New Orleans 1920s

New Orleans 1920s: A Roaring Rendezvous of Jazz, Culture, and Contradictions

Introduction:

Step back in time with us to the captivating era of New Orleans in the 1920s. Forget everything you think you know about the "Roaring Twenties" – New Orleans’ experience was unique, a vibrant tapestry woven with threads of jazz music's birth, burgeoning racial tensions, economic shifts, and a distinctly Southern flavor. This post will delve deep into the social, cultural, and musical landscape of New Orleans during this transformative decade, painting a picture richer and more nuanced than any postcard could capture. We’ll explore the city's iconic landmarks, its vibrant nightlife, its complex racial dynamics, and the enduring legacy it left on the world. Prepare to be transported to a time of glittering excess and simmering unrest, a time that shaped the New Orleans we know today.


1. The Birthplace of Jazz: A Musical Revolution in New Orleans

The 1920s witnessed the explosion of jazz music, and New Orleans was undeniably its epicenter. This wasn't just a musical genre; it was a cultural phenomenon reflecting the city's melting pot of African American, European, and Caribbean influences. Storyville, the city's infamous red-light district, served as a breeding ground for jazz, with its saloons and brothels teeming with musicians innovating and improvising. While Storyville was officially shut down in 1917, its legacy continued to shape the burgeoning jazz scene. We’ll explore the key figures, the influential venues, and the unique musical styles that emerged from this era, highlighting the contributions of legendary musicians like Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. We'll examine the social context surrounding the music, discussing how it reflected and challenged the racial and social norms of the time.


2. A City of Contrasts: Race Relations and Social Dynamics in the 1920s

New Orleans in the 1920s was a city of stark contrasts. The era’s prosperity wasn't equally shared. While some experienced economic growth and social mobility, racial segregation remained deeply entrenched. Jim Crow laws rigidly enforced racial hierarchy, impacting every aspect of life, from education and housing to employment and social interactions. This section will explore the complex realities of race relations in New Orleans, examining the challenges faced by African Americans despite the cultural flourishing of jazz. We’ll look at the emergence of Black cultural institutions and the ongoing fight for equality amidst pervasive discrimination. The stories of individual resistance and resilience will be central to this exploration.


3. Architecture and Urban Development: Shaping the New Orleans Landscape

The architectural landscape of New Orleans in the 1920s reflected a blend of old and new. While the city retained its historic charm, modernization efforts were underway, subtly altering the urban fabric. We'll examine the construction of new buildings, the expansion of infrastructure, and the evolving architectural styles of the era. This section will feature images and descriptions of notable buildings constructed or significantly altered during this period, showcasing the city's architectural evolution. We will also explore the impact of these developments on different neighborhoods and communities.


4. Economy and Society: Prosperity and Poverty in the Jazz Age

The 1920s brought economic shifts to New Orleans, impacting various social classes differently. While some industries thrived, poverty remained a significant issue. We'll analyze the city's economy during this period, focusing on the key industries, the changing workforce, and the socioeconomic inequalities that persisted. This section will explore the lives of ordinary citizens – from the wealthy elite to the working class and the impoverished – offering a nuanced picture of the city’s diverse population and their experiences.


5. A Legacy of Influence: The Enduring Impact of the 1920s on New Orleans

The 1920s in New Orleans was a pivotal decade, leaving an indelible mark on the city’s cultural identity. The birth of jazz, the resilience of its people, and the architectural transformations all contributed to shaping the New Orleans we know today. This concluding section will reflect on the long-term impact of the 1920s, linking the events and trends of that era to the city's present-day character and cultural heritage.


Article Outline: New Orleans 1920s

I. Introduction: Hooking the reader and providing an overview of the article's content.

II. The Birthplace of Jazz: Exploring the rise of jazz music in New Orleans, its key figures, venues, and social context.

III. A City of Contrasts: Examining race relations, social dynamics, and the complexities of Jim Crow laws in New Orleans during the 1920s.

IV. Architecture and Urban Development: Analyzing the architectural changes and urban development projects that shaped the city's landscape.

V. Economy and Society: Exploring the economic shifts, social classes, and inequalities present in New Orleans during the 1920s.

VI. A Legacy of Influence: Reflecting on the enduring impact of the 1920s on New Orleans' culture and identity.

VII. Conclusion: Summarizing key takeaways and inviting readers to further explore the topic.


(Each of the above points would then be expanded upon in detail, as outlined above in the body of the article.)


FAQs:

1. What was the most significant event in New Orleans during the 1920s? The rise of jazz music as a global phenomenon, originating and flourishing in New Orleans, is arguably the most impactful.

2. How did the closing of Storyville impact the jazz scene? While initially a setback, it forced musicians to find new venues and ultimately contributed to jazz's broader diffusion.

3. What role did race play in New Orleans society during the 1920s? Racial segregation was deeply entrenched, creating stark inequalities despite the vibrant cultural contributions of African Americans.

4. Were there any significant architectural changes in New Orleans during the 1920s? Yes, although preserving historical character, modernizing efforts subtly reshaped the urban landscape.

