The Roaring 20's

The 1920's was definitely a time of change with almost every aspect of life transforming for Americans after World War I. One of the first changes that occured after the war was the change in Americans' mentality, the rise of extreme ideas, and the resurrection radical groups. After the World War Americans began to fear immigrants and foreigners in their country thinking that they were here to destroy their democracy and freedom. One example of such a fear was the Red Scare, during this time Americans were suspicious of foreigners and many were worried about the influence these people would have on their society and government, these people they feared were radical thinkers and the main groups that fit in to this category were the Bolsheviks and Anarchists. Bolsheviks main goal was to instill communism in a government, they had successfully done this in Russia as well, and Anarchists were even more radical thinkers who believed that there should be no government at all. To achieve their goal the anarchists led bombings in many cities across the U.S creating the extreme fear Americans called the "Red Scare", in response to this fear the American government decided to arrest anyone who seemed to be involved in the bombings or those who seemed to be part of these radical groups. This example just goes to show the extreme change that occured in Americans fears about foreigners. Along with this the next change occurred with the revival of the KKK, after the Civil war it seemed as if the KKK had lost all of its strength and had died out, but during the 1920s the KKK regained its strength and began to terrorize all groups of people who were not white Christians, which was certainly a big transformation for the time when they only targeted African Americans. 

The next big change that came along in the 1920s was with African Americans' and Women's rights. Though whites had not entirely accepted African Americans, especially after the Great Migration, there still was some progress, the main improvement being that African Americans had come to accept their identity and culture, this significant change was seen throughout the Harlem Renaissance. Another change in the African American society was the establishment of the NAACP that finally gave African Americans the strength and voice to fight against discrimination laws and segregation. In addition, during this time many African Americans got the opportunity to rise to the status of celebrities and started to become popular amongst white crowds as well. Another transformation that occurred in the 1920s was the rise in race riots the most brutal being the Tulsa Race Riot, which caused the massacre and destruction of many African American communities. While African Americans were making some progress, Women were indeed making improvements in their status and were also beginning to challenge tradition about their role in society. By the 1920s women had already won their right to vote and were beginning to move out of their domestic work to start their career as teachers and even began to work as politicians as well. Flappers became the new symbol for these "liberated" women and they were well known for their non-traditional fashion, in which they cut their hair and skirts short and wore heavy layers of makeup. All in all women and African Americans had made much progress in the 1920s showing a sign of drastic change. 

Finally the last changes that came in the 1920s was in the government, economy, and labor systems. During the 1920s there was a drastic change in the U.S's role in the world. Americans had gotten so tired of their responsibilities in the world that they began to advocate for "normalcy" which was the desire to return to the life they had before the war. President Harding, during his election promised Americans that he would give them "normalcy" and because of this he won the election with a landslide, but in his presidency he brought with him corruption as well, and soon earned the reputation of being a dishonest man, showing the first change in this topic with the Teapot Dome scandal that caused corruption in the government. Soon after, another transformation occurred when Coolidge took office, he ended most of the corruption in the previous administration and began the laissez-faire system in which the government interfered as little as possible in private affairs. The next change came in foreign policy, when America decided to move back to isolationism and not join the League of Nations, which was ironically created by an American president. Along with this, America began to working towards world peace and started this change by withdrawing their troops from Latin America, showing a significant transformation in American policies. The change that occured in the economy was the fact that it began to thrive in the early 1920s with new methods for cheaper, and faster mass production of goods though this would again change in the later 1920s with the Great Depression. All in all the examples given above that all aspects of America was continuously changing in this time period whether is be for the better or for the worst.