The Roaring 1920s featuring Josephine Baker, George Gershwin, and Harry Pace

How did the economic and political policies of the 1920s affect American businesspeople, cultural figures, politicians, and activists?

Know (knowledge):

• That Warren G. Harding was elected president in the 1920s largely by promising Americans a "return to normalcy”
• That the Harding and subsequent Coolidge administrations were defined by “pro-business” economic policies including lowered taxes, de-regulation, and higher tariffs
• The biographies of the following figures in 1920s society: Josephine Baker, Carrie Chapman Catt, Calvin Coolidge, Dolores del Río, Albert Bacon Fall, Henry Ford, George Gershwin, Ottawa W. Gurley, Mollie Kyle, Andrew Mellon, Harry Pace, Babe Ruth, Nicola Sacco, Mary Burnett Talbert, and Anna May Wong

Mastery Objective

• Students will be able to assess the impacts of economic and political policies in the 1920s on U.S. society by investigating the biographies of important figures at the time in a role playing activity.

In this lesson, students examine how the political and economic policies of the 1920s affected American businesspeople, politicians and activists, and cultural figures such as musicians, dancers, and actors. By listening to a political speech, students investigate President Warren G. Harding’s “Return to Normalcy” presidential campaign, and consider what constitutes a “normal” versus an “abnormal” era for a country. They then pursue a role-playing activity to discover how important figures lived through the 1920s, to further determine whether the 1920s constituted a “normal” era.

In November 1920, U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio won the presidential election by a large margin. Harding’s presidential campaign was framed around a “return to normalcy,” in which he promised a country guided by “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment.” Harding’s call for normalcy clearly resonated with the majority of the American people, who were reeling after World War I and the 1918-1920 flu pandemic.

Whether Harding delivered the “normalcy” he promised as President is up for debate. Harding’s economic policy was guided by industry interests. After a substantial loan from the Mellon Bank, he named Pittsburgh business magnate Andrew Mellon the Secretary of the Treasury. With Mellon and other industry leaders as a guide, taxes were cut, tariffs were raised, and businesses were deregulated with the state goal of strengthening the economy. In the process, the Harding Administration became considered one of the most historically corrupt administrations of the 20th century. This corruption was perhaps best exemplified by the Teapot Dome Scandal, in which U.S. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was caught leasing federal land to oil companies.

In many ways, corruption and underhanded dealings were part of the culture of the 1920s, perhaps best exemplified by the country’s response to prohibition. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was passed, which outlawed the consumption of alcohol throughout the United States. Shortly later, the amendment’s primary means of enforcement - the National Prohibition Act or Volstead Act - was passed. The result was perhaps not what those in favor of prohibition wished for: alcohol consumption continued under the radar, and helped build the fortunes for people on both sides of the law.

Vice-President Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency in April 1923, following Harding’s untimely death, and continued industry-first policies. President Coolidge was arguably best known as being “actively inactive” when it came to Federal government management and oversight. Additionally, in anticipation of the Red Scare that defined much of the 1950s, a fear of “Bolshevism” in the 1920s led to government crackdowns on political activists. This fear reached its peak with the trial and subsequent execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants and anarchists put to death for a crime evidence suggested they didn’t commit.

At the same time, for many the 1920s were an era of growth in commerce and culture. New technologies and manufacturing techniques led to a boom in consumer products. Most famously, Henry Ford’s Model T car and the assembly line method that built it transformed the automobile from a luxury only available to the rich to a standard for almost every American. At one point, it might have been argued that Harding’s policies enfranchised Americans of all types.

Thanks to the activism of suffragists like Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Burnett Talbert, the decade began with the newly established right for women to vote, due to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 1920s didn’t just see the rise of people like Henry Ford, but also Harry Pace, the founder of the first Black-owned major record company, Black Swan Records, and Black Oklahoma real estate magnate Ottawa W. Gurley. The Native American Osage Tribe, also in Oklahoma, became wealthy due to oil rights. Additionally, the increasing popularity of the phonograph and motion pictures brought stardom to not just people like Babe Ruth and Irving Berlin, but also entertainers such as Anna May Wong, Josephine Baker, and Dolores del Río.

Ultimately, whether the Harding Administration successfully made the 1920s into an era of “normalcy” might only be answered by the question, “normal for who?” While the era did see a rise in a diverse group of business owners and entertainers, it also saw a rise in the Klu Klux Klan and racist violence. Indeed, Ottawa Gurley’s fortune collapsed and a white mob burned the “Black Wall Street” that he helped create; Harry Pace’s Black Swan Records was forced out of the industry by larger recording companies; the wealth accumulated by the Osage Tribe was disrupted by racist legislation and a string of brutal murders. And while Anna May Wong, Josephine Baker, and Dolores del Río all achieved unparalleled stardom as women of color, each decided to leave the United States and pursue their careers elsewhere, as they grew tired of being constantly typecast by Hollywood.

1. Create a T-chart on the board, with one column reading, “Normal Times,” and another column reading “Abnormal Times.”
2. (Optional) Arrange the room to resemble a salon or restaurant from the 1920s. This could be done by arranging the chairs and tables in the room, simple decorations, or playing a playlist of 1920s music in the background.