5. How did the 1920s economy impact New Orleans' population? The economic changes brought prosperity to some but exacerbated poverty for others, widening the gap between social classes.

6. What were some of the popular social activities in New Orleans during the 1920s? Live music performances, especially jazz, were central, alongside dancing, social gatherings, and attending sporting events.

7. What is the lasting legacy of the 1920s on New Orleans' culture? The unique blend of musical innovation, cultural resilience, and architectural evolution continues to define New Orleans' character today.

8. Were there any prominent female figures in New Orleans during the 1920s? While less documented, many women contributed to the music scene and social life, defying the norms of the time. Further research is encouraged.

9. How can I learn more about New Orleans in the 1920s? Explore museums, archives, historical societies, and reputable books and documentaries focusing on this specific period.


Related Articles:

1. The Storyville Era: New Orleans' Infamous Red-Light District: A deep dive into the history and cultural significance of Storyville.
2. Louis Armstrong's Early Life and Musical Influences: An examination of Armstrong's formative years in New Orleans.
3. Jelly Roll Morton: The King of Jazz and New Orleans' Musical Legacy: A biography of Morton and his contributions to jazz.
4. Jim Crow Laws in New Orleans: A History of Segregation: An exploration of the impact of Jim Crow on the city's social structure.
5. African American Culture in New Orleans: A Celebration of Resilience: Showcasing the rich cultural contributions despite systemic oppression.
6. The Architecture of New Orleans: A Journey Through Time: An overview of New Orleans' architecture across various periods, including the 1920s.
7. The Economic History of New Orleans: From Colonial Times to Present Day: Placing the 1920s within a broader economic context.
8. New Orleans' Social Scene in the 1920s: A Glimpse into Everyday Life: A focus on the social activities and cultural norms of the era.
9. The Evolution of Jazz Music: From New Orleans to the World: Tracing jazz music's journey from its New Orleans roots to its global spread.


