press photograph.
Photograph of office workers

Eugene O. Goldbeck
Caption: Administrative careers bloomed as surely as manufacturing and sales positions

grew in response to increased production, demand, and credit.
Photograph of businessmen
Eugene O. Goldbeck
Caption: Photographer Eugene O. Goldbeck's subjects exude the confidence and
seriousness felt by businessmen of the day.

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The Automobile
Emblematic of the era, consumer demand for the automobile was high. Henry Ford's
refinement of his innovative assembly line at the Model T Automobile Plant in Highland
Park, Michigan, meant production reached unprecedented efficiency-as many as 1,000
new "Tin Lizzies" rolled out every day. And as efficiency went up, prices went down. By
1928, a basic Model T Ford had a price tag of only $295, down from $1200 in 1909.
By this time, General Motors was also a powerhouse, covering a broader consumer base.
Shortly after GM President Alfred P. Sloan, in his 1924 Message to Shareholders,
announced GM's strategy of "a car for every purse and purpose," the first Pontiac was
introduced. It featured a six-cylinder engine and amenities that placed it firmly between
the Model T and GM's luxury line, the Cadillac.
Such industry-wide successes enabled growth in resource industries-steel, rubber,

leather, glass-and post-production industries, like gasoline, road construction, and travel.
Furthermore, manufacturing innovations in other industries echoed those made by Ford
and GM, bringing all manufactured goods, including exciting new consumer items, within
the reach of more people.
Americans wanted everything new. The automobile was now considered a necessity, no
longer a luxury. Kitchen appliances like refrigerators, clothes washing machines, and
vacuum cleaners became indispensable. Retailers made it easy for people to acquire
these items with the introduction of "installment plans." By 1925, 75% of all automobile
purchases were made on installments, and people plunged into debt. This demand fueled
the industries into frenzied production levels, even if they were only running on the fumes
of future payment.
America's robust business climate generated great optimism in capitalist circles.

Businessmen like Ford and those of an older generation, like John D. Rockefeller Sr.,
attained cult or folk hero status in some circles. In 1925 Bruce Barton, an advertising
executive (also an emerging field) went so far as to call Jesus Christ "the founder of
modern business" and his apostles "the greatest sales force in history." Business was no
longer merely a vocation but a spiritual calling.

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Card containing "Fordisms"
Caption: Though his workforce and target market closely mirrored each other financially,
Henry Ford's attitudes regarding their well-being was widely known. This card handed out
to Ford managers during the thirties indicates his clear anti-union sentiments.
Photograph of the Model T factory
Caption: In this early but undated photograph, Model T's are built on wooden assembly
line structures at the factory seen above. Note the car bodies coming from the second
floor, and the chassies from the first. Soon, the assembly line would be streamlined,
allowing for the manufacture of as many as 1000 cars per day.New York Evening
Journalpress photograph

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Photograph Henry and Edsel Ford [top]and the Ford Motor Company [bottom]
Caption: In this press photograph from the New York Evening Journal (ca. 1924), Henry
and son Edsel Ford stand beside Ford Number 10,000,000 and the first car Henry built.
The new car was headed on a trip from New York to San Francisco on the Lincoln Highway
- the first continuous road to stretch across the U.S. and the progenitor of our Interstate
Highway system
Photograph of Henry Ford Trade School
Caption: New York Evening Journal press photograph (1922), Henry Ford Trade School .
Careers in manufacturing were encouraged as a deeply honorable field for young men.
Building the nation was considered a vital endeavor. These students are working in the
Henry Ford Trade School's machine shop.

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Cartoon "Henry's made a lady out of Lizzie"
Walter O'Keefe
Caption: The "Tin Lizzie," the Model T was admired, loved, and reviled, but however
one felt, it was an inescapable part of the American landscape. The introduction of the
more-refined yet affordable Model A Ford inspired the lyrics of this song. New York
Journal American archive
Photograph of a service station

Eugene O. Goldbeck
Caption: The fuel and oil industries exploded with the growth of the automobile. This
service station's promotion of a free can of oil with the purchase of "that good Gulf
gasoline" was too good a deal for these motorists to pass up.

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Labor Leaders
In 1920 the labor movement was roaring, with union membership over 5,000,000. This
solidarity had begun with simple trade unionism-a kind of organizing that divided different
workers within each industry according to their skills, often barring women and people of
color. It had evolved toward organizing workers along industry lines, regardless of their
skill, sex, or race.
Workers unionized in an effort to procure fair wages, shorter workdays, and safer working
conditions. Despite often-vicious opposition and charismatic but contentious leaders, this
industrial unionism made tremendous gains and began to challenge the politically-backed
power of industry.
Different labor organizers routinely published articles and lectured around the country
practicing different approaches to the problem. Eugene Debs adopted socialism and ran
for the U.S. presidency five times between 1900 and 1920. Bill Haywood, one of the
founders of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), was also a socialist and
allegedly advocated violence and sabotage. Emma Goldman, a supporter of unions,
preached anarchism because she believed that all governments were based on coercion
and force.
Starting in 1917, as American soldiers marched into France, Woodrow Wilson crafted
espionage and sedition laws aimed at silencing these views. Because criticizing the
government was made illegal, Debs, Haywood, Goldman, and hundreds of other labor
leaders were arrested and sentenced to prison terms as long as twenty years. Wilson's
crackdown on union leadership, capitalizing as it did on rising fears of communism and
socialism, significantly weakened the labor movement and cleared the way for the laissez-
faire capitalism of the Twenties.
After the war, the relatively debt-free U.S. economy was spurred to become highly
speculative throughout the decade, a trend that ended in the Great Stock Market Crash of
1929. While precipitated by the small percentage of the population that traded on Wall
Street, the crash devastated an entire nation of working people-an incongruity at the
heart of labor's complaint against capitalism.
Photograph of garment factory

