1920s

During the 1920s (often referred to as the Roaring Twenties), a surging economy in the United States created an era of mass consumerism, as Jazz-Age flappers flouted Prohibition laws and the Harlem Renaissance redefined arts and culture.

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Illustration by Eduardo Ramón Trejo. Photos from Getty Images.

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After enduring dark times, Americans were eager for a comeback.

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 destroyed Black Wall Street in Greenwood, Tulsa.

During Prohibition, gay nightlife and culture reached new heights—at least temporarily.

Young women with short hairstyles, cigarettes dangling from their painted lips, dancing to a live jazz band, explored new-found freedoms.

How Prohibition Created the Mafia

How Prohibition Created the Mafia

Starting in January 1920, the United States became a dry country. Prohibition banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol in an attempt to civilize unruly Americans (and some other reasons). The experiment had many unintended consequences, but most dangerously, it fostered the rise of organized crime and the American Mafia.

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1920s

These writers were part of the larger cultural movement centered in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood and offered complex portraits of Black life in America.

The Harlem Renaissance marked a golden age in Black culture.

One hundred years ago, a misdemeanor trial in the town of Dayton, Tennessee captured the world's attention as a high school teacher stood accused of violating a state law that prohibited teaching evolution.

The Scopes Trial, or the Scopes Monkey Trial, was a 1925 trial in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the teaching of evolution in schools.

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Look back at America’s surprising reaction to the end of Prohibition.

The Prohibition Era began in 1920 when the 18th Amendment outlawed liquor sales per the Volstead Act, but in 1932 the 21st Amendment ended Prohibition.

Young women with short hairstyles, cigarettes dangling from their painted lips, dancing to a live jazz band, explored new-found freedoms.

A burst of prosperity and freedom during the Prohibition era.

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Flappers were young, independent American women who became a cultural force in the 1920s as they challenged barriers to economic, political and sexual freedom.

1920s

Flashback: Scopes Monkey Trial

The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial was one of the most important legal battles of its time. Two of the greatest speakers of the era, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, faced off in a debate encompassing science, religion, and Constitutional rights.

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Historic images of Tulsa's Greenwood district reveal how the 1921 mob attack devastated the nation's Black cultural and economic mecca.

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It wasn’t gasoline—but moonshine—that fueled the growth of stock car racing in Appalachia and led to the rise of NASCAR.

Were airplanes used in the Tulsa Race Massacre? Explore eyewitness accounts, historical evidence and the debate over aerial attacks in 1921.

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 destroyed Black Wall Street in Greenwood, Tulsa.

The Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in U.S. history.

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