  new orleans 1920s: New Orleans, 1900 to 1920 Mary Lou Widmer, 2007-01-01 The ways in which city leaders of early 1900s New Orleans tamed nature are described in a richly illustrated history that also recounts what the city's inhabitants were wearing and driving, where they were living, and how they whiled away idle time.
  new orleans 1920s: Dixie Bohemia John Shelton Reed, 2012-09-17 In the years following World War I, the New Orleans French Quarter attracted artists and writers with its low rents, faded charm, and colorful street life. By the 1920s Jackson Square had become the center of a vibrant if short-lived bohemia. A young William Faulkner and his roommate William Spratling, an artist who taught at Tulane University, resided among the artful and crafty ones of the French Quarter. In Dixie Bohemia John Shelton Reed introduces Faulkner's circle of friends -- ranging from the distinguished Sherwood Anderson to a gender-bending Mardi Gras costume designer -- and brings to life the people and places of New Orleans in the Jazz Age. Reed begins with Faulkner and Spratling's self-published homage to their fellow bohemians, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles. The book contained 43 sketches of New Orleans artists, by Spratling, with captions and a short introduction by Faulkner. The title served as a rather obscure joke: Sherwood was not a Creole and neither were most of the people featured. But with Reed's commentary, these profiles serve as an entry into the world of artists and writers that dined on Decatur Street, attended masked balls, and blatantly ignored the Prohibition Act. These men and women also helped to establish New Orleans institutions such as the Double Dealer literary magazine, the Arts and Crafts Club, and Le Petit Theatre. But unlike most bohemias, the one in New Orleans existed as a whites-only affair. Though some of the bohemians were relatively progressive, and many employed African American material in their own work, few of them knew or cared about what was going on across town among the city's black intellectuals and artists. The positive developments from this French Quarter renaissance, however, attracted attention and visitors, inspiring the historic preservation and commercial revitalization that turned the area into a tourist destination. Predictably, this gentrification drove out many of the working artists and writers who had helped revive the area. As Reed points out, one resident who identified herself as an artist on the 1920 federal census gave her occupation in 1930 as saleslady, real estate, reflecting the decline of an active artistic class. A charming and insightful glimpse into an era, Dixie Bohemia describes the writers, artists, poseurs, and hangers-on in the New Orleans art scene of the 1920s and illuminates how this dazzling world faded as quickly as it began.
  new orleans 1920s: Unorganized Crime Louis Andrew Vyhnanek, 1998 Explores criminal activities in New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties.
  new orleans 1920s: Secrets of New Orleans Fred Van Lente, James Cambias, 2009-01-01 New Orleans in the 1920's is a city of many faces. The gaiety of Mardi Gras is juxtaposed with the rampant corruption that earned New Orleans the nickname The City That Care Forgot. The genteel decline of the French Quarter, the location of the city's original settlement, stands in contrast to the rich opulence of the Garden District, where the Americans later built their mansions. Voodoo and Catholicism exist peacefully side by side. And beneath it all, the face of the Mythos can sometimes be glimpsed .... This guidebook includes detailed chapters on: the history of New Orleans, the French Quarter and the greater city, and the bayous and coastal area. A chapter on voodoo includes guidelines for integrating it into Call of Cthulhu. New occupations unique to the Crescent City and the area are suggested, and five secret societies are covered. A scenario designed to acquaint investigators with most of New Orleans' areas completes the book.
  new orleans 1920s: Silk Stockings and Ballot Boxes Pamela Tyler, 2009-06-01 Silk Stockings and Ballot Boxes is a narrative history of organized, politically active white women in twentieth-century New Orleans. Viewing their involvement as a link between pre-1920s progressivism and 1960s feminism. Pamela Tyler tells how these upper- and middle-class women sought and exercised power at the state and local levels through lobbying, fund-raising, endorsements, watchdog activities, volunteer work, voting, and candidacy. Beginning with an overview of New Orleans politics in the early twentieth century, Tyler looks at the presuffrage political activities of New Orleans women and discusses the relatively dormant state of women's political life in New Orleans in the 1920s. From there she traces, in the careers of the city's women leaders, a shift away from humanitarian, social justice issues toward politics. Subsequent chapters focus on Hilda Phelps Hammond and the Louisiana Women's Committee's crusade against Huey Long's political machine in the 1930s, Martha Gilmore Robinson and the nonpartisan activities of the Woman Citizens' Union and the League of Women Voters in the 1930s and 1940s, and the partisanship and direct political influence of the Independent Women's Organization in the 1940s and 1950s. The final chapters consider Martha Gilmore Robinson's unsuccessful bid for a seat on the New Orleans city council in 1954 and the civil rights activities in the 1950s and 1960s of Urban League stalwart Rosa Freeman Keller, now judged to be the most effective white liberal of her time in New Orleans. Throughout, Tyler places her subjects and their stories in the context of such national trends and events as the Depression. World War II, McCarthyism, and the civil rightsmovement. She discusses, for example, the New Orleans League of Women Voters' purge of suspected Communist sympathizers in 1947-48 and the involvement of a coterie of women's organizations in community efforts during the public school integration crisis from 1959 to 1961. Tyler also discusses the insularity of New Orleans society, the limiting effects of race- and class-consciousness on many of her subjects, and the postwar decline in the domination by elites of the women's political scene in New Orleans. Though they considered themselves to be neither liberals nor feminists, the women Tyler portrays worked within existing social norms and political frameworks to challenge male hegemony in public life and embrace greater individual freedom and participation in government. Filled with previously untold, or only partially told, stories about some of Louisiana's most memorable political figures - female and male - Silk Stockings and Ballot Boxes will broaden our views on southern activism.
