Film

By Jonathan Strongin

In the 1900 to 1949 there are many things happening in America, such as the World Wars. Yet in a large part of these “things” for most of 1900 to 1949 is racism. An example of this racism was the 1915 movie “Birth of a Nation”. The film portrayed black men as highly unintelligent sexual predators. And the then disbanded Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as courageous and fearless. Another racist and highly controversial part of this movie was the actors in Blackface. Since blacks and whites were not allowed to be in the same room, this was the only option and made the blacks look highly unnatural and foolish. This added insult to injury.

Later in 1927 the movie “Jazz Singer” picked up the theme from racism from “Birth of a Nation”. The film is about a man named Jakie Rabinowitz, who runs away from his Jewish family and becomes a Jazz singer. His career ends when his passion comes into contact with his heritage. You might ask, how is this racism? Let me tell you. Jakie is played by Al Jolson in blackface. Also, this film was awarded one of the best American films of all time, and selected for culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film. How is a white man imitating a black man any of the afore mentioned things?

King Kong (1933). The blacks in this film are shown as undeveloped beings that can’t talk and grunt and growl to communicate. There is also a connection between King Kong himself and the history of the blacks and slavery. King Kong gets taken by force to the United States. Later, he breaks free and meets his demise due to his insatiable desire for a white woman.

In 1940s there was a shift towards an outside threat due to World War II. A movie that represents this is “The Great Dictator”. This movie was a parody so to speak, though it really doesn’t make the moive’s plot funny. Adolf Hitler is renamed to Adenoid Hynkel and is the Dictator of Tomainia and attacks the Jews with storm troopers. To conclude, there was a lot of discrimination in the early to mid 1900s. That is shown throughout a multitude of films, whether it is mocking a race or making connections with history, it was present and still is.

Below this text is a side by side comparison of a regular white man and a man in blackface.

Music

Felicity Lin

1900s

I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy- 1904

They played American folk music and Jazz in the 1900s but the songs they wrote were patriotic, the reason the songs were written was because of the world war I. The first version of “Yankee Doodle” seems to have been written by a British army physician, Dr. Richard Schuckberg, during the French and Indian War. It was a sarcastic (satiric) look at the New England’s Yankees. Soon it became really popular in the colonies in the 1770s and the versus of the songs were changed almost completely.

George M. Cohan had many top hits in the 1900s, he also sang I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, in the colonies.

1910s

America the Beautiful-1910

America the beautiful is a song describing the lands of America. The music and words were written by two different people that never even met. Poet Katharine Lee Bates and church organist Samuel Augustus Ward never met in their lifetime, Ward died before his music became a national anthem, and Bates casually referred to the poem as “A the B.”

1920s

Swanee- George Gershwin, I. Caesar-1919

Swanee was written in 1920, it was introduced by Al Jolson, Swanee became really popular when Al Jolson made it his own and set the song on the path to becoming an international sensation (something known international)

Al Jolson was a famous actor/ singer/ comedian of the 1920-30s, he was nicknamed the greatest entertainer, he often acted as a black face, he represented how the 1920s and 30s were. Al Jolson was one of the many actors that acted as black faces because during the time black people didn’t have rights, and they were segregated.

1930s

Begin the Beguine- Cole Porter-1935

Begin the Beguine was written by Cole Porter in 1935, it was composed between Kalabahi, Indonesia, and Fiji, because Cole Porter was on a Pacific Cruise. Begin the Beguin’s a jazz song which was introduced in October 1935, by June Knight in a Broadway musical called Jubilee, at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.

1940s

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!- Merle Travis, Tex Williams

The version of Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! That most people know now is written by Merle Travis and Tex Williams, but the popular version in the 1940s was the original version written by Williams, and it was a blues style of singing. The original version went to number one for 16 non-consecutive weeks on the Hot Country Songs Chart.

News and Politics

By: Brianna M

In 1920 The 19th amendment is a very important amendment to the constitution as it gave women the right to vote in 1920. Which in simple terms it means that women and men have the same voting rights. Yet here we are in the 21th century and gender equality is still a current issue.

December 1941 Japanese attack pearl harbor; United States declare war on Japan. This attack caused a lot of damage to the people in Pearl Harbor 2,403 people died. However this attack caused patriotism to spread across America. This affects the families and friends of those 2,403 people who died. America wasn't ready for this attack and as a result we have gotten better in preparing to detect and stop terrorist attacks.

May 1947 the Mississippi Valley floods and kills 16 and causes $850M in damage. This affects the people living near this river and the people it also caused damage to the land around this valley.