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Period: to
1920s/Great Depression
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19th Amendment
In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote, and declared that they deserved full citizenship. -
Gangsters
Prohibition occurred between 1920 – 1933. This period of time was when the Eighteenth Amendment was in force and alcoholic beverages could not legally be manufactured, transported, or sold in the United States. -
Music
There were other greats musicians playing music at the time, but Louis Armstrong is credited with putting Jazz on the musical map. The 1920’s and 1930’s became known as the
“Jazz Age”. -
Flappers
A young woman emerged during the 1920’s who was very different in her appearance, attitude and behavior. She was called a flapper. She had bobbed hair and short skirts. She behaved in ways that many people called unladylike. -
Radios
The first commercial radio station was Pittsburgh’s KDKA. It hit the airwaves in 1920. 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 homes. -
Great Depression
The 1920’s came roaring in with energy, but ended in horror with the crash of the stock market in 1929. Many people lost all the money they had and unemployment soared. This time marked the beginning of the Great Depression. -
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was president when the Great Depression began. He declared in March 1930, that the U.S. had “passed the worst” and argued that the economy would sort itself out. The worst, however, had just begun and would last until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. -
Causes of th Great Depression
The causes of the Great Depression are widely debated. There was no single cause, but several things when working together made it happen. A weak banking system, over-production of goods, over spending, and bursting credit bubble were just some of the reasons. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was one of the main causes of the Great Depression. This stock market crash was the most devastating crash in the history of the United States. On “Black Tuesday,” October 29, 1929, the stock market lost $14 b -
Dust Bowl
Severe drought and dust storms made the Great Depression even worse, because it dried out farmlands and forced families to leave their farms. On May 9, 1934, a dust storm carried about 350 million tons of dirt 2,000 miles eastward and dumped four million tons of prairie dirt in Chicago. The drought and dust killed tens of thousands of animals and some people. -
Children During Great Deression
Almost half of the children who were living in the United States at that time did not have enough food, shelter, or medical care. Many suffered diseases. By the 1930s, thousands of schools were operating on reduced hours or were closed down entirely. Some three million children had left school, and at least 200,000 took to riding the rails either with their parents or as orphans.