  new orleans 1920s: Murder in New Orleans Jeffrey S. Adler, 2019-08-02 New Orleans in the 1920s and 1930s was a deadly place. In 1925, the city’s homicide rate was six times that of New York City and twelve times that of Boston. Jeffrey S. Adler has explored every homicide recorded in New Orleans between 1925 and 1940—over two thousand in all—scouring police and autopsy reports, old interviews, and crumbling newspapers. More than simply quantifying these cases, Adler places them in larger contexts—legal, political, cultural, and demographic—and emerges with a tale of racism, urban violence, and vicious policing that has startling relevance for today. Murder in New Orleans shows that whites were convicted of homicide at far higher rates than blacks leading up to the mid-1920s. But by the end of the following decade, this pattern had reversed completely, despite an overall drop in municipal crime rates. The injustice of this sharp rise in arrests was compounded by increasingly brutal treatment of black subjects by the New Orleans police department. Adler explores other counterintuitive trends in violence, particularly how murder soared during the flush times of the Roaring Twenties, how it plummeted during the Great Depression, and how the vicious response to African American crime occurred even as such violence plunged in frequency—revealing that the city’s cycle of racial policing and punishment was connected less to actual patterns of wrongdoing than to the national enshrinement of Jim Crow. Rather than some hyperviolent outlier, this Louisiana city was a harbinger of the endemic racism at the center of today’s criminal justice state. Murder in New Orleans lays bare how decades-old crimes, and the racially motivated cruelty of the official response, have baleful resonance in the age of Black Lives Matter.
  new orleans 1920s: Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles William Spratling, William Faulkner, 1967-01-01 When Bill Faulkner came to New Orleans he was a skinny little guy, three years older than I, and was not taken very seriously except by a few of us. Thus the late William Spratling, popularly known as the Taxco Silver King, recalled the mid-1920's, when Faulkner, a young man fresh from Oxford, Mississippi, roomed with Spratling in Pirates Alley. By the time I would be up, say at seven, Bill would already be out on the little balcony over the garden tapping away on his portable, an invariable glass of alcohol-and-water at hand. A result of their friendship was a book depicting various people who were then engaged ... with the arts in New Orleans. It was based on firsthand observation. There were casual parties with wonderful conversation and with plenty of grand, or later to be grand, people. Some of the names, in addition to Sherwood Anderson, were Horace Liveright, Carl Van Doren, Carl Sandberg, John Dos Passos, Anita Loos, and Oliver La Farge. Spratling supplied sharp caricatures of the people and Faulkner contributed succinct captions and a Foreword. It was all sort of a private joke, but the four hundred copies were sold within a week and the original edition is now a collector's item. This book is a charming reminder of exciting days and talented people.
  new orleans 1920s: Sula Toni Morrison, 2002-04-05 From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner: Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. This brilliantly imagined novel brings us the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
  new orleans 1920s: Bourbon Street Richard Campanella, 2024-01-31 New Orleans is a city of many storied streets, but only one conjures up as much unbridled passion as it does fervent hatred, simultaneously polarizing the public while drawing millions of visitors a year. A fascinating investigation into the mile-long urban space that is Bourbon Street, Richard Campanella’s comprehensive cultural history spans from the street’s inception during the colonial period through three tumultuous centuries, arriving at the world-famous entertainment strip of today. Clearly written and carefully researched, Campanella’s book interweaves world events—from the Louisiana Purchase to World War II to Hurricane Katrina—with local and national characters, ranging from presidents to showgirls, to explain how Bourbon Street became an intriguing and singular artifact, uniquely informative of both New Orleans’s history and American society. While offering a captivating historical-geographical panorama of Bourbon Street, Campanella also presents a contemporary microview of the area, describing the population, architecture, and local economy, and shows how Bourbon Street operates on a typical night. The fate of these few blocks in the French Quarter is played out on a larger stage, however, as the internationally recognized brands that Bourbon Street merchants and the city of New Orleans strive to promote both clash with and complement each other. An epic narrative detailing the influence of politics, money, race, sex, organized crime, and tourism, Bourbon Street: A History ultimately demonstrates that one of the most well-known addresses in North America is more than the epicenter of Mardi Gras; it serves as a battleground for a fundamental dispute over cultural authenticity and commodification.
  new orleans 1920s: Shaking Up Prohibition in New Orleans Olive Leonhardt, Hilda Phelps Hammond, 2015-03-04 In the 1920s Prohibition was the law, but ignoring it was the norm, especially in New Orleans. While popular writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald invented partygoers who danced from one cocktail to the next, real denizens of the French Quarter imbibed their way across the city. Bringing to life the fiction of flappers with tastes beyond bathtub gin, Shaking Up Prohibition in New Orleans: Authentic Vintage Cocktails from A to Z serves up recipes from the era of the speakeasy. Originally assembled by Olive Leonhardt and Hilda Phelps Hammond around 1929, this delightful compendium applauds the city's irrepressible love for cocktails in the format of a classic alphabet book. Leonhardt, a noted artist, illustrated each letter of the alphabet, while Hammond provided cocktail recipes alongside tongue-in-cheek poems that jab at the dubious scenario of a dry New Orleans. A cultural snapshot of the Crescent City's resistance to Prohibition, this satirical, richly illustrated book brings to life the spirit and spirits of a jazz city in the Jazz Age. With an introduction on Prohibition-era New Orleans by historian John Magill and biographical profiles of Leonhardt and Hammond by editor Gay Leonhardt, readers can fully appreciate the setting and the personalities behind this vintage cocktail guide with a Big Easy bent. A perfect gift for lovers (and makers) of craft cocktails, arbiters of style, and celebrants of the Crescent City, Shaking Up Prohibition in New Orleans captures the essence of the Roaring Twenties.
  new orleans 1920s: Down and Out in New Orleans Peter J. Marina, 2017-09-05 In the years since Hurricane Katrina, the modern-day bohemians of New Orleans have found themselves forced to the edges of poverty by the new tourist economy. Modeling his work after George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, the sociologist and ethnographer Peter J. Marina explores this unfamiliar side of the gentrifying “new” New Orleans. In 1920s Paris, Orwell witnessed an influx of locals and outsiders seeking authenticity while struggling to live with bourgeois society. Marina finds a similar ambivalence in New Orleans: a tourism-dependent city whose commerce caters largely to well-heeled natives and upper-class travelers, where many creative locals and wanderers have remained outsiders, willingly or otherwise. Marina does not merely interview these spirited urban misfits—he lives among them. Down and Out in New Orleans follows their journeys, depicting the lives of those on the social fringes of a resilient city. Marina finds work as a bartender, street mime, and poet. Along the way, he visits homeless shelters, squats in abandoned buildings, attends rituals in cemeteries, and befriends writers, musicians, occultists, and artists as they look for creative solutions to the contradictory demands of late capitalism. Marina does for New Orleans what Orwell did for Paris a century earlier, providing a rigorous, unrelenting, and original glimpse into the subcultures of a city in rapid change.
  new orleans 1920s: The Men of Mobtown Adam Malka, 2018-03-22 What if racialized mass incarceration is not a perversion of our criminal justice system's liberal ideals, but rather a natural conclusion? Adam Malka raises this disturbing possibility through a gripping look at the origins of modern policing in the influential hub of Baltimore during and after slavery's final decades. He argues that America's new professional police forces and prisons were developed to expand, not curb, the reach of white vigilantes, and are best understood as a uniformed wing of the gangs that controlled free black people by branding them—and treating them—as criminals. The post–Civil War triumph of liberal ideals thus also marked a triumph of an institutionalized belief in black criminality. Mass incarceration may be a recent phenomenon, but the problems that undergird the new Jim Crow are very, very old. As Malka makes clear, a real reckoning with this national calamity requires not easy reforms but a deeper, more radical effort to overcome the racial legacies encoded into the very DNA of our police institutions.
  new orleans 1920s: The New Orleans Guidebook Fred Van Lente, 1997-07
  new orleans 1920s: New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming Herlin Riley, Johnny Vidacovich, 1995 This book is based on performances and transcriptions from the DCI music videos Herlin Riley: Ragtime & beyond, and Johnny Vidacovich: Street beats modern applications. Additional interviews and essays on: Baby Dodds, Vernel Fournier, Ed Blackwell, James Black and Freddie Kohlman, Smokey Johnson, David Lee, and bassist Bill Huntington.
  new orleans 1920s: New Orleans Louise McKinney, 2006 With its antebellum mansions, above-ground cemeteries, and ghostly moss-bearded oaks, New Orleans is certainly the most un-American of american cities, creating its own laid-back Big Easy attitude from the customs of the people who founded it: French and Spanish colonists, gens de couleur libres, NOrthern adventurers, riverboat men, pirates, and Cajuns. From this eclectic mix of influences has evolved a distinctive Creole culture, expressed in language, architecture, and cuisine--Back cover.
  new orleans 1920s: Empire of Sin Gary Krist, 2014-10-28 From bestselling author Gary Krist, a vibrant and immersive account of New Orleans’ other civil war, at a time when commercialized vice, jazz culture, and endemic crime defined the battlegrounds of the Crescent City Empire of Sin re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans’ thirty-years war against itself, pitting the city’s elite “better half” against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city's Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides. Surrounding him are the stories of flamboyant prostitutes, crusading moral reformers, dissolute jazzmen, ruthless Mafiosi, venal politicians, and one extremely violent serial killer, all battling for primacy in a wild and wicked city unlike any other in the world.
  new orleans 1920s: The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960 Lena McPhatter Gore, 1997-05-28 A comprehensive directory of more than 600 entries, this detailed ready reference features professional, semi-professional, and academic stage organizations and theatres that have been in the forefront in pioneering most of the advances that African Americans have made in the theatre. It includes groups from the early 19th century to the dawn of the revolutionary Black theatre movement of the 1960s. It is an effort to bring together into one volume information that has hitherto been scattered throughout a number of different sources. The volume begins with an illuminating foreword by Errol Hill, a noted critic, playwright, scholar and Willard Professor of Drama Emeritus, Dartmouth College. A comprehensive directory of more than 600 entries, this detailed ready reference features professional, semi-professional, and academic stage organizations and theatres that have been in the forefront in pioneering most of the advances that African Americans have made in the theatre. It includes groups from the early 19th century to the dawn of the revolutionary Black theatre movement of the 1960s. It is an effort to bring together into one volume information that has hitherto been scattered throughout a number of different sources. The volume begins with an illuminating foreword by Errol Hill, a noted critic, playwright, scholar and Willard Professor of Drama Emeritus, Dartmouth College. Included in the volume are the earliest organizations that existed before the Civil War, Black minstrel troupes, pioneer musical show companies, selected vaudeville and road show troupes, professional theatrical associations, booking agencies, stock companies, significant amateur and little theatre groups, Black units of the WPA Federal Theatre, and semi-professional groups in Harlem after the Federal Theatre. The A-Z entries are supplemented with a classified appendix that also includes additional organizations not listed in the main directory, a bibliography, and three indexes for shows, showpeople, and general subjects. Cross referencing makes related information easy to find.
  new orleans 1920s: History and Tradition of Jazz Thomas E. Larson, Tom Larson, 2002
  new orleans 1920s: FABULOUS NEW ORLEANS Lyle Saxon, 1989-01-31 This classic reprint evokes a city steeped in the traditions and idiosyncrasies of three cultures--French, Spanish, and American. Known widely as one of Louisiana's great writers, Lyle Saxon documented many of the quirks and mysteries of New Orleans. His narratives include a vivid picture of Mardi Gras as seen through the eyes of a young boy, a brief history of the city, and accounts of strange and remarkable events, including the great Mississippi flood of 1927, the year of the great plague, and a voodoo cult ceremony. By any standards, New Orleans is a unique city, and Saxon depicts it unadorned, with all its flaws and glories.
  new orleans 1920s: American Culture in the 1920s Susan Currell, 2009-03-21 Introduces the major cultural and intellectual trends of the decade by introducing and assessing the development of the primary cultural forms: namely, Fiction, Poetry and Drama, Music and Performance, Film and Radio, and Visual Art and Design. A fifth chapter focuses on the unprecedented rise in the 1920s of Leisure and Consumption.
  new orleans 1920s: From the Banana Zones to the Big Easy Glenn A. Chambers, 2019-08-14 From the Banana Zones to the Big Easy focuses on the immigration of West Indians and Central Americans—particularly those of British West Indian descent from the Caribbean coastal areas—to New Orleans from the turn of the twentieth century to the start of World War II. Glenn A. Chambers discerns the methods by which these individuals of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds integrated into New Orleans society and negotiated their distinct historical and ethnoracial identities in the Jim Crow South. Throughout this study, Chambers explores two central questions: What did it mean to be “West Indian” within a context in which the persons migrating—or their parents, in some cases—were not born in the West Indies? And how did Central Americans grapple with this “West Indian” cultural identity when their political identity (citizenship) was Honduran, Costa Rican, or Panamanian? Chambers maintains that a distinct West Indian culture did not emerge in New Orleans. Rather, newly arrived West Indian practices intertwined with existing African American traditions, a process intensified in New Orleans’s established climate of incorporating, and often absorbing, new peoples and cultures. The West Indian population in early twentieth-century New Orleans was truly transnational, multinational, multilingual, diasporic, and constantly evolving. These newcomers to New Orleans remained conscious of their West Indian roots but were not bound by them. Their experiences spanned nations but were not politically internationalist, as was the case with the larger West Indian communities in the northeastern United States. The ways in which individuals and families transitioned into U.S. constructions of race were at times the result of conscious decisions. In other instances, race was determined by the realities of everyday life in the Jim Crow South, in which whiteness translated into access and opportunity and all other ethnicities were relegated to a subordinate position. Many West Indians and Central Americans impacted by this system learned to navigate it in such a way that their ethnic and national identity all but disappeared from the historical record. Through an analysis of arrest records, ships’ passenger records, foreign consulate reports, draft registrations, declarations of intent to apply for citizenship, naturalization applications, and city directories, Chambers recovers the lives of a small but significant population of immigrants who challenged the racial status quo.
  new orleans 1920s: The Last Madam Chris Wiltz, 2014-07-01 The “raunchy, hilarious, and thrilling” true story of the incomparable Norma Wallace, proprietor of a notorious 1920s New Orleans brothel (NPR). Norma Wallace grew up fast. In 1916, at fifteen years old, she went to work as a streetwalker in New Orleans’ French Quarter. By the 1920s, she was a “landlady”—or, more precisely, the madam of what became one of the city’s most lavish brothels. It was frequented by politicians, movie stars, gangsters, and even the notoriously corrupt police force. But Wallace acquired more than just repeat customers. There were friends, lovers . . . and also enemies. Wallace’s romantic interests ran the gamut from a bootlegger who shot her during a fight to a famed bandleader to the boy next door, thirty-nine years her junior, who became her fifth husband. She knew all of the Crescent City’s dirty little secrets, and used them to protect her own interests—she never got so much as a traffic ticket, until the early 1960s, when District Attorney Jim Garrison decided to clean up vice and corruption. After a jail stay, Wallace went legitimate as successfully as she had gone criminal, with a lucrative restaurant business—but it was love that would undo her in the end. The Last Madam combines original research with Wallace’s personal memoirs, bringing to life an era in New Orleans history rife with charm and decadence, resurrecting “a secret world, like those uncovered by Luc Sante and James Ellroy” (Publishers Weekly). It reveals the colorful, unforgettable woman who reigned as an underworld queen and “capture[s] perfectly the essential, earthy complexity of the most fascinating city on this continent” (Robert Olen Butler).
  new orleans 1920s: Notable Black American Women Jessie Carney Smith, Shirelle Phelps, 1992 Arranged alphabetically from Alice of Dunk's Ferry to Jean Childs Young, this volume profiles 312 Black American women who have achieved national or international prominence.
  new orleans 1920s: Apex Blues Cecile J. Picou, 2024-03-28 Apex Blues chronicles the extraordinary lives and musical legacies of two generation-spanning Jazz clarinet virtuosos: Jimmie Noone Sr. and his son Jimmy Noone Jr. Jimmie Noone Sr. rose to fame in the 1910s New Orleans French Quarter jazz scene, forging his iconic ‘Sweet Lorraine’ style during the dawn of the genre. Later, his son Jimmy initially made waves as a San Diego local musician before feeling called to follow in his father’s footsteps. He set out to revive his dad’s New Orleans Jazz sound and mentorship. As the author witnesses firsthand, Jimmy exceeds even his father’s musical heights through raw talent and relentless dedication to his craft. In his final days, he completes his quest: to honor Jazz history by propelling his father’s sound into the future. Jimmy cements the Noone legacy, ensuring the nation remembers what sublime Jazz can be. Spanning generations, geographies, and evolutions of musical style, Apex Blues captures how two clarinet greats shepherded Jazz from regional obscurity into an acclaimed American art form.
