The textbook chapters from The Story of Our Country (1948) and The Americans (2005) largely reflect the topics historians were writing about during their respective time periods. The Story of our Country focuses more on business than The Americans does, as demonstrated in the visualization to the right. This was fairly consistent with the historical scholarship written shortly after the textbook was published. Some of these monographs include The Dollar Decade: Business Ideas in the 1920s by James Warren Prothro and The Great Crash by John Kenneth Galbraith. These books were both written in 1954 and they address the corporate ideology of the 1920s and the leadup to the Wall Street Crash respectively. ¹ This focus on business reflects the concerns of historians at the time. One way that The Story of Our Country does not fit neatly into the historiographical timeline Goldberg outlines is in its discussion of World War I. The only book that Goldberg references that discusses the war is his own 1999 monograph Discontented America: The United States in the 1920s, which “emphasizes the extent to which conflicts during the decade emanated from World War I.” ² The textbook’s focus on conflict is an outlier in the historiographical discussion of the decade because most books written around the same time focus on business and the economy.

The Americans has a stronger emphasis on people than it does business, which is demonstrated in the word cloud to the right. Ideas about minorities, including women and Black Americans, are featured more heavily in this chapter than they are in The Story of Our Country. Both of these trends are consistent with the books published 10 to 15 years before the textbook. For example, Kristi Andersen’s 1996 book After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics before the New Deal examines the lives of women after the 19th Amendment was ratified, and the 2002 books “We Return Righting:” The Civil Rights Movement in the Jazz Age by Mark Robert Schneider and Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics and Citizenship of Jim Crow Virginia by J. Douglas Smith examine Black Americans in the North and South respectively. ³ The textbook’s discussion of people that have been excluded from the historical narrative in the past is consistent with much of the scholarship that was published in the years preceding it.

The textbooks have very different focuses when compared to one another. The Story of Our Country has a stronger emphasis on business and the war, taking a broader approach that focuses less on what life was like for everyday people during the 1920s. Voyant’s reader tool (below, left) demonstrates the book’s emphasis on what happened in the war itself rather than how it impacted people. Similarly, the bubbleline tool (below, right) indicates how much more important conflict was in the 1948 textbook’s narrative than it was in 2005. The Americans takes a much more in-depth look at the lives of specific demographics in 1920s society. For example, it has a more robust discussion of the lives of Black people during this time. Even accounting for the outdated descriptions of raced utilized when The Story of Our Country was written, it contains far less description of Black history than The Americans. The latter includes more information about Black experiences during the 1920s, although the organization of its bubbleline indicates it was largely relegated to a single section. Still, comparing the two textbooks demonstrates the vastly different priorities of the time they were written in. Specifically, it shows a concern for business and war in the late 1940s and a focus on the lives of minorities in the mid-2000s.

The reader tool (left) shows how The Story of Our Country discusses war. The bubbleline (right) shows the difference in how both textbooks discuss Black history.

While older history is not necessarily less professional than what scholars produce today, knowing when a historian writes helps to evaluate and understand a source. Society’s values and priorities have shifted drastically over the years and they will only continue to do so; acknowledging what most historians considered important during a certain time period allows readers to understand why scholars may include some information and ignore others. It may also reveal an author’s personal biases, as it is very difficult for anyone, including historians, to completely disregard the prejudices and values of their time when writing. Understanding the era a source was created in allows researchers to recognize not only what a scholar was writing about but why and how they chose to do so.

Grace Martinez

Grace Martinez is a Ramapo college history major with a minor in museum & exhibition studies.

www.linkedin.com/in/%20grace-martinezz

Bessie Coleman was a culmination of ‘firsts’ in one person. She was the first African American to be awarded an international pilot’s license, the first Black woman in the world to fly an airplane, and the first Native American to earn a pilot’s license and fly an airplane.¹ She was also likely the first person in her family to attend college for a full semester, and was the key catalyst in helping her family of independent women find their own paths as they moved from Texas to Chicago. Beyond all of these individual achievements, she also served as an inspiration for future women and African Americans who would follow in her footsteps or be the ‘firsts’ of their own professions. 

Early Life

Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 as Elizabeth Coleman. She grew up in Waxahachie, Texas, to a mom who was African-American and a dad who was part African-American and part Native American. In 1901, her father left for Oklahoma, also known as ‘Indian Territory’, in order to find more job opportunities. A few years later, her older brothers also left for Chicago, leaving Bessie as the oldest sibling to her three younger sisters. Even though she loved school and took advantage of the little opportunities presented to her in her one room, segregated schoolhouse, her childhood was filled with the king crop of the time, cotton. Each spring, Bessie’s school would close down for “cotton season” and Bessie, as soon as she was strong enough, had to go with her mother to pick cotton.² From a young age, Bessie hated the restrictions placed upon her in the South, and would frequently ‘slack off’ during her time working in the fields. She continued her interrupted education, and saved enough money to attend one semester of college at the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University. After one semester at the college, her money ran out and she had to go home. But, at 23 years old, having had enough of the segregation and limited opportunities in the South, she decided to join her brothers in Chicago. 

Bessie Coleman, like many other Black Americans during the early 20th century, moved from the South to Chicago during the Great Migration. Searching for better job opportunities and an escape from the severity of the Jim Crow South, she was a part of the “burgeoning black population in northern cities [that] had led to the growth of a middle class which seemed to represent the potential of the race.” ³ Because so many Black people were moving from Southern cities to the North, they banded together in ethnic enclaves, similar to many other minority groups and immigrants. In these enclaves, they had better opportunities for work and social mobility than they had in the South with strict Jim Crow laws. Even though Black people in the North faced the same segregation that they faced in the South, the community they built in cities like Chicago and New York City allowed Black migrants the ability to obtain jobs they could not have in the South. This combination of community and pluralistic identity gave the opportunity for a certain level of social mobility that would have been unobtainable for them previously. 

In Chicago, Bessie continued to dream of being something more than just a ‘common’ Black worker. Through her work as a manicurist, Bessie met many successful and influential people in Chicago’s Black community. These people further inspired her to want more for her future and her race. Although Chicago was segregated like the South, Bessie saw a flourishing Black community where people of her race could be successful. It was a combination of these successful people, as well as her brother’s experiences abroad, that convinced Bessie to pursue a future in aviation. After trying and failing to find someone to teach her how to fly, Bessie’s brother told her that “You n*gger women ain’t never goin’ to fly…not like those women I saw in France.”⁴ It was these harsh words from her brother which finally inspired her to go abroad—to France—to obtain her pilot’s license. 

Aviation Career

While I outline most of Bessie’s important aviation accomplishments in the timeline below, the start of her aviation career is also important. As Bessie tried to find a school or a pilot to teach her how to fly in America, Bessie was faced with two problems. First, no one wanted to teach a Black aviator, and second, no one wanted to teach a Black girl aviator. So, she turned her visions overseas, to the Ecole d’Aviation des Frères Caudron at Le Crotoy. During her time at Crotoy, she saw a student pilot die in a brutal plane accident, which she explains “was a terrible shock to my nerves, but I never lost them. I kept going.” ⁵ Bessie obtained her pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) despite the threat of discrimination, segregation, or death. At the time, the FAI was the only international organization giving people the right to fly anywhere in the world.⁶ So Bessie returned as an internationally recognized Black woman pilot. She was ready to show the country that anyone who put their mind to it could take to the sky. 

As outlined in this timeline, Bessie performed a number of important entertaining shows. First, she performed the first air show performed by a Black woman. Next, she was the first person to offer plane rides to Black people in the South. In one of her shows, she was also the first person to have a Black woman parachutist jump from a plane. While Bessie was always passionate about aviation, her true passion was equality. She even left a movie planning to depict her life because they wanted to present her in “tattered clothing and with a walking stick and a pack on her back.” ⁷ She continued to emphasize the interconnectedness of her race and her success beyond leaving the racist movie set. She refused to perform at a show in her hometown where Black and White audience members would use segregated entrances. Once they agreed to let everyone use the same entrance, Bessie agreed to give the performance.⁸ 

Bessie’s biggest hope for her aviation career was to raise funds in order to open a school to educate future Black pilots. Throughout her career, she dedicated many shows and lectures to fundraising for this cause. She even settled down in Orlando, opening up a beauty school and focusing on lecturing rather than performing stunt shows, to raise more money to create this school for future Black students. In the last weeks of her life, she found her benefactor in Edwin M. Beeman, son of Harry L. Beeman, the creator of Beeman chewing gum. At the same time, she was living with Viola and Hezakiah Keith Hill, who reintroduced her to religion, and encouraged her to stop performing stunt shows and focus on targeting church crowds for funding for her school. Before her final show, she told the Hills that “the time she had spent with them was the happiest she had ever known.” ⁹

Death

Just as her life was seeming to come together, with funding, found family, and a sense of happiness and religion, Bessie’s life came to a sudden end. Bessie had plans to perform on May 1, 1926, in a stunt show in the Negro Welfare League of Jacksonville’s Field Day. For this show, she was serving as the parachuter herself, with a white pilot, William D. Wills, flying the plane. She used the money from her benefactor Edwin M. Beeman to buy an old “Jenny” which she intended to fly at the Florida show. Wills flew the plane from Dallas, Texas, to Jacksonville and was forced to make two stops due to the poor condition of the plane. Despite the poor condition of the plane, Bessie met Wills and her agent and the promoter of her stunt show, John Betsch, at the field at 7:15am on April 30, to scout the area for where the best spot to jump would be. ¹⁰ She was not strapped into the plane, as she was actively searching for somewhere to jump. Suddenly, the plane went from cruising at 80 miles per hour to 110 miles per hour, and nose dived downwards. At 1,000 feet, the plane did a tail spin, and then at 500 feet, it flipped upside down, and Bessie fell out, somersaulting repeatedly until she hit the ground.¹¹ Wills attempted to regain control of the plane, but it crashed into a nearby farm of Mrs. W. L. Meadows, killing him instantly. After the plane crashed in Meadows’ farm, Betsch, came with police to view the remains of the crash. Upon seeing the crash site, he lit a cigarette to calm his nerves. But, when lighting the cigarette, the lighter fluid mixed with the gasoline of the plane, setting everything on fire. He was immediately taken into custody under suspicions of trying to destroy evidence, but he was later released. After the tragic death and fire, the fair and dance in Bessie’s honor that were supposed to be held afterwards were replaced with a memorial service, which over 5,000 people attended. 

Aside from her memorial in Jacksonville, Bessie had another memorial in Orlando, organized by Viola and Hezekiah Hill. After this service, Viola Hill and a military escort traveled with her body to Chicago, where over 10,000 people went to pay their respects throughout May 5 and May 6. Her final service, for close friends and family, was held on Friday May 7, and though only 1,500 people could fit inside the church, another 3,500 stood outside on the street.¹² The plethora of memorial services and viewing opportunities show just how much of an effect Bessie had on the Black community. Her death even received notice in white newspapers, such as The Morning Press, The Daily News, The Tampa Tribune, The Miami News-Record and many others. ¹³ While these newspapers had short descriptions and referred to Bessie as a ‘Negress’ or ‘Negro aviatrix,’ many Black newspapers dedicated columns, front pages, and entire sections to her, even days after her death. In the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper,  George S. Schuyler wrote a memorial to her, summing up Bessie’s hope for herself and her impression on the black community in a few sentences:  “Bessie Coleman wanted to be an aviatrix and would not be frustrated by racial barriers. She succeeded in spite of them. More and more younger Negroes are following in her example. Many more ought to.” ¹⁴

Bessie’s Significance in the 1920s and Beyond

Growing up African-American in the early 20th century, Bessie Coleman was a prime example of the struggles of handling a pluralistic identity during the 1920s. As the first Black woman to fly an airplane and the first Black person to hold an international pilot’s license, Bessie Coleman strived to help improve the opinions of Black people in professional fields as she broke the glass ceiling in the aviation field. She had the similar mindset to other Civil Rights activists during the 1920s, which was that the issue of “twoness could be resolved–that they could be both American and black, without sacrificing either.”¹⁵ The struggle of handling pluralism and American identity was an obstacle in Bessie’s work as an aviator, but she also used her multiple identities of being Black and a woman to inspire future generations. The discrimination, segregation and limited attention to her achievements and her advancements in women’s working rights all connect Bessie to the larger struggles experienced by minority populations in the 1920s. 

Combating Segregation

Bessie’s biggest focus in her aviation career was to establish a school to educate future Black pilots, because of the segregation and discrimination she faced when obtaining her education. Many times throughout her life, she was quoted as saying that “We must have aviators if we are to keep up with the times. I shall never be satisfied until we have men of the Race who can fly.” ¹⁶ She wanted others to follow in her footsteps, and show people who believed that African-Americans were not as smart as White Americans that they could succeed just as much when given the opportunity. Her willingness to branch out into a field severely underpopulated with both Black people and women helped inspire future aviators of her race to do the same:  “Coleman’s return to the U.S. in 1921 as a fully qualified pilot helped African Americans reclaim some agency in aviation.” ¹⁷ Even though a very limited number of Black people had served as pilots in segregated forces in WWI, there was no space for them in the aviation field when they returned to the United States after the war. Further efforts, like refusing to perform at segregated shows in the South, shows her efforts throughout her career to improve the discrimination and segregation that she faced herself. 

While Bessie was never able to open her school for Black pilots, she did inspire many future Black pilots with her resilience and determination despite the segregation she faced. Wiliam J. Powell, a famous Black aviator who founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in her honor, dedicated his book “Black Wings” to her.¹⁸ Powell, like Coleman, pushed for more Black aviators, and built a school for Black pilots and mechanics, as Bessie was unable to. Even though he created this school after her death, Bessie still had a profound impact on Powell and inspired him to continue her work in improving opportunities for Black Americans. 

Paving the way for Future Minorities

Through Bessie’s hard work to become a pilot despite the discrimination she faced, she helped pave the way for future women and Black people in fields dominated by white men. In her article on the legacy of Bessie Coleman and Dr. Mae Jemison, Kim Creasman explains that “women like Bessie Coleman, the first African-American female pilot, have shown us that there are many qualified women in our society to take a chance to modify the stereotypes of women and African-Americans.” ¹⁹ Even in the present day, Bessie stands as an inspiration for people trying to get involved in fields that are historically exclusionary towards them. As the 1920s, especially in the South, were not only segregated but outright racist and exclusionary to Black professionals, Bessie’s success and mention in a multitude of White newspapers was “sure evidence of the revolutionary change, however slow, subtle, or imperceptible, she was effecting on white attitudes towards blacks, at least in her home state of Texas.” ²⁰ Though the 1920s were still filled with discrimination and lack of opportunities for Black men and women alike, Bessie was one of the many cases of extraordinary women who succeeded despite the lack of opportunities for her, which inspired young minds in the 1920s and beyond.

While she may not have received recognition from white communities during her lifetime, Bessie was an inspiration to black communities and future black aviators alike, like Lieutenant William J Powell. Powell explains how Bessie inspired a future generation because of her willingness to break into a majority-white field:  “Because of Bessie Coleman we have overcome that which was much worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.” ²¹ Just like his Bessie Coleman Aero Club, many other organizations were created after her death to honor her and help financially support Black women and men who wanted to go into aviation or similar fields. Organizations like the Aviation Youth Empowerment Foundation have scholarships honoring Bessie Coleman, presented to women, Black Americans, future aviators and future STEM students who have overcome barriers to obtain their college degrees. In the years after her death, many roads were renamed in her honor. In 1996, the US Post office created a stamp in her honor, as a part of the Black Heritage Stamp Series, as seen to the right. Even though it took many years for Bessie’s death and accomplishments to be fully recognized by the American public, she served as an inspiration to Black Americans and women that they could pursue any career they wanted, as long as they put their mind to it.

Suggested Reading

Cline, P.E. “The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Socio-Economic Status in the Life of Bessie Coleman.” Collegiate Aviation Review International, 2019, 37(2), 133-156. Retrieved from http://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/CARI/article/view/7915/7308

Grossman, Ron. “That Road o’hare Is on? It’s Named for Bessie Coleman, Who 100 Years Ago Became the First Black Woman Pilot in America.” Chicago Tribune, November 24, 2021. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/11/24/that-road-ohare-is-on-its-named-for-bessie-coleman-who-100-years-ago-became-the-first-black-woman-pilot-in-america/. 

Lebow, Eileen F. Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation. (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2002).

Mathias, Marisa, and Mariana Brandman. “Biography: Bessie Coleman.” National Women’s History Museum. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/bessie-coleman. 

Bibliography

Bix, Amy Sue. “Beyond Amelia Earhart: Teaching about the History of Women Aviators.” OAH Magazine of History 24, no. 3 (2010): 39–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25701421.

“Crash Kills 2 Flyers” The Daily News, (New York, NY), May 1, 1926. p. 5

Creasman, Kim. “Black Birds in the Sky: The Legacies of Bessie Coleman and Dr. Mae Jemison.” The Journal of Negro History 82, no. 1 (1997): 158–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/2717501.

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024.

“Man and Negress Killed in Accident Near Jacksonville” The Tampa Tribune, (Tampa, FL), May 1, 1926, p. 5

“Negro Aviatrix Killed When Plane Falls” Miami News-Record, (Miami, FL), April 30, 1926, p. 1

“Negro Woman Flier and Press Agent Die in Plane Fall” The Morning Press, (Santa Barbara, CA), May 1, 1926. p. 5

Powell, William J. Black Wings. HathiTrust. Originally published 1934. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4500439&seq=9&q1=bessie. 

Rich, Doris L. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.) 

Schuyler, George S. “Views and Reviews” Pittsburgh Courier, (Pittsburgh, PA), May 15, 1926, p. 9 

Slotnik, Daniel E. “Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix.” The New York Times, December 11, 2019. 

1. Daniel E. Slotnik “Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix.” The New York Times, December 11, 2019. ︎
2. Rich, Doris L. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993,) 10. ︎
3. Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024, 286. ︎
4. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 27. ︎
5. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 32. ︎
6. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 34. ︎
7. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 57. ︎
8. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 95. ︎
9. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 105. ︎
10. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 109. ︎
11. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 110. ︎
12. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 113. ︎
13. While a number of white newspapers reported on Coleman’s death, the ones mentioned here are; “Crash Kills 2 Flyers” The Daily News, (New York, NY), May 1, 1926. p. 5; “Man and Negress Killed in Accident Near Jacksonville” The Tampa Tribune, (Tampa, FL), May 1, 1926, p. 5; “Negro Aviatrix Killed When Plane Falls” Miami News-Record, (Miami, FL), April 30, 1926, p. 1; “Negro Woman Flier and Press Agent Die in Plane Fall” The Morning Press, (Santa Barbara, CA), May 1, 1926. p. 5 ︎
14. Schuyler, George S. “Views and Reviews” Pittsburgh Courier, (Pittsburgh, PA), May 15, 1926, p. 9  ︎
15. Dumenil, The Modern Temper, 2024, 294. ︎
16. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 36. ︎
17. Amy Sue Bix. “Beyond Amelia Earhart: Teaching about the History of Women Aviators.” OAH Magazine of History 24, no. 3 (2010): 41. ︎
18. Powell, William J. Black Wings. HathiTrust. Originally published 1934. Accessed April 7, 2025, 1. ︎
19. Kim Creasman. “Black Birds in the Sky: The Legacies of Bessie Coleman and Dr. Mae Jemison.” The Journal of Negro History 82, no. 1 (1997): 158. ︎
20. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 87. ︎
21. Powell, Black Wings, 1934. ︎

hannahsteinlauf

Hannah Steinlauf is a senior history major with a minor in museum and exhibition studies at Ramapo College. She is a student research aide for the Jane Addams Papers Project. She is a member of the Ramapo College Dance Company and Tri Sigma. Hannah is going to attend Trinity College Dublin for a masters degree in Public History after graduation.

          Growing up as part Native American and part African-American in the early 20th century, Bessie Coleman was a prime example of the struggles of handling a pluralistic identity during the 1920s. During the 1920s, having multiple identities was difficult for people as the public was unable to see people’s multiple identities, like being both Black and American, or German and Jewish, or Chinese and a woman. As the first Black woman to fly an airplane and the first Black person to hold an international pilot’s license, Bessie Coleman strived to help improve the opinions of Black people in professional fields as she broke the glass ceiling in the aviation field.¹ She had the similar mindset to other Civil Rights activists during the 1920s, which was that the issue of “twoness could be resolved–that they could be both American and black, without sacrificing either.”² The struggle of handling pluralism and American identity was apparent throughout the entire decade, as people felt forced to choose between their two identities. But activists like Bessie Coleman fought to minimize that struggle for future generations.

Bessie Coleman, like many other Black Americans during the 1920s, moved from the South to Chicago during the Great Migration. Searching for better job opportunities and an escape from the severity of the Jim Crow South, she was a part of the “burgeoning black population in northern cities [that] had led to the growth of a middle class which seemed to represent the potential of the race.”³ Because so many Black people were moving from Southern cities to the North, they banded together in ethnic enclaves, similar to many other minority groups and immigrants. In these enclaves, they had better opportunities for work and for social mobility than they had in the South with strict Jim Crow laws. Even though Black people in the North faced the same segregation that they faced in the South, the community they built in cities like Chicago and New York City allowed Black migrants the ability to obtain jobs they could not have in the South. This combination of community and pluralistic identity gave the opportunity for a certain level of social mobility that would have been unobtainable for them previously. 

Black professionals like Bessie Coleman with her national successes—even if she had to go overseas for her education—inspired other Black professionals to strive for the same level of recognition. Especially when supported by Black Newspapers like the Chicago Defender, which emphasized Black achievements, people within the community could read about others achievements, and recognize, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois “that African Americans had the capabilities to be educated, and moreover, to be equal citizens.”⁴ Bessie promoted these same ideals; not only did she refuse to perform at shows where Black people were not allowed admission, but she also “was determined to bolster black pride. She was supported in this by a black press that seized on her image as both role model and grist for editorials promoting black equality.”⁵ The large number of Black Newspapers that arose during a time in which the Harlem Renaissance was booming and Black culture in general was receiving more recognition not just in black communities but in slowly in white communities as well, shows how there was a small change in beliefs in recognition that Black people could be successful in the arts as well. 

Bessie Coleman’s life and death fits into the broader historical context of the 1920s because even though she was an extremely successful Black woman, and her death was widely recognized in Black Newspapers, like this Chicago Defender article to the right, and it was generally ignored in White newspapers, or downplayed as the newspaper focused on the death of her younger, less advanced white co-pilot, William Wills. 

 Similar to other successful Black people during the 1920s, her achievements were not widely recognized until years after her death. And while she struggled to make a name for herself in the white, male-dominated field of aviation, she concurrently worked to ensure that Black patrons had a space at her shows. Bessie carefully balanced her two-fronted fight “in defense of equal rights for blacks in a white-dominated society and equal rights for black women in a male-dominated black society.”⁶ Similar to other activists during the 1920s like Ida B. Wells or W. E. B. Du Bois, Bessie had to juggle her pluralistic identities and her professional goals.  Even though Bessie was a number of “firsts,” she was not the only Black person, or the only Black woman, who was pushing the boundaries during the 1920s and rising above the expectations society had for them. Just like other minorities in the 20th century, Bessie had to work harder than many other white people, and most of her accomplishments were not recognized until after her death. But, she helped pave the way for minorities in the years to follow. 

Bibliography

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024. 

Rich, Doris L. 1993. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, D.C.). 

Slotnik, Daniel E. “Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix.” The New York Times, December 11, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/obituaries/bessie-coleman-overlooked.html.

1. Slotnik, Daniel E. “Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix.” The New York Times, December 11, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/obituaries/bessie-coleman-overlooked.html.  ︎
2. Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: 
   Hill and Wang, 2024, 294. ︎
3. Dumenil, 286. ︎
4. Dumenil, 289. ︎
5. Rich, Doris L. 1993. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. Smithsonian Institution Press, (Washington, D.C.), 60 ︎
6. Rich, 60. ︎

hannahsteinlauf

Hannah Steinlauf is a senior history major with a minor in museum and exhibition studies at Ramapo College. She is a student research aide for the Jane Addams Papers Project. She is a member of the Ramapo College Dance Company and Tri Sigma. Hannah is going to attend Trinity College Dublin for a masters degree in Public History after graduation.

When conceptualizing the decade known as the Roaring Twenties, people are inclined to imagine an era of excess and festivities. While this is often exaggerated, there is a kernel of truth to these imaginings. Indeed, the 1920s saw the creation of a new type of consumer culture that was reliant on a newfound commercialization of leisure. These new spending habits are reflected in how 300% more money was spent by Americans on leisure during this decade than previous ones. What exactly were Americans now spending their money on? While there were many industries that benefited from consumer culture, with one of the foremost examples being that of cars, commercial entertainment also saw an increase in patronage. For this reason, nightclubs and other such urban amusements prospered and thrived in the 1920s.² This, of course, contributed to the establishment and success of the Cotton Club during that decade. 

As leisure proliferated as a common pastime in the United States in the 1920s, Harlem became known as the “great playground,” known for its proliferation of amusing activities, with much of this being tied to its importance as a hub for jazz music and artists. The image of Harlem as “thrilling, bizarre [and] sensuous” that was cultivated during this era frequently brushing aside the more wretched aspects of Harlem’s cultural explosion. Despite being home to primarily African American cultural innovations, white subversion of African American communities was pervasive. In fact, the Cotton Club was one of a number of nightclubs in Harlem that only allowed for white patrons, while having predominantly African American performers. This occurred in conjunction with the phenomenon of “white slummers,” in which wealthier white individuals would take part in Harlem’s vibrant nightlife, doing dances like the Charleston and listening to jazz, both of which were originated by the African American community. It is thus no coincidence that there was a racial divide between the white audience and African American entertainers.⁴ In the problematically named Cotton Club, the existence of African American individuals and blackness became a performance, and created a socially acceptable platform for white patrons to reaffirm the subservience of African American performers. That is to say, the fact that the African American artists were performing and entertaining for white spectators ensured that racial inequalities were maintained in the leisure sphere.⁵ Even the advertising products distributed by the Cotton Club would reinforce these divisions by featuring caricatured African American performers alongside the more elegantly depicted white patrons.⁶ The Cotton Club was, therefore, a product of and proponent of the racism of the 1920s. 

Although wealthier classes were able to take part in many types of entertainment in a frequent manner, such leisure was not limited to them. In fact, the working classes not only took part in more thrifty forms of recreation but were also able to significantly influence the new forms of entertainment that were emerging. Many different ethnic classes were able to make significant contributions to 1920s leisure, and this includes African American communities. In particular, their dance and music trends, which includes jazz, would become an integral part of American mainstream culture in the decade and was appropriated by many white artists. In this way, these working-class African American communities were not just on the receiving end of 1920s cultural phenomena, but were also significant contributors. The jazz clubs, like the Cotton Club, that many congregated to were a direct result of African American cultural contributions. This entertainment industry would further reinforce the perceptions of ethnic identities, with the proliferation of “race” records, featuring African American styles of music like the blues and jazz, being a clear example of this.⁷ Another example can be seen in the famous film, The Jazz Singer, which featured the clear influences of African American and other immigrant communities on the culture of the 1920s.⁸ 

Consumer culture’s impact on the entertainment industry also had significant implications for the African American working class by creating new forms of labor. One is the ‘commercial model,’ which includes such models who took part in entertainment performances. Such a job, which had employed African-American individuals in the Cotton Club, was part of a new movement to commodify aesthetics and the creation of a particular ‘feel.’ At the Cotton Club, those working in this capacity were meant to model their African American identity as a particular cultural type for their all-white audiences.¹⁰ Those employed in this position at the Cotton Club, and other nightclubs, were mainly women of color. Such a ‘model showgirl’ would not have to truly perform through song or dance, but would pose on stage in costume.¹¹ This is deeply tied to the new emphasis on women’s sexuality in the 1920s, which would prove to be greatly problematic for African American women. African American women reformers found the sexualization of African American to be a form of dangerous exploitation. In fact, women writers in the Harlem Renaissance steered away from the emphasis on “primitivism” that their male counterparts took part in. This was because, when tied to sexuality, such a philosophy could contribute to undesirable stereotypes about African American women, which were at least in part shaped by white societal expectations.¹² The Cotton Club’s presentation of African American chorus line women as visual and sexual ‘objects’ contributed to these stereotypes. 

The Cotton Club was part of a larger national movement geared towards leisure as promoted by the new consumer culture. Art and joyous times were the image of nightlife in Harlem. However, institutions such as the Cotton Club were demonstrative of the greater problems that plagued Harlem and the rest of the United States. Despite being a platform for African American artists, their contributions to American culture were often diminished, and all-white nightclubs like the Cotton Club actually supported the negative stereotypes about African Americans.

1.  Maureen Maryanski, “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club,” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016, https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. ︎
2.  Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s, ed. Eric Foner (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1995), 77. ︎
3. The Famous Cotton Club Presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and His Famous Cotton Club Orchestra., JSTOR (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Photographs and Prints Division, 1925), https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31816453. ︎
4.  Gilbert Osofsky, “Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered,” American Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 229–38, https://doi.org/10.2307/2711356, 235. ︎
5.  Malcolm Womack, “Harlem Holiday: The Cotton Club, 1925-1940,” University of Washington University Libraries (dissertation, 2013), http://hdl.handle.net/1773/23357, 102. ︎
6.  Womack, “Harlem Holiday,” 110-111. ︎
7.  Dumenil, The Modern Temper, 81-83. ︎
8.  Dumenil, The Modern Temper, 95. ︎
9. Maude Russel At The Cotton Club, Getty Images (Michael Ochs Archives, 1929). ︎
10.  Elspeth H. Brown, “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling: Race, Sexuality, and the 1920s Stage Model,” Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 65–97, https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2014.0003, 65-68. ︎
11.  Brown, “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling,” 89. ︎
12.  Dumenil, The Modern Temper, 139. ︎

Bibliography

Brown, Elspeth H. “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling: Race, Sexuality, and the 1920s Stage Model.” Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 65–97. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2014.0003. 

The Famous Cotton Club presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and his famous Cotton Club Orchestra. JSTOR. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Photographs and Prints Division, 1925. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31816453. 

Maryanski, Maureen. “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club.” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016. https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. 

Maude Russel At The Cotton Club. Getty Images. Michael Ochs Archives, 1929. 

Osofsky, Gilbert. “Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered.” American Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 229–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711356. 

Womack, Malcolm. “Harlem Holiday: The Cotton Club, 1925-1940.” University of Washington University Libraries, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/23357. 

stefanieviera

Stefanie Viera is a 3rd year History and Humanities & Global Studies double major who is taking the Discovering Digital History course in the spring of 2025. She currently work at the Jane Addams Papers Project as an Editorial Assistant.

The Cotton Club was the most popular nightclub in Harlem during the 1920s, emerging at the height of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance. Established in September 1923 by white American gangster Owen Madden after being released from jail, the Cotton Club remained a staple of Harlem’s nightlife until it changed locations in 1936.¹ Madden saw the club primarily as a place to distribute bootleg beer, but it held far more cultural significance than he could have anticipated. While it remained in Harlem, the Cotton Club  proved to be the most significant venue for jazz during the Harlem Renaissance, hosting iconic musicians like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Ethel Waters, and providing the stage by which artists could innovate, achieve fame and continue redefining the genre.² 

Opening of the Cotton Club

It all began with heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, who opened a supper club named Club Deluxe on 142 Street and Lenox Avenue in 1920. After only a few years of being open, Johnson handed over operations to famous white gangster Owen “Owney” Madden in 1923, although Johnson remained the manager of the club.⁴ Madden designed and ran the club from his jail cell in Sing Sing, where he was held for manslaughter, eventually transforming Club Deluxe into the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club quickly became an exclusive and popular jazz venue.⁵ Madden used the Club to sell his “#1 Beer” at the time of prohibition, and the Cotton Club’s illicit alcohol activities resulted in a brief closure in 1925. The Club soon reopened and continued to sell alcohol without interference from the police or other authorities.⁶ This is believed to be because of the political connections that the Club’s leadership possessed.⁷

Madden executed a particular vision for the Club centered around elegance and class, with waiters dressed in red tuxedos meant to emulate the typical look of butlers. The menu included such expensive and exotice dishes as Venison Steak and Chop Suey, which would be served to the patrons sitting in one of the two tiers of tables, organized in the shape of a horseshoe. Opening at 9:00PM and closing at 3:00AM, the Cotton Club was the premier place for the elite to take part in Harlem’s booming nightlife. However, Madden’s vision of class also involved segregation, as only white individuals were allowed to enter the Club. At the same time, he wanted talented African American jazz artists to supply the entertainment. The bandstand was located in front of a painted background of weeping willows and slave quarters, with tall white pillars on the stage to make it appear as if the African American artists were performing on the veranda of a plantation mansion.⁸ Despite the clearly racist undertones of the Club, many black artists took advantage of the platform offered them at the Cotton Club, achieving fame along the way.  

Duke Ellington and Other Legendary Performers

Duke Ellington is undoubtedly the most important musician to have received his start in the Cotton Club, where he had a residency from 1927 to 1931.⁹ Before bringing his talent to the Cotton Club, Ellington began his career in Washington, D.C., which had been the hub for “American Negro civilization” until around the 1920s. The band he formed in D.C., the Washingtonians, moved to Harlem and, by the mid 1920s, the band’s jazz performances made it so they were already gaining local popularity. Upon becoming the Cotton Club’s primary band, Ellington’s 10-piece ensemble became an integral part of the Club’s success, and vice versa, as they gained popularity for their ability to sound like an “African Jungle.” Amongst the antebellum plantation decor of the Cotton Club, Ellington’s band performed songs such as “Jungle Nights in Harlem,” where famous trumpet players like Cootie Williams and Bubber Miley mimicked growling and other animal sounds with their instruments. Ellington struggled to come to terms with his accommodation of harmful stereotypes of African-Americans for many years, but he was able to take advantage of the “jungle” sound to experiment with dissonant harmonies and “speaking” brass. Furthermore, his popularity allowed him to perform at venues that welcomed black audiences in the 1930s, like the Savoy Ballroom and Apollo Theater.¹⁰ 

The radio exposure afforded to Duke Ellington and his ensemble supported the popularity of Duke Ellington, and jazz as a whole. In the 1920s, the radio was a modern marvel, particularly amongst teenagers after World War I. It was through this medium that nightly Cotton Club broadcasts of Ellington’s “jungle music” reached the ears of many listeners all across the United States.¹¹ This provided significant exposure for Ellington and jazz music on a national level, as well as increased popularity of the Club itself.¹² He used his growing platform to advocate for the significance of black music, writing in the British magazine Rhythm that “The music of my race is something more than the American idiom. It is the result of our transplantation to American soil, and was our reaction in the plantation days to the tyranny we endured. What we could not say openly, we expressed in music.¹³” In this way, Ellington countered the commodification of jazz music and brought to light its connections with black resistance to oppression.

Duke Ellington was not the only musician to perform at the Cotton Club. Indeed, throughout its time based in Harlem, the Cotton Club attracted the skills of many different talented jazz musicians. One such example is Johnny Hodges, a saxophonist who performed in Ellington’s ensemble during the 1920s. An influx of soloists into his band in 1929, such as Cootie Williams and Juan Tizol, showcased their improvisation skills in the Club’s musical scene. This was particularly important, as solos were and continue to be a staple of the genre. After the 1920s, Cab Calloway replaced Ellington as band leader, and he became famous for his scat-jive vocals, bringing a new element to the music of the Club.¹⁴ The Jimmie Lunceford Band also performed at the Cotton Club.¹⁵

Despite the many groundbreaking black musicians that performed and gained fame through performing at the Cotton Club, they were not actually able to enjoy the music as an audience member. Indeed, the Cotton Club only permitted white patrons to enter. This made the Club a great moral contradiction for black artists who played their uniquely African-American music at the Club.

The Cotton Club as Segregated Leisure

As leisure proliferated as a common pastime in the United States in the 1920s, Harlem became known as the “great playground,” known for its proliferation of amusing activities, with much of this being tied to its importance as a hub for jazz music and artists. The image of Harlem as “thrilling, bizarre [and] sensuous” that was cultivated during this era frequently brushing aside the more wretched aspects of Harlem’s cultural explosion. Despite being home to primarily African American cultural innovations, white subversion of African American communities was pervasive. In fact, the Cotton Club was one of a number of nightclubs in Harlem that only allowed for white patrons, while having predominantly African American performers. This occurred in conjunction with the phenomenon of “white slummers,” in which wealthier white individuals took part in Harlem’s vibrant nightlife, doing dances like the Charleston and listening to jazz, both of which were originated by the African American community. It is thus no coincidence that there was a racial divide between the white audience and African American entertainers.¹⁷ In the problematically named Cotton Club, the existence of African American individuals and blackness became a performance, and created a socially acceptable platform for white patrons to reaffirm the subservience of African American performers. That is to say, the fact that the African American artists were performing and entertaining for white spectators ensured that racial inequalities were maintained in the leisure sphere.¹⁸ Even the advertising products distributed by the Cotton Club reinforced these divisions by featuring caricatured African American performers alongside the more elegantly depicted white patrons.¹⁹ The Cotton Club was, therefore, a product of and proponent of the racism of the 1920s. 

Despite this, many did not accept this segregation without putting up a fight. In fact, The Afro-American, a Baltimore-based newspaper, reported on July 16, 1927, that a Mrs. Geraldine Dismond sued the Cotton Club for denying her and James G. Cotter entrance into the Cotton Club. Dismond and Cotter were elites, she was the wife of a “prominent local physician” and he was an assistant district U.S. Attorney. The act of suing the club itself was defiant as they rejected the tradition of segregation. The authors of this news clipping also took part in resisting the racist policies of the Cotton Club, as they clearly wished to emphasize the hypocrisy of the Cotton Club having “race bands” for all white audiences. The title of the clipping is particularly biting, as the club is referred to as a “Jim Crow Cabaret,” drawing attention to how, although northern states like New York did not have official segregation policies like the South, segregation was still customary. 

The Sexualization of Women and Colorism in the Cotton Club

With the new approach to entertainment that came with the 1920’s new consumer culture also came significant implications for the African American women by creating new forms of labor. One is the ‘commercial model,’ which includes such models who took part in entertainment performances. Such a job, which had employed African-American individuals in the Cotton Club, was part of a new movement to commodify aesthetics and the creation of a particular ‘feel.’ At the Cotton Club, those working in this capacity were meant to model their African American identity as a particular cultural type for their all-white audiences.²¹ The costumes presented both racial and sexual stereotypes, using “exotic” designs that presented the women in an exposing manner. 

Those employed in this position at the Cotton Club, and other nightclubs, were mainly women of color. Such a ‘model showgirl’ did not have to truly perform through song or dance, but would pose on stage in costume.²³ This is deeply tied to the new emphasis on women’s sexuality in the 1920s, which proved to be greatly problematic for African American women. African American women reformers found the sexualization of African American to be a form of dangerous exploitation. In fact, women writers in the Harlem Renaissance steered away from the emphasis on “primitivism” that their male counterparts took part in. This was because, when tied to sexuality, such a philosophy could contribute to undesirable stereotypes about African American women, which were at least in part shaped by white societal expectations.²⁴ The Cotton Club’s presentation of African American chorus line women as visual and sexual ‘objects’ contributed to these stereotypes.

Being viewed and used as primarily “sexual objects,” the black women that performed for elite white New Yorkers in the Cotton Club were measured up to strict physical standards that demonstrate the intersectionality of gender and race during the 1920s. The Cotton Club Girls, otherwise known as the Copper Colored Gals, had to be at least 5 feet and 6 inches tall, under 21 years of age, and pass what was known as the “paper bag” tests. According to this test, the performer had to be lighter than a brown paper bag. This test was not unique to the Cotton Club at all; it was used to determine the acceptance of black individuals, inside and outside their community, to elite institutions such as fraternities, universities, and even churches.²⁶ The practice is typically associated with institutions based in the southern city of New Orleans, but its use in the Cotton Club demonstrates that such colorist practices pervaded northern communities as well.²⁷ Complexion tests were quite popular in the United States, as white people attempted to prevent fair-skinned black individuals from entering what they deemed to be their spaces. Tests included looking at the nails and hair roots of people to determine if they were black. From the 1920s-1940s, “spotting” was a particularly popular form of ensuring that African-Americans were excluded from entering white-only institutions by having a black individual stand at the entrance and “spot” any white-passing African-Americans, subsequently preventing them from entering.²⁸ 

The Legacy of the Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was the premier jazz venue for black musicians, and a hotspot for wealthy white elite to enjoy top jazz performances during the Roaring Twenties. The Cotton Club called itself “the Aristocrat of Harlem,” and this proved to be true through its economic and racial exclusivity. While the Cotton Club’s legacy continues to be remembered as a launching pad for the career of many jazz artists through stage and radio exposure, the legacy of the Cotton Club is also marred by its history as a racist and segregated institution that exploited black art and artists for white enjoyment. This is particularly evident in how the aesthetics and name of the Club were reminiscent of the slave south, and the hypocritical policy that allowed for black performers but hardly any black patrons.²⁹ The Cotton Club in Harlem closed in 1936 after the Harlem Race Riot of 1935, as it was no longer considered to be a safe place for whites.³⁰ Soon after, they opened a new location in Midtown. Interestingly, the new, and short-lived, Cotton Club was open to black audience members, in a (failed) last-ditch attempt to obscure its problematic racial history.³¹ 

Significance to the 1920s

The Great Migration started in the 1870s within the context of social and economic frustrations that plagued many African-American communities in the South. Due to this, many moved to the North and West to receive respite. Motivation to migrate increased exponentially after World War I, as more African-Americans were drawn to the factory jobs in the cities. In the 1920s, 750,000 African Americans fled the conditions of the South, mainly relocating in cities.³³ 

Throughout the Great Migration, which ended during the Great Depression, 2 million African Americans moved out of the South to northern cities like New York City, which was particularly popular. The North was particularly attractive as an apparent refuge from racial violence where they could have more opportunities to work and vote without being threatened. Despite the apparent improved standard of living through better wages for menial jobs, the benefits were offset by the high cost of living and racial discrimination continued as African-Americans were subject to redlining and forced to live in slums. At the same time that this mass exodus was occuring, Harlem was experiencing an explosion of new cultural expression known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Great Migration actually supported the Harlem Renaissance, as the black population in New York City doubled during the 1920s. With this stream of black emigrants also came a number of artists that became key to this cultural phenomenon. For this reason, Harlem became the site of “New Negro” art and politics, with pride in black culture being the center of this cultural boom.³⁴ 

Jazz became the defining music and soundtrack of the Harlem Renaissance and “New Negro” movement. ³⁵The African-American population often viewed music as a symbolic release from the physical and economic bondage that they were subjected to by white slave-owners in recent history. Now able to obtain instruments, the African-American community was given the opportunity to experiment with a far broader range of musical styles. The result was jazz, which combined the fluid syncopation techniques customarily used in West African music with European ragtime piano.³⁶ 

It was in the context of the emergence of many skilled artists from the South through the Great Migration and the creation of Jazz as part of the Harlem Renaissance that the Cotton Club was established. The club soon became extremely popular and provided the platform for many legendary jazz musicians that continue to define the genre. 

Citations

Footnotes

1.  Maureen Maryanski, “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club,” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016, https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. ︎
2. Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021), 149. ︎
3. Cotton Club 1930, Wikimedia Commons (The New Movie Magazine, 1930), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotton_Club_1930.jpg. ︎
4. “The Cotton Club (NYC) Opens,” African American Registry, December 4, 2024, https://aaregistry.org/story/the-cotton-club-opens/. ︎
5. Margaret Moos Pick, “A Night at the Cotton Club: Music of Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen & Cab Calloway,” Riverwalk Jazz, 1997, https://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/night-cotton-club-music-duke-ellington-harold-arlen-cab-calloway. ︎
6.  “The Cotton Club (NYC) Opens.” ︎
7.  Elizabeth Winter, “Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- ),” BlackPast, December 17, 2007, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/cotton-club-harlem-1923/. ︎
8.  Moos Pick, “A Night at the Cotton Club.” ︎
9.  Aaron J. Johnson, “A Date With The Duke: Ellington on Radio,” The Musical Quarterly 96, no. 3–4 (November 19, 2013): 369–405, https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdt014, 375. ︎
10.  Daniel Matlin, “‘Something Part, Yet an Integral Part’: Duke Ellington’s Harlem and the Nexus of Race and Nation,” Cambridge University Press, February 8, 2021, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-intellectual-history/article/something-apart-yet-an-integral-part-duke-ellingtons-harlem-and-the-nexus-of-race-and-nation/46B58AEB337443073C1A7D3102E259A1. ︎
11.  Johnson, “A Date With The Duke,” 369-370. ︎
12.  Johnson, “A Date With The Duke,” 380. ︎
13.  Laura Townsend, “How Duke Ellington Used His Appearance to Subvert Racist Stereotypes, and Other Ways He Fought Racism,” PBS, July 12, 2022, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/how-duke-ellington-used-his-appearance-to-subvert-racist-stereotypes-and-other-ways-he-fought-racism/17385/. ︎
14.  Gioia, The History of Jazz, 150-154. ︎
15.  Gioia, The History of Jazz, 156. ︎
16.  The Famous Cotton Club Presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and His Famous Cotton Club Orchestra., JSTOR (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Photographs and Prints Division, 1925), https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31816453. ︎
17.  Gilbert Osofsky, “Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered,” American Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 229–38, https://doi.org/10.2307/2711356, 235. ︎
18.  Malcolm Womack, “Harlem Holiday: The Cotton Club, 1925-1940,” University of Washington University Libraries (dissertation, 2013), http://hdl.handle.net/1773/23357, 102. ︎
19.  Womack, “Harlem Holiday,” 110-111. ︎
20.  “Sues Harlem Jim Crow Cabaret,” The Afro-American, July 16, 1927, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1134157240/?match=1&terms=%22Louis%20Armstrong%22%20%22cotton%20club%22. ︎
21.  Elspeth H. Brown, “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling: Race, Sexuality, and the 1920s Stage Model,” Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 65–97, https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2014.0003, 65-68. ︎
22.  Maude Russel At The Cotton Club, Getty Images (Michael Ochs Archives, 1929). ︎
23.  Brown, “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling,” 89. ︎
24.  Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s, ed. Eric Foner (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1995), 139. ︎
25. Fan from the Cotton Club., Curationist (National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1923), https://www.curationist.org/works/work-smith-nmaahc_2013.223.40. ︎
26.  “Colorism During the New Negro Movement: Cotton Club,” CUNY Academic Commons, 2025, https://colorism.commons.gc.cuny.edu/cotton-club/. ︎
27. Audrey Elisa Kerr, “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism,” Journal of American Folklore118, no. 469 (June 2005): 271–89, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2005.0031, 283. ︎
28. Audrey Elisa Kerr, “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism,” Journal of American Folklore118, no. 469 (June 2005): 271–89, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2005.0031, 277-279. ︎
29. Maureen Maryanski, “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club,” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016, https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. ︎
30.  Meher Tatna, “The Cotton Club,” Golden Globes, February 16, 2023, https://goldenglobes.com/articles/cotton-club/. ︎
31. Colony Little, “A Tale of Two Harlems: The Legacy of Jazz and Racism at the Cotton Club,” Curationist, July 2022, https://www.curationist.org/editorial-features/article/a-tale-of-two-harlems:-the-legacy-of-jazz-and-racism-at-the-cotton-club. ︎
32. The Scott Arthur Family ca. 1920, 1920, Wikimedia Commons, 1920, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_Arthur_Family_1920.jpg. ︎
33.  “Moving North, Heading West: African Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History,” The Library of Congress, accessed March 19, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/african/moving-north-heading-west/. ︎
34.  “The Great Migration and The Harlem Renaissance,” Press Books, accessed March 19, 2025, https://open.baypath.edu/his115/chapter/the-great-migration-and-the-harlem-renaissance/. ︎
35.  Rachel Farebrother and Miriam Thaggert, A History of the Harlem Renaissance (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 345. ︎
36.  Farebrother and Thaggert, A History of the Harlem Renaissance, 351. ︎

Bibliography

Brown, Elspeth H. “The Commodification of Aesthetic Feeling: Race, Sexuality, and the 1920s Stage Model.” Feminist Studies 40, no. 1 (2014): 65–97. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2014.0003. 

“Colorism During the New Negro Movement: Cotton Club.” CUNY Academic Commons, 2025. https://colorism.commons.gc.cuny.edu/cotton-club/. 

“The Cotton Club (NYC) Opens.” African American Registry, December 4, 2024. https://aaregistry.org/story/the-cotton-club-opens/. 

Cotton Club 1930. Wikimedia Commons. The New Movie Magazine, 1930. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cotton_Club_1930.jpg. 

Dumenil, Lynn. The modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Edited by Eric Foner. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1995. 

Fan from the Cotton Club. Curationist. National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1923. https://www.curationist.org/works/work-smith-nmaahc_2013.223.40. 

Farebrother, Rachel, and Miriam Thaggert. A History of the Harlem Renaissance. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 

The Famous Cotton Club presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and his famous Cotton Club Orchestra. JSTOR. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Photographs and Prints Division, 1925. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.31816453. 

Gioia, Ted. The History of Jazz. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021. 

“The Great Migration and The Harlem Renaissance.” Press Books. Accessed March 19, 2025. https://open.baypath.edu/his115/chapter/the-great-migration-and-the-harlem-renaissance/. 

Johnson, Aaron J. “A Date With The Duke: Ellington on Radio.” The Musical Quarterly 96, no. 3–4 (November 19, 2013): 369–405. https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdt014. 

Kerr, Audrey Elisa. “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism.” Journal of American Folklore118, no. 469 (June 2005): 271–89. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2005.0031. 

Little, Colony. “A Tale of Two Harlems: The Legacy of Jazz and Racism at the Cotton Club.” Curationist, July 2022. https://www.curationist.org/editorial-features/article/a-tale-of-two-harlems:-the-legacy-of-jazz-and-racism-at-the-cotton-club. 

Matlin, Daniel. “‘Something Part, Yet an Integral Part’: Duke Ellington’s Harlem and the Nexus of Race and Nation.” Cambridge University Press, February 8, 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-intellectual-history/article/something-apart-yet-an-integral-part-duke-ellingtons-harlem-and-the-nexus-of-race-and-nation/46B58AEB337443073C1A7D3102E259A1. 

Maryanski, Maureen. “The Aristocrat of Harlem: The Cotton Club.” The New York Historical, February 17, 2016. https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/the-aristocrat-of-harlem-the-cotton-club. 

Maude Russel At The Cotton Club. Getty Images. Michael Ochs Archives, 1929. 

Moos Pick, Margaret. “A Night at the Cotton Club: Music of Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen & Cab Calloway.” Riverwalk Jazz, 1997. https://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/night-cotton-club-music-duke-ellington-harold-arlen-cab-calloway. 

“Moving North, Heading West: African Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History.” The Library of Congress. Accessed March 19, 2025. https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/african/moving-north-heading-west/. 

Osofsky, Gilbert. “Symbols of the Jazz Age: The New Negro and Harlem Discovered.” American Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 229–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711356. 

The Scott Arthur Family ca. 1920. 1920. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scott_Arthur_Family_1920.jpg. 

“Sues Harlem Jim Crow Cabaret.” The Afro-American. July 16, 1927. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1134157240/?match=1&terms=%22Louis%20Armstrong%22%20%22cotton%20club%22. 

Tatna, Meher. “The Cotton Club.” Golden Globes, February 16, 2023. https://goldenglobes.com/articles/cotton-club/. 

Townsend, Laura. “How Duke Ellington Used His Appearance to Subvert Racist Stereotypes, and Other Ways He Fought Racism.” PBS, July 12, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/how-duke-ellington-used-his-appearance-to-subvert-racist-stereotypes-and-other-ways-he-fought-racism/17385/.

Womack, Malcolm. “Harlem Holiday: The Cotton Club, 1925-1940.” University of Washington University Libraries, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/23357. 

Winter, Elizabeth. “Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- ).” BlackPast, December 17, 2007. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/cotton-club-harlem-1923/.

stefanieviera

Stefanie Viera is a 3rd year History and Humanities & Global Studies double major who is taking the Discovering Digital History course in the spring of 2025. She currently work at the Jane Addams Papers Project as an Editorial Assistant.

When I think about the 1920s, the immediate picture I believe many, including myself, imagine is that of flappers, speakeasies, music, and dances such as “The Charleston.” The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the “Roaring Twenties.”. It was the decade after World War 1 and possesses the reputation of being a time of prosperity, economic growth, consumerism, and the boom of the stock market. However, I know this is mostly a stereotypical image of the 1920s instead of a fully accurate interpretation. 

I view the image of the flapper as a prominent symbol of the 1920s. This decade brought new attention to the rights of women. Women had recently gained the right to vote, granted by the 19th Amendment. It was passed by Congress in 1919. It was ratified in 1920. I recall learning that the new fashion trends of the decade demonstrated the movement of women straying away from the norm and dressing more freely. They rejected the restrictive clothing that was deemed appropriate for women decades prior. Flappers wore shorter dresses that were sleeveless and had a more straight style. For their hair, the bobbed cut increased in popularity. This was a way for young women to rebel and demonstrate their new expression of femininity and independence. The 1920s was also the era of prohibition in the United States. Prohibition, through the 18th Amendment, banned the production, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. It was officially put into effect in 1920. The illegalization of alcohol evokes the image of the illegal activities surrounding alcohol, referred to as bootlegging. It also evokes the image of organized crime within the 1920s. At the end of the 1920s, it is relatively common knowledge that the stock market crashed. This led to The Great Depression, ending a time of prosperity. 

In addition to the image and stereotype the 1920s evokes within America and American society, I am aware of the history of political tensions outside the country, including Europe and Asia. Last semester, I took a course on socialism and communism. This course explored the influence communism had in European and American politics throughout the late 19th century and the 20th century. These political movements and tensions had made their way into the decade of the 1920s. An event that occurred in the United States regarding the increasing fear of communism was the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants in the United States who were accused of murder and robbery. They were viewed as political radicals and anarchists. The fear of political ideologies considered radical, such as communism and socialism, coupled with anti-immigrant sentiments, led to the conviction and execution of these two men. I am also aware of the events that took place within Russia in 1922. The Russian Civil War had ended, and Russia transitioned into a socialist state. The Soviet Union was officially established, inspiring political movements in other regions.

My Impression on Images from the 1920s

While searching images of the 1920s, I came across these two pictures:

1. Louis Armstrong House and Archives. “Louis Armstrong with His Hot Five.” The Roaring 20s. Accessed January 28, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/crash-roaring-20s/.

This image is of Louis Armstrong and his “Hot Five” band. Louis Armstrong is a famous Jazz musician who started his first jazz recording band in the 1920s. After looking at this image, it confirms the image of the 1920s as a time of music and dance. I know that jazz music was one of the most popular genres of the decade. The 1920s is also considered to be “The Jazz Age”.

2. “Josephine Baker Performing the Charleston at the Folies Bergère, Paris.” Roaring Twenties. Accessed January 28, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties.

This image is of Josephine Baker, an African-American-born dancer and actress. She performed in Paris and danced “The Charleston.” She gained popularity mostly in Europe. This image confirms my initial image of the 1920s as a time of dance and performance. It also demonstrates a flapper-like appearance.

While these two images of Louis Armstrong and Josephine Baker confirm a popular image of the 1920s, It also leads me to think about a darker side of the 1920s. African Americans were still experiencing racial discrimination, segregation, and violence. Despite this, it seems African Americans played an important role in the culture of the 1920s through the expression of art and music.

Bibliography

Louis Armstrong House and Archives. “Louis Armstrong with His Hot Five.” The Roaring 20s. Accessed January 28, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/crash-roaring-20s/.

“Josephine Baker Performing the Charleston at the Folies Bergère, Paris.” Roaring Twenties. Accessed January 28, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties.

grlynn

Grlynn is a Ramapo College senior majoring in history

Significant events occurred in the 1920s; this includes the creation of prominent organizations, like the League of Nations, the women’s suffrage movement, and peacemaking efforts. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was one such organization that rose to prominence during this decade, although it had been established before the 1920s. This awareness is tied to my work with the Jane Addams Papers Project. Outside of this, I look at the 1920s as an era in between important world events. It is before the Great Depression, which is of course tied to the presence of Wall Street during the 1920s. Furthermore, it takes place after the industrial revolution and after an important era of the labor movement, which thus means that this decade saw the results of these movements in labor. Perhaps most importantly, the 1920s was part of the interwar period, as it was after World War I and before World War II. This is of course indicative of the post-WWI turmoil that plagued the world, in particular the losing parties in Europe, after the peace treaty. 

1. Louis Armstrong Playing the Trumpet, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, July 12, 2022), https://www.theherbert.org/news/259/grown-up-in-the-1920s-music.

Upon searching for images of the 1920s, I stumbled upon one of the iconic trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong. I was, of course, aware of his presence before seeing this image, but I had not known that his music came into popularity during the 1920s. With consideration to the fame and legacy of Armstrong, I can infer from this image that the 1920s was an important era for jazz as a genre. With that said, most images I saw that included people of color were limited to performers like Armstrong. This is indicative of the discrimination that people of color were subjected to during the 1920s.

2. Frank Scherschel, Revelers Celebrating the End of Prohibition, Wisconsin Historical Society (Wisconsin Historical Society), accessed January 27, 2025, https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM9426.

This second image demonstrates one of the many reactions the American public had to prohibition, a policy that had slipped my mind upon my first consideration of the events of the 1920s. Although there were individuals who supported prohibition, like Jane Addams, this image makes it clear that there were many who were in complete defiance of this law. The tongue-in-cheek manner in which this image is posed demonstrates the humor with which many interacted with the 18th amendment.

3. An American Advertisement for Cars, Public Broadcasting Service (Public Broadcasting Service), accessed January 27, 2025, https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ush22-soc-1920sadvert/american-advertisements-in-the-1920s-interactive-image/.

The final image I located when searching through pictures of the 1920s appears to be an advertisement for cars. This makes it clear that by the 1920s, cars became a popular mode of privately owned transportation. This may also be indicative of the increased affordability of cars. The rhetoric of this advertisement further demonstrates the consumer culture that was likely prominent during this decade. 

These images tell a fascinating story of the musical, political, and technological changes that the 1920s saw, but there is much left to be said about the era. I look forward to discovering more about this decade during this semester!

Bibliography

An American Advertisement for Cars. Public Broadcasting Service. Public Broadcasting Service. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ush22-soc-1920sadvert/american-advertisements-in-the-1920s-interactive-image/. 

Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet. Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, July 12, 2022. https://www.theherbert.org/news/259/grown-up-in-the-1920s-music. 

Scherschel, Frank. Revelers Celebrating the End of Prohibition. Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Historical Society. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM9426. 

stefanieviera

Stefanie Viera is a 3rd year History and Humanities & Global Studies double major who is taking the Discovering Digital History course in the spring of 2025. She currently work at the Jane Addams Papers Project as an Editorial Assistant.

The Rosewood Massacre occurred from January 1 to January 7, 1923. This week of terror took place in Rosewood, Levy County, Florida, United States. It was a race riot that occurred in a black rural community.

The town of Rosewood was established in 1847 near the Gulf of Mexico. In its early beginnings, it relied on the timber industry. Cedarwood trees were fruitful there, and due to the reddish color of the wood, the town was there by named Rosewood. There were originally both black and white residents, but when most of the cedar trees were cut down for profit, the economy decreased, and most whites moved to other towns, such as Sumner. Sumner was a predominantly white town, and by the year 1900, Rosewood was now a predominantly black community. Sumner and Rosewood were generally friendly towards each other, that is, until the beginning of 1923.¹

Rosewood was a pleasant town. They had a school, different types of mills, three churches, two general stores, and a baseball team called the Rosewood Stars. There were about a dozen houses where some families even owned middle-class goods such as pianos and organs. About eighteen to twenty-five families were living in Rosewood.² The general consensus was that Rosewood was that it was a nice place to live and had nothing negative to say. Robie Mortin, a survivor of the Rosewood Massacre, said, “Rosewood was a town where everyone’s house was painted. There were roses everywhere you walked.”³

Before the week-long massacre, Rosewood was a nice, beautiful, quiet, and primarily black town. It was a whistle-stop on the Seaboard Air Line Railway, where people traveling would go to fill up on necessities. No one would stay long at whistle stops, and they were deemed to be swift and unimportant visits.⁴

The massacre started when a white woman accused a black drifter named Jesse Hunter of assaulting her in Sumner. The woman was Frances “Fannie” Taylor. She was twenty-two years old, married to a thirty-year-old man named James, and had two children. Neighbors and people living in the town stated that Taylor was very aloof, not well known, and very peculiar overall. Taylor’s face was indeed bruised when she made her claim, and she asserted she was not raped by the man, only beaten. Her neighbors, who arrived when they heard her screaming, could not find anyone else in the house despite Taylor saying there was a black man present. Sarah Carrier, a black woman living in Rosewood, worked for Taylor the day of the alleged attack. Carrier and her granddaughter Philomena Goins said they both saw a white man leave the Taylor house on the morning of January 1, 1923. This opposes what Taylor’s neighbors said. Carrier’s words meant very little, though, and she was shot dead and burned in her house during the massacre.⁵ In spite of being beaten, rumors spread that Taylor was raped and robbed, which fueled anger among the white mob at an exponential rate.⁶

Jesse Hunter, the accused man, was a Rosewood resident and was lynched by several white men from neighboring towns after Taylor’s claims were made public. These men hunted for him, and after his lynching, a mob consisting of several hundred white individuals started to reign down in the countryside to hunt for more black people, where the Rosewood massacre soon transpired.⁷

Every building in Rosewood was burnt down or demolished, tragically with people still inside. During the massacre, the citizens of Rosewood either hid in their houses, tried to run, fought back, and ran to adjacent swamps. Those who hid in the swamps were there for days until they were rescued and sent to different towns for hospitalization for hypothermia and wound care.⁸

The impact the Rosewood Massacre had was not only physical but mental and emotional, especially for the women and children. Minnie Lee Mitchell Langley, just nine years old at the time, witnessed her uncle almost being lynched, her great-grandmother killed, her cousin kill and injure others in order to save the family and to run and hide in the woods and swamp until the massacre ended. Minnie Lee, who was eighty years old at the time of her story being told, can still feel how cold the nights were when she saw the enormous flames of the Rosewood buildings being burned from the swamp. Minnie Lee recounted her story in 1993, at age 79. She was one of five women who survived the massacre who were willing to testify.⁹

After the Rosewood Massacre, the town was abandoned. No one, either black or white, moved back. The site was officially cleared, and the empty site remained a painful memory. There is now a plaque to commemorate the atrocity.¹⁰

The death tolls are debated. According to officials, at least six black and two white people were killed, with numerous people injured and traumatized. Some survivors claim that twenty-seven black residents were murdered and that the number of white deaths was also higher. Minnie Lee stated that she stepped over many white bodies, which is contradictory to the official death records. Perhaps the public did not want to say there were more white deaths. In 1984, a newspaper estimated that one hundred fifty people died, which others claim to be an exaggeration and misinformation.¹² 

However, very few official records and documents about the Rosewood Massacre exist. Even the survivors and their descendants, as well as the perpetrators, did not speak about the Rosewood Massacre. It was not until the 1980s, sixty years after the event, that it started to gain publicity, and there was a demand for an investigation. Since so much time has passed, many survivors are too elderly or have passed away to testify or hear their stories, meaning there is little to confirm or deny the many claims.¹³

There were attempts to receive justice for the Rosewood Massacre. First, there was a pursuit to sue Florida for the failure to protect the black community in Rosewood. Then, in 1993, the Florida Legislature had finally commissioned a report on the Rosewood Massacre. In its findings, Florida gave the survivors and their descendants financial compensation for the physical damages that occurred due to the racial violence. However, many do not think this was enough. In 1997, there was a feature film dedicated to the Rosewood Massacre, directed by John Singleton, called Rosewood. It is an excellent film and stars Don Cheadle, Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, and Esther Rolle. Minnie Lee served as help in the set design. The film does have mixed reviews, as it offers a fictional story amidst the panic and there is a “happy ending.” In 2004, Florida designated the site where Rosewood was as a Florida Heritage Landmark, where people can visit a plaque and pay their respects.¹⁴

Minnie Lee testified in the 1994 Florida House of Representative hearing In The Matter For Relief Of Arnett T. Goins, Minnie L. Langley, et. al, Claimants vs. State of Florida, Respondent. The other four women were Robie Robinson Mortin, Mary Magdalene Hall, Margie Hall Johnson, and Dorothy Goins Hosey.¹⁵ Each woman got $150,000 but will never be the same.¹⁶

Dr. Carolyn Tucker said that those who testified exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and that the massacre had a negative impact on their parenting, social, and economic skills.¹⁸ When they were children, the survivors dreamed of being pianists, singers, and politicians, yet those dreams were crushed, and they all became maids, domestic servants, cooks, and other low-paying jobs. Richard Hixson, the hearing officer, said to establish a scholarship fund for the Rosewood families and descendants. The Florida House of Representatives passed the Rosewood Compensation Bill on April 4, 1994, in which two million dollars were given to the Rosewood survivors and descendants.¹⁹ 

Significance

In the 1920s, the United States was experiencing a time of rapid social change, and people today typically think of the richness and exuberance of The Great Gatsby when picturing the 1920s. Flappers, gangsters, and lavish parties take up the mind. However, in reality, for black people in the South, things were terrible. Blacks were losing political power, were in dire economic struggles, and were subject to lynchings and terror caused by white residents on a consistent basis.

At this time, other race riots different from the Rosewood Massacre were generally reported. Lynchings also increased exponentially in the 1920s. For example, Florida’s history included the highest records of lynchings against black men in this decade. Just one year before the Rosewood Massacre, in 1922, the Perry Massacre occurred, where whites killed four black men and destroyed Perry, a black community. Charles Strong, a victim of the Perry Massacre, was lynched and burned at the stake.²⁰

Black women were not excused from lynching. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in 1916, two black women named Stella Long and Mary Dennis, both mothers, were lynched. Long had four children, and Dennis was pregnant with her third at the time of their deaths.²¹ 

White supremacy started to be very active, and southern states started to decrease black voters as a way to keep the South white. In the middle of the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had a peak in membership in Southern states and the Midwest. The KKK had a revival around 1915 due to the influx of black people settling in towns, and society’s views started to change towards social issues and rapid industrialization. The KKKs main targets were African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants before its ultimate demise in the mid-1920s.²² The KKK supported and executed many white mobs throughout black communities, such as Rosewood, where the authorities did little to nothing. Rosewood is just one of many unfortunate communities terrorized and abandoned by white supremacists and racists.²³

To contextualize, the 1920s was also when prohibition started. Prohibition was not just about alcohol, but it gave power and dominance to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in American society. These whites controlled the law through prohibition against the ever-growing consciousness of change.²⁵ Working-class citizens, typically African Americans, were more boisterous regarding alcohol consumption. Saloons were popular, as was bare-knuckle fighting, where African Americans and other minorities were able to let loose and have alcohol as a point of leisure and outlet.²⁶ 

In addition to working-class leisure, attractions like amusement parks were taken by storm in the 1920s. African Americans and other minority groups were able to express themselves, yet were frequently appropriated by white entertainers.²⁷ Blackface was popular at the time. The Modern Temper talks about Jack, an Americanized Jewish entertainer who performed in blackface. The Jazz Singer helps to see how African American and immigrant performers influenced the new culture that the 1920s is known for. One reason people did blackface was because they offered whites a mask to be more expressive than their Victorian norm.²⁸

The Petersburg Index published a newspaper on January 12, 1923, that focused on the whites who died rather than the atrocious massacre that occurred. It stated that the result of the massacre was from the “brutal assault upon a young white woman,” which paints a different picture. In the newspaper article, it lists those who died and puts the two whites first instead of putting the black victims by age and gender. There is a section in the newspaper article titled “Two Whites Shot Dead” with no highlights on the racist reasons.²⁹ 

The Rosewood Massacre is significant for numerous reasons. Black communities before the 1920s, during the 1920s, and beyond have been threatened and destroyed due to racism. We can see repeats in history to current times, where the violence against BIPOC communities is ever-present.

Citations

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia contributors, “Rosewood massacre.” ︎
2. Maxine D. Jones. “The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It.” 194. ︎
3. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
4. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
5. Jones, 195. ︎
6. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
7. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
8. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
9. Jones. ︎
10. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Rosewood,_Florida_historical_marker_(1).jpg. ︎
12. Jones. ︎
13. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
14. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
15. Jones, 207. ︎
16. Jones, 208. ︎
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Sara_Carrier.jpg. ︎
18. Jones, 207. ︎
19. Jones. ︎
20. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
21. Jones, 193. ︎
22. Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang). 9. ︎
23. Wikipedia contributors. ︎
24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Rosewood_1923_map_from_Tropic_Magazine.jpg. ︎
25. Dumenil, 9. ︎
26. Dumenil, 81. ︎
27. Dumenil, 81. ︎
28. Dumenil, 81. ︎
29. Newspaper ︎
30. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre#/media/File:Rosewood_Florida_Highway_Marker.jpg. ︎

Bibliography

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang).

Jones, Maxine D. “The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 76, no. 2 (1997): 193–208. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30146346.

Wikipedia contributors, “Rosewood massacre,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosewood_massacre&oldid=1219583334.

More Resources

Asante, Molefi Kete. “Litany of Horror: A Survey of Newspaper-Reported Lynchings.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 43 (2004): 116–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/4133570.

Colburn, David R. “Rosewood and America in the Early Twentieth Century.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 76, no. 2 (1997): 175–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30146345.

Dye, R. Thomas. “The Rosewood Massacre: History and the Making of Public Policy.” The Public Historian 19, no. 3 (1997): 25–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/3379554.

Edward González-Tennant. “Intersectional Violence, New Media, and the 1923 Rosewood Pogrom.” Fire!!! 1, no. 2 (2012): 64–110. https://doi.org/10.5323/fire.1.2.0064.

Jackson, David H., and Kimberlyn M. Elliott. “African Americans in Florida, 1870-1920: A Historiographical Essay.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 95, no. 2 (2016): 152–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44955672.

Newman, Richard. “Rosewood Revisited.” Transition, no. 80 (1999): 32–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/2903166.

Photo Citation: Florida Memory. https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/photographs.

Isabella Apgar

History major and Human Rights and Genocide Studies minor at Ramapo College of New Jersey class of 2025.

Certain aspects show the change in American society in the 1920s, but the Rosewood Massacre shows the remaining racism that haunts us. While changes were made, the progressiveness made by conservative whites shows that some change takes a very long time. The Ku Klux Klan started in 1865 and is since regarded as the first organized terror group in the United States’ history.¹ At the beginning of the 1920s, a new Ku Klux Klan group that reflected the Southern Reconstruction KKK was formed. This group contributed to the nativist furor and spread racist and xenophobic ideology in local and national politics. Its main targets were African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants before its ultimate demise in the mid-1920s.² 

Prohibition and alcohol consumption, as explained in The Modern Temper, reflect ideas from the racism of the Rosewood Massacre. Prohibition was a symbol of dominance and power that white Anglo-Saxon Protestants had on American society. These whites controlled the law through prohibition against the ever-growing consciousness of change.³ Working-class citizens, typically African Americans, were more boisterous than their counterparts regarding alcohol consumption. Saloons were popular, as was bare-knuckle fighting, where African Americans and others were able to let loose and have alcohol as a point of leisure and outlet.⁴ 

To add to working-class leisure, in the 1920s, attractions, such as amusement parks, took storm. African Americans and other minority groups were able to express themselves, yet were frequently appropriated by white entertainers.⁵ Blackface was popular at the time. The Modern Temper talks about Jack, an Americanized Jewish entertainer who performed in blackface. The Jazz Singer helps to see how African American and immigrant performers influenced the new culture that the 1920s is known for. One reason people did blackface was because they offered whites a mask to be more expressive than their Victorian norm.⁶

Black women, although still rebuffed by white women, still fought for women’s suffrage and racial progress.⁷ Overall, The Modern Temper holds vital information about African Americans and how they were treated in the 1920s. Yet, the Rosewood Massacre shows us the dark side of the decade and is an event we should never forget.

1. Wikipedia contributors, “Rosewood massacre,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosewood_massacre&oldid=1203979650. ︎
2. Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang). 9. ︎
3. Dumenil. 9. ︎
4. Dumenil. 81. ︎
5. Dumenil. 81. ︎
6. Dumenil. ︎
7. Dumenil. ︎

Isabella Apgar

History major and Human Rights and Genocide Studies minor at Ramapo College of New Jersey class of 2025.

The great Mississippi flood of 1927 remains one of the most devastating natural disasters in the history of the United States, but more specifically in the southern region. The Mississippi River overflowed and eventually reached unprecedented levels of water rising, causing widespread flooding that affected hundred and thousands of people and led to drastic economic and social consequences that would shake the very core of America. The Mississippi flood reached over 23,000 square miles of land that was submerged in water, displacing over 700,000 people and in the process, killing at least 1,000.

The Flood of 1927 was a result of heavy rainfall that occurred in the Mississippi in April of 1927, although signs of the flood started in January of that year. The Mississippi River is known as one of the largest and most popular river systems in North America, swelled to extreme record levels as a result of the excessive downpour during the spring season. The flooding began in late April and continued into May, affecting many states such as, Arkansa, Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Texas. The river breached through the levees system and traveled through vast areas of land, which in turn would cause many people to evacuate and as a result would leave hundreds of thousands of people without a home.

The Flood of 1927 was a build up of poor land management that due to decades of bad practices to help prevent the flood that occurred, which at that time affected a rapid increase in population that lived in urban areas, and lack of infrastructure to control the river’s flow. The levee system was specifically designed to prevent flooding, it was not built to withstand the volume of water that was brought by the heavy rain, which was supposed to prevent disasters like this from occurring. Another element that was a cause of the flooding was the deforestation of the region, it led to increased soil erosion, further exacerbating the flooding. The federal government, was under the leadership of President Calvin Coolidge, who was slow to respond to the disaster that caused widespread flooding, while also causing destruction and hardships for many people during this time. The Flood of 1927 left a hopless impact on the southern United States, affecting millions of people. The people most affected by the flood were the farmers, because the flooding destroyed crops, homes, and infrastructure, and caused a huge economic impact not just on the region, but the entire United States. Many African American communities dealt with heavy racisim and were treated like outcasts, who were already marginalized and living in low-lying areas, that took the brunt of the disaster. The people who were displaced would seek shelter, make shift camps or flee to higher ground just to have some sort of safety from the flooding that ravaged through their towns.

The aftermath of the Mississippi flood of 1927 shined a light on the inequalities and racial disparities that African Americans were forced to face in the United States. Many African Americans were left to fend alone without access to food, water, or medical care, as most of the relief efforts focused on white communities. The federal government’s heavily failed the victims during the flood, but it did a horrific job when it left the African American community to survive without help. The inadequate response to the disaster highlighted these inequalities, as resources were lopsidedly allocated based on race, social, and economical status. In a way, the flood helped showcase just how far behind America was when it came to the treatment of its people (especially African American). The flood in a weird way was just like the racism America would bury on African Americans and pretend like they didn’t exist, just as the flood covered the land that was once visible with grass, streets, and homes.

People

One of the most important people during the Flood of 1927 was Herbert Hoover, who was serving as the Secretary of Commerce. Hoover was in charge of providing and coordinating the federal response to the disaster by President Coolidge to help bring relief to the people most affected by the flood. Despite the slow and initial delays in providing aid, Hoover eventually had enough resources and established the Mississippi River Commission. Hoover would travel through the Mississippi Valley to help raise money for the relief efforts to help start the rebuild of the states affected by the flood. He raised over 17 million dollars (equivalent to 239.50 million today). All of the hard work that Hoover put in to help would not go unrecognized because it was a crucial step, that eventually lead to him being elected as the 31st president of the United States in 1929. Although, many people still claim that Hoover didn’t really help aid the states damaged by the floods, instead gained as much power as possible.

The most important influential figure during the flood was James Eads, a highly regarded engineer who had experience working on many river projects in the Mississippi Valley. James specialized in hydraulic engineering and levee construction, which proved to be priceless and much needed during the crisis. The designs he created made for a much better levees with more strength and it would mitigate the impact of the flooding in certain parts of the river. The contributions that James Eads had on the flood control would help launch the groundwork for future natural disasters that can be prevented to help stop flooding. It also helped provide a much needed safety practices that were once failing to meet quality standards, to help ensure that a disaster like this can be avoided.

The third important figure who emerged during the aftermath of the Flood of 1927 was Robert Russa Moton, was an African American teacher and civil rights activist. Moton was appointed by President Coolidge to lead the Colored Advisory Commission, he was tasked with providing and overseeing relief efforts for African American flood victims. Moton was one of the few people who fought for equal treatment and access to aid for all people, communities, regardless of race. His efforts helped draw much needed attention to the racial inequalities that the flood exposed and paved the way for everyone to take action help start a change in America.

Just like James Eads, Arthur E. Morgan who specialized in flood managment, was an engineer and public administrator who played an important role in shaping water resource policies in the United States, to assist in preventing disaster like floods from taking place. Morgan was the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority and he would oversee all safety procedures and practices that were taking place in his assigned region. Eventually Morgan would become head of the Public Works Administration, where he implemented major design and ideas to many projects in order to prevent future flooding disasters. Morgan’s visionary approach was ahead of it’s time and would change the way flood control emphasized sustainable practices, as well as have communities being involved, which spearheaded the foundation for modern water management strategies that are still used to this very day.

Technology and Social Justice

The Flood of 1927 is famous for destroying homes, killing thousands, and displacing over a million people from their homes, but it also highlights social justice, as well as environmental concerns. Environmentalists during this time issued the flood as a warning sign of the consequences that unchecked development can cause on when it came to deforestation in vulnerable areas. The key to having a successful operation is by having sustainable land management practices and investments in flood control infrastructure that will help prevent or drastically aid in avoiding disasters in the future. People who fought for social justice have highlighted the racial disparities exposed by the flood, showcasing the need for equality by providing equal help to all people not just a certain race. Relief efforts during this period were unfair and cruel because the government was more concerned about the white community instead of all people who were affected.

The flood allows to focus on future developments related to flood management and being able to plan for disasters in a timely manner. That will be crucial and critical in preventing future events that can cause devastating effects. Through the many years of advances in technology, there are much better practices in place to help mitigate such disasters than ever before, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen again. Technology uses equipment such as remote sensing which can help detect early warning signs when something seems off or is in the territory of causing destruction, which in turn can lead to using predictive modeling in order to better prepare for a disaster that is going to occur. There needs to be substantial urban planning when it comes to flooding because urban areas are at the most risk when it comes to flood zones. Additionally, having community engagement and more government involvement or funding that would be an essential step in developing resilient communities that can withstand natural disasters, while also being able to adapt in any circumstance.

Timeline

• April 15, 1927 – Flooding starts to occur and leaves and its tributaries can’t withstand anymore of the downpour, leading to widespread devastation with water covering miles of land and destroying everything in its path.
• April 16, 1927 – President Calvin Coolidge appoints Herbert Hoover to oversea the disaster caused by the flooding, while also bringing federal aid to the communities.
• April – May 1927 – Engineers from the army corp were called upon to help reinforce levee systems, as well as the national guard who was called upon to provide emergency services and rescue operations for flood victims, while also providing them with aid.
• May 1927 – Floodwaters began to recede, which showed the effects of the devastation it left behind, and the focus switched to helping people get aid, shelter or medical assistance to the effected communities.
• June 1927 – Repair efforts were on the way to help rebuild communities which was supported by federal funding assistance and many charitable organizations.
• Summer – Fall 1927 – Reconstruction of the communities would continue and a new levee system was being built to prevent future flooding with the help of a few renowned engineers.

Significance

The 1920s also known as “the roaring twenties” was a time where culture was changing, the economy was booming, jazz music was at its peak, companies created new products such as washing machines and radios, and women were become independent. Even though the 1920s is known as one of the best decades America has ever seen, it still came with many flaws. Social justice was none existent during this time except for a few brave civil rights activists who fought for African American rights. When the flood occurred it showcased just how poorly the African community was being treated, and were the last one’s to receive aid from the government causing hardships and isolation for people of color. Since this time we have come along way as a nation with everyone being equal, sure there needs to be some more changes, but this is a significant sign we are headed in the right direction for people of all races. Even though the economy was booming the late 1920s, it would take a hit because of the flooding that took place. Many farmers during this time lost their livelihood’s because their land and crops had been destroyed. This is significant because even during the most recent disasters, the economy will most likely take a hit because of the relief effort and the massive funding needed to help rebuild many communities that are effected by such floods. This leads us to environment awareness because before the flood occurred, cities were not taking proper steps to ensure land management which in turn lead to thousand of lives being lost and millions losing their homes. The flood helped show how important it is to be prepared, have a plan, improve technology and build better infrastructures to help prevent flooding. We see the significant role environmental awareness plays in our society today, even world leaders spend millions upon millions to help fight the battle of global warming, but more importantly we see the policies and changes America has made for it’s people to be united, as well as make drastic changes to help be prepared to fight or prevent natural disasters that might occur in the future.

Resources

Anon. The Mississippi Flood of 1927 -. https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/the-mississippi-flood-of-1927.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Mississippi River flood of 1927 | Description & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. 11. February. https://www.britannica.com/event/Mississippi-River-flood-of-1927.

National Guard. The Great Flood of 1927.

 Anon. A retreat fit for a president – Lesson 1.

NOLA.com. 2016. 1927 Mississippi River flood in rare vintage film. Video. YouTube. 15. March. 

Thornton, Mark. 2020. Katrina and the Great Flood of 1927. Mises Institute. 21. December. 

Anon. Arthur Morgan. Dayton Innovation Legacy.