Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1924 to October 19, 1927: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Bessie Coleman: inspiration from the sky
    date April 26, 1926map Duval, Floridatags African-Americans, Women

    Bessie Coleman unbuckled her seatbelt, she needed to be prepared for tomorrow's big parachute jump over Jacksonville, she wanted to get used to not having it on. Willie had seen these maneuvers before – Bessie loved to push the envelope and keep everyone on the edge of their seats, and that included her manager Willie. Bessie didn't know if she quite trusted this new plane yet. She...

  2. Scopes Monkey Trial
    date May 7, 1925 to July 21, 1925map Rhea, Tennesseetags Scopes Monkey Trial, Scopes Trial

    On January 28th, 1925, the Tennessee Legislature passed the Butler Act prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. Shortly after the legalization of the act on May 7th, 1925, John Thomas Scopes, a science teacher at Dayton High School, willingly challenged the stance of such a regulation. Consequently, the Tennessee police arrested Scopes and charged him with the...

  3. Ma Ferguson against the Texas Ku Klux Klan
    date August 16, 1926map Austin, Texastags Ku Klux Klan, Texas Politics, Governor "Ma" Ferguson

    Summer 1926, Clemente Nicasio Idar, a Latino civil-rights activist in San Antonio, received a formal letter from James Edward Ferguson, the husband of then Governor Miriam Amanda “Ma” Ferguson, noting the importance of voting for the re-election of Governor Ferguson in the upcoming election later that year. The letter began, “I think that when the people understand the issue in this campaign...

  4. THE TEAPOT DOME SCANADAL
    date November 22, 1926map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Corruption, Scandal

    In 1923, one of the biggest political scandals of the first-half of the 20th Century became the subject of a court case in a District of Columbia courtroom. The news magazine, The Nation, wrote an article covering the details that led up to the scandal and it's aftermath. The Teapot Dome scandal took center stage in the United States with some very influential key players. U.S....

  5. Journey to Work: Hamilton Holt
    date 1924map Orange, Floridatags Winter Park, Rollins College, Florida, Orlando, Hamilton Holt

    Dr. Hamilton Holt, eighth president of Rollins College, passed away on April 26, 1951 at the age of 78. He died of a heart attack at night in his home, two years after he left his presidency at Rollins. During his earlier life, Holt worked for the Independent, which was a weekly magazine founded by his grandfather and other members of a Congregational Church. Eventually Hamilton Holt would...

  6. Rhapsody In Blue
    date January 4, 1924 to February 12, 1924map Richmond, New Yorktags Gershwin,Rhapsody in blue, jazz, classical music,, composers

       

    “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”- George Gershwin

     “Rhapsody in Blue” was a musical experiment morphed into masterpiece. Paul Whitman asked George Gershwin to write a jazz concerto piece mixing jazz and classical music to shock...

  7. Racial identity and the American Experience
    date May 7, 1928map Orange, Floridatags Segregation, Slavery, racial identity

    A person’s racial identity is the “global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.”[1] Segregation has been deeply rooted within American culture for the past two centuries. It has forced people to become more aware of their racial identity and moreover, it has been taken to the extent of violence as well as less extreme...

  8. What do you do when the Klan is after YOU?
    date October 1, 1928 to November 10, 1928map Jefferson, Alabamatags Ku Klux Klan, Politics

    Major Harwell Goodwin Davis is sitting at his desk and he hears the distinctive ring of the telephone. He picks up the receiver only to find out that the head of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama is the man at the other end. In the 1920s, anybody would listen to what this man had to say, even a man running for Congress.

    Davis was fast-rising politician that just finished a well-known court case...

  9. Jazz Boom!
    date January 1, 1929map Adams, Illinois, Orleans, Louisianatags Satchmo, Louis Armstrong, music, Swing Jazz, The Great Depression, WPA, Billie Holiday, Jazz

    The American country was in turmoil. People were starving for work and relief from the Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt was struggling to regain control of the plummeting economy and the people were worn. Any distraction offered to these hard working masses was widely accepted. Music, for many, was seen as brief respite from the difficulties of their daily life. Along with FDR’s fireside chats,...

  10. A worried mother writes her son’s boarding school
    date December 14, 1921 to December 20, 1921map Whatcom, Washingtontags Boarding Schools, Cultural Assimilation, Native Americans

    On December 14, 1921 a worried mother wrote a letter to the Superintendent at the Tulalip Indian Agency. In the letter she addressed her concern for her son Robert’s failing health, and asked the Superintendent to let Robert return home for the holiday season. Six days later, she received the Superintendent’s typed response denying her request. He stated that none of the school’s students...

  11. First Sitting President to Mention Civil Rights in the South
    date October 26, 1921map Jefferson, Alabamatags Race Relations, african americans

    On October 26, 1921 President Warren G. Harding visited Birmingham, Alabama.  The Magic City was celebrating its semi centennial - fifty years of being a city in the New South. It was a city without a typical Southern past.  Founded in 1871, Birmingham was a model city at this time – railroads, blast furnaces and steel mills marked its landscape.  It was a bustling industrial giant; and, it...

  12. Abner Jordan Shares His Life as a Slave
    date March, 1930 to 1930map Durham, North Carolinatags Slavery, plantation, Slave Living Conditions, Runaway Slaves, Slave Life

    Abner Jordan was interviewed by a member of the Work Projects Administration for a Federal Writer’ Project that was documenting North Carolina slave narratives. Jordan has never left North Carolina since he was born there and agreed to the interview despite being the old age of 95. He discussed his birth with hesitance, claiming that he was “bawn about 1832 in Staggsville, Marse Cameron’s...

