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- The 1920s, often referred to as the Roaring Twenties, was a decade of significant transformation for New York City. It was a time of economic prosperity, cultural change, and architectural innovation. This period saw the city emerge as a global center of finance, entertainment, and modern living.
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What New York City looked like in the Roaring Twenties with Spectacular Historical Photos. The 1920s, often referred to as the Roaring Twenties, was a decade of significant transformation for New York City. It was a time of economic prosperity, cultural change, and architectural innovation. This period saw the city emerge as a global center of ...
- Shaye Weaver
- Editor, Time Out New York
- The city’s most iconic skyscrapers stem from this era. The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building—the two gems in our world-famous skyline—started their construction in the 1920s.
- There were thousands of speakeasies in NYC during Prohibition. When we say “thousands” of speakeasies, we mean it. During Prohibition, when it was illegal to sell, transport and produce alcohol, there were anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone, according to the New-York Historical Society.
- Black New Yorkers created one of the biggest artistic movements in the world. After the Great Migration, when Black Americans left the South and moved to cities in the North, Midwest and West, which started in 1910, they flooded New York City with dance, music, art, literature, fashion, theater and politics, especially in Harlem.
- About 35% of the city’s 5.6 million residents were foreign-born. New York City has long been a city of immigrants. In the 1920s, a large portion of the population was comprised of people who had been born in another country.
May 29, 2023 · The 1920s in New York was an era of contradictions. While much of the population prospered at levels unseen before, many industrial workers suffered. Ironically, the Great (Black) Migration, encouraged by Northerners to correct a labor shortage, ended up creating a labor oversupply.
The "Roaring Twenties" positioned NYC at the vanguard of economic boom, cultural innovation, particularly the Harlem Renaissance, and substantial urban and infrastructural advancements, cementing its trajectory towards becoming a global metropolis.
- Flappers: The 'New Woman'
- Fashion, Fads and Film Stars
- The Jazz Age
- Prohibition Era
- Immigration and Racism in The 1920s
- Early Civil Rights Activism
- Sources
Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the “Roaring Twenties” is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said “unladylike” things, in addition to being more sexually “free” than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionab...
During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend—and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios. The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years late...
Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. (Some pundits called them “bedrooms on wheels.”) What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom and the flea hop were popular dances of the era. Jazz bands played at venues like the Savoy and the Cotton Club in N...
During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were curtailed. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors,” and at 12 a.m. on January 16, 1920, the federal Volstead Actclosed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on, it was illegal to sell...
Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. An anti-Communist “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist and anti-immigrant hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Eu...
During this decade, Black Americans sought stable employment, better living conditions and political participation. Many who migrated to the North found jobs in the automobile, steel, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries. But with more work came more exploitation. In 1925, civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph founded the first predominantly ...
What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably). Smithsonian Magazine. The Roaring Twenties. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The Roaring 20s. PBS: American Experience.
Culturally, New York City during this period was at the forefront of the Roaring Twenties. The Jazz Age, as it was known, saw Harlem continue to be a cultural epicenter, with the Harlem Renaissance reaching its peak. Jazz clubs, speakeasies, and theaters became hubs of artistic expression and social interaction.
May 20, 2024 · The 1920s, also known as the “Roaring Twenties,” was a remarkable era of economic growth and social change. It was a time when New York City experienced unprecedented progress and became a symbol of modernity.