  new orleans 1920s: Duke Ellington Stephanie Stein Crease, 2009-02-01 Duke Ellington, one of the most influential figures in American music, comes alive in this comprehensive biography with engaging activities. Ellington was an accomplished and influential jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and cultural diplomat. Activities include creating a ragtime rhythm, making a washtub bass, writing song lyrics, thinking like an arranger, and learning to dance the Lindy Hop. It explores Ellington's life and career along with many topics related to African American history, including the Harlem Renaissance. Kids will learn about the musical evolution of jazz that coincided with Ellington's long life from ragtime through the big band era on up to the 1970s. Kids learn how music technology has changed over the years from piano rolls to record albums through CDs, television, and portable music devices. The extensive resources include a time line, glossary, list of Ellington's greatest recordings, related books, Web sites, and DVDs for further study.
  new orleans 1920s: Louisiana History Florence M. Jumonville, 2002-08-30 From the accounts of 18th-century travelers to the interpretations of 21st-century historians, Jumonville lists more than 6,800 books, chapters, articles, theses, dissertations, and government documents that describe the rich history of America's 18th state. Here are references to sources on the Louisiana Purchase, the Battle of New Orleans, Carnival, and Cajuns. Less-explored topics such as the rebellion of 1768, the changing roles of women, and civic development are also covered. It is a sweeping guide to the publications that best illuminate the land, the people, and the multifaceted history of the Pelican State. Arranged according to discipline and time period, chapters cover such topics as the environment, the Civil War and Reconstruction, social and cultural history, the people of Louisiana, local, parish, and sectional histories, and New Orleans. It also lists major historical sites and repositories of primary materials. As the only comprehensive bibliography of the secondary sources about the state, ^ILouisiana History^R is an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers.
  new orleans 1920s: America in the 1920s Edmund Lindop, 2009-09-01 Presents the social, political, economic, and technological changes in the United States during the nineteen twenties.
  new orleans 1920s: Madame Vieux Carre Scott S. Ellis, 2010 Celebrated in media and myth, New Orleans's French Quarter (Vieux Carr(r)) was the original settlement of what became the city of New Orleans. In Madame Vieux Carr(r), Scott S. Ellis presents the social and political history of this famous district as it evolved from 1900 through the beginning of the twenty-first century. From the immigrants of the 1910s, to the preservationists of the 1930s, to the nightclub workers and owners of the 1950s and the urban revivalists of the 1990s, Madame Vieux Carr(r) examines the many different people who have called the Quarter home, who have defined its character, and who have fought to keep it from being overwhelmed by tourism's neon and kitsch. The old French village took on different roles--bastion of the French Creoles, Italian immigrant slum, honky-tonk enclave, literary incubator, working-class community, and tourist playground. The Quarter has been a place of refuge for various groups before they became mainstream Americans. Although the Vieux Carr(r) has been marketed as a free-wheeling, boozy tourist concept, it exists on many levels for many groups, some with competing agendas. Madame Vieux Carr(r) looks, with unromanticized frankness, at these groups, their intentions, and the future of the South's most historic and famous neighborhood. The author, a former Quarter resident, combines five years of research, personal experience, and unique interviews to weave an eminently readable history of one of America's favorite neig
  new orleans 1920s: The Creation of Jazz Burton William Peretti, 1994 As musicians, listeners, and scholars have sensed for many years, the story of jazz is more than a history of the music. Burton Peretti presents a fascinating account of how the racial and cultural dynamics of American cities created the music, life, and business that was jazz. From its origins in the jook joints of sharecroppers and the streets and dance halls of 1890s New Orleans, through its later metamorphoses in the cities of the North, Peretti charts the life of jazz culture to the eve of bebop and World War II. In the course of those fifty years, jazz was the story of players who made the transition from childhood spasm bands to Carnegie Hall and worldwide touring and fame. It became the music of the Twenties, a decade of Prohibition, of adolescent discontent, of Harlem pride, and of Americans hoping to preserve cultural traditions in an urban, commercial age. And jazz was where black and white musicians performed together, as uneasy partners, in the big bands of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. Blacks fought back by using jazz, states Peretti, with its unique cultural and intellectual properties, to prove, assess, and evade the dynamic of minstrelsy. Drawing on newspaper reports of the times and on the firsthand testimony of more than seventy prominent musicians and singers (among them Benny Carter, Bud Freeman, Kid Ory, and Mary Lou Williams), The Creation of Jazz is the first comprehensive analysis of the role of early jazz in American social history.
  new orleans 1920s: Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: A-J Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman, 2004 From the music of Louis Armstrong to the portraits by Beauford Delaney, the writings of Langston Hughes to the debut of the musical Show Boat, the Harlem Renaissance is one of the most significant developments in African-American history in the twentieth century. The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, in two-volumes and over 635 entries, is the first comprehensive compilation of information on all aspects of this creative, dynamic period. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclopedia of Harlem Renaissance website.
  new orleans 1920s: Krauss: The New Orleans Value Store Edward J. Branley, 2017 Gumbo -- Shopping on Canal -- Krauss Department Store -- Treme, Storyville and Creoles -- Heymann at the helm -- Krauss at war -- Expansion and boom -- Fabrics, foundations and food -- Canal Street versus shopping malls -- The end of an era.
  new orleans 1920s: Jazz: the Basics Christopher Meeder, 2012-08-06 Jazz: The Basics gives a brief introduction to a century of jazz, ideal for students and interested listeners who want to learn more about this important musical style. The heart of the book traces jazz's growth from its folk origins through early recordings and New Orleans stars; the big-band and swing era; bebop; cool jazz and third stream; avant-garde; jazz-rock; and the neo-conservative movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Key figures from each era including: Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis are highlighted along with classic works. The book concludes with a list of the 100 essential recordings to own, along with a timeline and glossary. Jazz: The Basics serves as an excellent introduction to the players, the music, and the styles that make jazz 'America's classical music.'