  13. The Peak of Excellence
    date 1921map Orleans, Louisianatags Architecture, Economy

    This building serves as a symbol of the innovation that the Cotton Exchange implemented in its field of industry. The exterior of the building appears to be a typical 1921 classically inspired design. The architects, Favrot and Livaudais, who built several of the buildings in the area, designed the eight story steel framed structure. They believed that they created a new style of building because...

  14. The Education of the Native American Indian
    date May 26, 1930map Robeson, North Carolinatags Education, Native American, Pembroke

    On May 23, 1930, School Board Chairman W.H. Godwin told a graduating class “to have some ambition in life, to beware of bad company, obey the laws of the land and in so doing obey the laws of God. Learn to live and act in a way in which people will respect…remembering always that there is a place for skill.” The graduating class he addressed consisted of fifteen youths who attended an Indian...

  15. View of City from Richard Furman Hall, May 11, 1921
    date May 11, 1921map Greenville, South Carolinatags Furman Hall, Greenville, SC

    “Creation…Expansion…Development” These are just a few words that spring to mind when looking through the viewing glass of 1920 Greenville. From the high viewpoint outside of Richard Furman Hall of the Old Campus, one looks out at an expanding city, in the midst of the development and growth. In the immediate foreground, a lone smoke stack rises above the buildings, trees and fields surrounding...

  16. An Identity is Born
    date 1930map Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniatags Philadelphia, Philadelphia Cheesesteak, Philadelphia Culture

    On a hot, humid, July day in New Jersey, a man lay in his hospital bed, fighting to stay alive despite different heart problems, holding onto what the last moments of life he had left.  On July 22, Harry Olivieri passed away at the age of ninety. He would be remembered mostly by his family and friends, but few people would recognize his name outside that circle.  And yet,  this relatively unknown...

  17. When Will It Ever Change?
    date July 11, 1930map New York, New Yorktags Crime/Violence, African-Americans, Lynching

    News stories relating ‘death by accident,’ ‘murder by one of own’ or even an ‘unsolved mystery’ are just too far-fetched to explain the discovery of so many ‘Negro’ bodies found in the swamps or in uninhabited places in 1930.  It is inconceivable to think that the white tyrannical press believe that we are fooled by their fabrications about the missing southern ‘Negro’ workers,”...

  18. A Dinner for Harry Chandler
    date March 23, 1921map Los Angeles, Californiatags publisher, Los Angeles Times, Harry Chandler

    On the Friday evening of the 23rd of March 1921, Harry Chandler enjoyed a dinner in his honor. The event occurred in Los Angeles and included guest speakers H.W. O’Melveny (founder of what is now L.A.’s oldest law firm) and William Mulholland (head of the Department of Water and Power of Los Angeles). The dinner was to commemorate the accomplishments that Chandler had made thus far...

  19. Top Dog at the White House
    date March 5, 1921map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Politics, Arts/Leisure

    Though there were many presidential pets before him, Laddie Boy was the first celebrity White House pet.  Few people realize that Laddie Boy, President Warren G. Harding’s Airedale terrier, was the first to receive regular coverage from newspaper reporters. Presidential pets had to receive the same scrutiny as their distinguished masters.  Whether providing companionship or humanizing the President’s...

  20. Players Confess to Fixing 1919 World Series
    date September 29, 1920map Cook, Illinoistags Eddie Cicotte, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Black Sox Scandal, 1919 World Series, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox

    On September 29, 1920, the New York Times published an article entitled, “Eight White Sox Players are Indicted on Charge of Fixing 1919 World Series; Cicotte Got $10,000 and Jackson $5,000.” The 1919 World Series played between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds will forever be remember was one of the darkest moments in Major League Baseball and American Sports History. Baseball...

  21. Boston Suffragists Celebrate Their Efforts
    date September 22, 1920map Suffolk, Massachusettstags Women, suffrage, Laws

    On September 22, 1920, the women of Boston took to the streets for a “victory parade” to celebrate the “happy ending to a ‘long fight and a good fight’.” Four hundred strong, they wore dark clothing and hats; with the exception of 37 women, who were dressed in white clothing, wore blue streamers and carried the name of each state that had passed the Suffrage Amendment. Seven automobiles...

  22. From Front Porch to North Portico
    date June, 1920 to November, 1920map Marion, Ohiotags Women, Politics

    Even though most historians today view Warren G. Harding as one of the worst U.S. presidents, he was a very modern and innovative thinker even before becoming president.  His presidential campaign in 1920 is a prime example of this.  What historically has been called his “front porch” campaign captured the imagination of the public.  It was the first campaign to be heavily covered by the...

  23. Prohibition in the United States as a Social Experiment
    date 1920map Somerset, Mainetags Prohibition, Alcoholism

        Upon the beginning of the 20th century, many Americans, including various social groups introduced and supported the radical new idea of Prohibition. As made official through the Volstead Act and The Eighteenth Amendment, “The manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and...

  24. Lighting Up During the Roaring Twenties
    date 1920map New York, New Yorktags Del Rio, green campign, Father of Public Relation, Barney's, Edward Bernays, Smoking

    While you are flipping through the pages of your favorite magazine a mysterious woman in a white and green gown catches your eye. She has an air of power, intelligence, and strength. Something about her captivating expression renders you powerless. Her stance is one of both strength and seduction. You can do nothing but stand there and stare in awe of her glory as she takes a puff from her Lucky...

  25. Potential Danger for Prohibition
    date January 31, 1920map New York, New Yorktags Temperance Movement, women's rights, Prohibition, woman's suffrage

    In 1920 Linton Smith, also known as the Bishop of Hereford, wrote a controversial article on the Temperance Movement and Prohibition. Linton claimed that prohibition could possibly divide political parties on a, “Sex basis," meaning that female prohibition proponents could vote as a block against male opponents of prohibition.

    Strong drink was very popular in the lives of men during...