The 1920’s
The decade of the 1920’s is best described as “Boom to Bust.” In the beginning people were having a very good time, not just at parties but economically and culturally. Even though the 18th amendment was passed in 1919, making the sale of alcohol illegal, people still drank, mostly in secret. There were tons of inventions that really got people moving and spending such as electricity/lights, the automobile, credit, and the modern radio. Everyone in the 1920’s was feeling good, making a lot of money, and buying whatever they wanted, but all of the ended with the crash of the stock market.
Even though culture was booming everywhere during the 1920’s, nowhere was more exuberant than Harlem. The huge social, cultural, and artistic explosion in Harlem was called “The Harlem Renaissance” or “The New Negro Movement.” This movement’s main cause was to create a new black identity, to show blacks that they should be proud to be black. This movement gave light to many poets, authors, such as Langston Hughes, and gave birth to new styles of art such as Jazz. Jazz was described as “the essence of black music.” Even though this movement is known as “The Harlem Renaissance” it spread all over urban areas of the Northeast and Midwest of the United States.
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During this time the laws were widely ignored. People would drink in secret usually at home or in a speakeasy. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. The main reason for prohibition failing was its weak enforcement and people did not care, they were going to drink