Eugene O. Goldbeck

Page 40 of 47
Caption: Before industrial unions like the I.W.W. were formed, people were unionized
according to their skills. In one shop or factory, many separate unions could co-exist. The
industrial union movement sought to give solidarity to all workers within each industry.
Eugene O. Goldbeck photographed workers in a garment factory in San Antonio, Texas in
1919.
Photograph of garment factory

Eugene O. Goldbeck
Caption: Before industrial unions like the I.W.W. were formed, people were unionized
according to their skills. In one shop or factory, many separate unions could co-exist. The
industrial union movement sought to give solidarity to all workers within each industry.
Eugene O. Goldbeck photographed workers in a garment factory in San Antonio, Texas in
1919.
Photograph of Eugene Debs

Caption: Eugene Debs, a tall and kind-looking man, would sometimes speak for hours to
adoring crowds, leaning far over the podium and extending his arms for emphasis. New
York Evening Journal press photo.

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Photograph of Eugene Debs leaving prison
Caption: Having taken over the presidency after Wilson's death in office, Warren G.
Harding pardoned Debs on Christmas Day in 1921.
Front cover of Bill Haywood's Book

Bill Haywood
Caption: Bill Haywood escaped from the United States before finishing his prison term
for espionage and moved to Russia, where he lived out his life.

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Back cover of Living My Life
Emma Goldman
Caption: Originally from Russia and deported there after her arrest under the Espionage
Act, Emma Goldman became disillusioned with Russian communism. In her
autobiography, Goldman candidly and unapologetically describes her ideas, her loves, and
her mistakes.
Political cartoon from The Daily Worker, Jan. 26, 1924

Fred Ellis The Daily Worker
Caption: In 1924, the Communist Party began publishing The Daily Worker, a magazine
regularly featuring pro-worker cartoons. Its editors declared art as the people's weapon
but sacrificed artistic freedom to the communist political message. Cartoons featured images
of stereotypically bloated capitalists, starved or hamstrung workers, and shifty-eyed politicians.

Page 43 of 47
Political cartoon "Exodus from Dixie" from The Liberator, June 1922
Robert Minor The Liberator
Political cartoon "A perfect soldier"

Robert Minor

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Political cartoon "A sacrifice for greed: fifty-one miners killed in coal mine
explosion" from The Workers Monthly, April 1925
Juanita Preval The Workers Monthly
Political cartoon "Child labor" from The Daily Worker, Dec. 22, 1924
Robert Minor The Daily Worker

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Front page from the New York American, Oct. 29, 1929
New York American
Caption: Front-page headlines and articles from the New York Evening Journal for
October 29, 30, and 31, 1929 reflect the nationwide denial of the devastating depression
that would follow the Wall Street crash.
New York American

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New York American

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Whos Who of The 1920s

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Unit Title: 1920s

Lesson Title: The Big Cheese

Grade Level/Course: 11th Grade/US History

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

TEKS/SEs (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills/Student Expectations)

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Differentiation and Accommodation

English Language Learners

Special Needs Students

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

How successful was

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Name of Person Area of Interest Name of Person

Teaching the Twenties: The Big Cheese

Advocate of family planning Margaret Sanger

NAACP, Talented Tenth W.E.B. DuBois

Advocated return to Africa

Model T assembly line, fought

Supported unionization and labor

Supported racial equality,

The Big Cheese Documents

Director of FBI J. Edgar Hoover

Wrote "The Wasteland" T.S. Eliot (1922)

Wrote "The Enormous Room" E.E. Cummings (1920)

First Female Senator Rebecca Ann Latimar (1922)

Wrote The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

The Big Cheese Documents

Invented Quick-Freeze Machine Clarence Birdseye (1925)

Discovered Penicillin Alexander Fleming (1928)

First Instrument-Only Flight Jimmy Doolittle

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" Langston Hughes

Inventor of Lead Gasoline Thomas Midgeley, Jr.

President who Reinstated High

The Big Cheese Documents

President During "Black Tuesday" Herbert Hoover

Writer of "Mein Kampf" Adolf Hitler

The Big Cheese Documents

Back cover of Motherhood in Bondage

Caption: Throughout Margaret Sanger's twenty-five-year-long careerfirst as a nurse

The Big Cheese Documents

Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage.

Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

The Big Cheese Documents

Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage

Caption: Letters excerpted from Motherhood in Bondage