  new orleans 1920s: Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, 2009 The Harlem Renaissance is the best known and most widely studied cultural movement in African American history. Now, in Harlem Renaissance Lives, esteemed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham have selected 300 key biographical entries culled from the eight-volume African American National Biography, providing an authoritative who's who of this seminal period. Here readers will find engagingly written and authoritative articles on notable African Americans who made significant contributions to literature, drama, music, visual art, or dance, including such central figures as poet Langston Hughes, novelist Zora Neale Hurston, aviator Bessie Coleman, blues singer Ma Rainey, artist Romare Bearden, dancer Josephine Baker, jazzman Louis Armstrong, and the intellectual giant W. E. B. Du Bois. Also included are biographies of people like the Scottsboro Boys, who were not active within the movement but who nonetheless profoundly affected the artistic and political statements that came from Harlem Renaissance figures. The volume will also feature a preface by the editors, an introductory essay by historian Cary D. Wintz, and 75 illustrations.
  new orleans 1920s: Irish Immigrants, 1840-1920 Megan O'Hara, 2002 Discusses the reasons Irish people left their homeland to come to America, the experiences immigrants had in the new country, and the contributions this cultural group made to American society. Includes sidebars and activities.
  new orleans 1920s: The History of Jazz Ted Gioia, 2011-05-09 Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic--acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history--Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's advocacy of modern jazz in the 1940s, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the current day. Gioia provides the reader with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. He also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the reader to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after hours spots of corrupt Kansas city, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made. And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born.
  new orleans 1920s: A Trumpet Around the Corner Samuel Charters, 2024-01-15 From the first raucous chorus to the aftermath of Katrina, the saga of the Big Easy's signature music
  new orleans 1920s: The Companion to Southern Literature Joseph M. Flora, Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan, 2001-11-01 Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Selected as an Outstanding Reference Source by the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association There are many anthologies of southern literature, but this is the first companion. Neither a survey of masterpieces nor a biographical sourcebook, The Companion to Southern Literature treats every conceivable topic found in southern writing from the pre-Columbian era to the present, referencing specific works of all periods and genres. Top scholars in their fields offer original definitions and examples of the concepts they know best, identifying the themes, burning issues, historical personalities, beloved icons, and common or uncommon stereotypes that have shaped the most significant regional literature in memory. Read the copious offerings straight through in alphabetical order (Ancestor Worship, Blue-Collar Literature, Caves) or skip randomly at whim (Guilt, The Grotesque, William Jefferson Clinton). Whatever approach you take, The Companion’s authority, scope, and variety in tone and interpretation will prove a boon and a delight. Explored here are literary embodiments of the Old South, New South, Solid South, Savage South, Lazy South, and “Sahara of the Bozart.” As up-to-date as grit lit, K Mart fiction, and postmodernism, and as old-fashioned as Puritanism, mules, and the tall tale, these five hundred entries span a reach from Lady to Lesbian Literature. The volume includes an overview of every southern state’s belletristic heritage while making it clear that the southern mind extends beyond geographical boundaries to form an essential component of the American psyche. The South’s lavishly rich literature provides the best means of understanding the region’s deepest nature, and The Companion to Southern Literature will be an invaluable tool for those who take on that exciting challenge. Description of Contents 500 lively, succinct articles on topics ranging from Abolition to Yoknapatawpha 250 contributors, including scholars, writers, and poets 2 tables of contents — alphabetical and subject — and a complete index A separate bibliography for most entries
  new orleans 1920s: Louis Armstrong, in His Own Words Louis Armstrong, 2001 Louis Armstrong has been the subject of countless biographies and music histories. Yet scant attention has been paid to the remarkable array of writings he left behind. Louis Armstrong: In His Own Words introduces readers to a little-known facet of this master trumpeter, bandleader, and entertainer. Based on extensive research through the Armstrong archives, this important volume includes some of his earliest letters, personal correspondence, autobiographical writings, magazine articles, and essays.
  new orleans 1920s: Cuttin' Up Court Carney, 2009 Reveals how the new technologies of mass culture--the phonograph, radio, and film--played a key role in accelerating the diffusion of jazz as a modernist art form across the nation's racial divide. Focuses on four cities--New Orleans, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles--to show how each city produced a distinctive style of jazz.
  new orleans 1920s: Just Remember This Colin Bratkovich, 2014-05-08 I have completed this manuscript Just Remember This, or as American Pop Singers 1900-1950+, about music before the 1950s in America. It perhaps offers knowledge and insights not previously found in other musical reference books. I have moreover been working on this book very meticulously over the past twelve-plus years. It started as a bit of fun and gradually became serious as I began to listen along with the vocalists of popular music, of the era before 1950, essentially just before the dawn of rock and roll. If you can call it that! Indeed genre and labeling of American music started here, and then from everywhere. While the old adage of always starting from somewhere could be noted in every century, the 1900s had produced the technology. Understanding the necessity, more so, finds a curiosity on the part of a general public hungry for entertainment, despite 6 day work weeks, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.