The Roar of the Twenties

Hey there, my fellow historian nerds! Today I wanted to talk about the the Roaring 20's and how it contributed to the American dream. I wanted to talk about how the Harlem Renaissance and Flappers contributed to the American dream and how they have shaped modern America.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_harlem.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/22604/rise-flapper

Before we get into all that, I'm gonna educate you on these topics. The Harlem Renaissance was basically a migration of African Americans to Harlem so they could pursue their artistic dreams which included acting, singing, and poetry, and this great cultural movement happened after World War 1. Harlem wasn't just a place of new artistic birth, but it was also a birth place of new found integration. You see, prohibition was passed in the 20's which meant it was illegal to consume alcohol. Because of rebellious alcoholics, bootleggers, events such as speakeasies were created, which were events underground where people could go and drink to their heart's content. Harlem was a famous place where these speakeasies would take place, and, because so many blacks lived in Harlem already, whites would go to these speakeasies and talk with the blacks-- and even dance with them! This was a huge blow to the Jim Crow laws which encouraged segregation.

The next thing we're gonna talk about is the birth of Flappers. When World War 1 happened, all the men were gone fighting, which meant women were in the factories making machines and war weapons. The women, in return, felt like they had worth and that they were more than just house wives and moms. When the men returned home from war, they got their jobs back, and women got kicked out of those factories. Women all across the country became furious because they knew they could be just as useful and efficient as the men were, yet they weren't given any consideration or were at the least bit treated as an equal to men. In response to that, they changed. Women wore shorter skirts and cut their hair. they started to drive cars and stay up past curfew. All in all, they rebelled. Flappers started because women knew they were just as able to do the same jobs as men do, and that they had the same rights as men do to work and get an education.

The Twenties is a birthplace of the modern American Dream because it's, to me, one of the biggest and most modern instances where people stand up for their rights and, in this case, their equality in the work force. I strongly agree with the articles and what they contribute to the American Dream because they both show the growth of interracial and gender equality which has impacted the way the United States is today.

Hey, history nerds!

I've just  learned about the Civil War/Antebellum Era in history. This era screams American Dream. Now, most people think the Civil War was purely about the abolition of slavery, but it wasn't. It was about states rights and an effort for President Lincoln to preserve the Union. As everyone knows, the abolition of slavery was a product of the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era was the aftermath of the Civil War. The Reconstruction Era was a huge boost for the American dream (especially and mostly for African-Americans) because this era allowed African-Americans the right  to go to school and to purse real jobs. They were finally "equal" to the whites. (Off topic, but I put equal in quotes because everyone is equal regardless of race, its just because of the reconstruction era and the 13-15th amendments that the whites could see that). This was such a big blow to the supreme court ruling in the Dred Scott case which stated that blacks were basically denied rights such as the right to vote whether they were in a free state or a slave state. Andrew Johnson was the president when this era started, and he started off by taking all the Union land from the military used in the war and redistributed it all to the free slaves so they could have a piece of land to call their own.  Also, he  allowed the southern states to rebuild themselves as they wanted. all males were now allowed to vote as well, no matter if they were white or black as stated by the 15th amendment. Even though there were horrible racial groups such as the KKK, that didn't stop history from taking its course because now all races are held equal, and that's such an incredible thing.

Sources:  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dred-scott-decision

http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstruction