Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mr. Gillard
AP US History
7 March 2007
DBQ: ‘20s
The 1920s were a period of overall change between the traditional values and the
new ways. Many such changes led to growing tension between the old and the new.
One of the biggest changes in the 1920s was the beginning shift from traditional
fundamentalism to a modern fundamentalism. Before the ‘20s schools taught the Bible
and Christianity’s principles were stressed but in 1925 John Scopes, a substitute biology
teacher was put on trial for teaching the theory of evolution (Doc B). Though Scopes was
found guilty, it still began the gradual shift away from creationism in school and back
towards the separation of church and state. This led to tensions because it was a shift
away from religious education. That was unheard of in that day.
Another change that created tension between the old and new was the formation
of a second Klu Klux Klan (Doc C). Much like the first KKK, this organization was anti
Semite, antiNegro, and not antiImmigrant. Much tension was created because the
United States had almost completely open borders, freedom of religion and black were in
higher position of society. With another KKK around terror was being created once again
and it had taken quite a while for things to settle down after the first KKK had
disappeared.
Music was changing throughout the 1920s. Jazz music was becoming a bigger
part of society (Doc D). Being exclusively a black style many blacks played it. The
introduction of jazz music increased tension because it created a different attitude of
blacks. They no longer felt inferior to the white population; they had their own exclusive
music style and some people began to wonder, “What’s next?”
Women were always the ones who took care of the household and children (Doc
F). Women were always believed to be weaker than men in the mind and body, so when
women who wore short skirts and smoked tobacco; know as flappers began popping up
more and more, the WCTU especially was worried. If they began defiling their bodies,
what would become of their children? Women all over the country were beginning to take
on more and more of the habits of their male counterparts and were leaving behind their
original responsibilities. Republican motherhood was slowly disappearing in the United
States.
Not only were women abandoning their posts in the home, but also they were also
not staying with the same husband (Doc G). From the 1890s to the 1930s, the ratio of
marriages to divorces increased to one marriage to five divorces. Women were becoming
more independent and tensions increased because women were breaking away from their
‘protectors’ and soon would be seeking positions equal or greater than those of the men.
Many things changed in the 1920s and many of those changes created tensions
between the traditionalists and the modernist. Just because they were the “gay” ‘20s didn’t
mean that tension wasn’t there.