1. The 1920’s, often called the “Roaring 20’s” was a decade of cultural transformation, economic expansion and social change before the great depression.
The most defining characteristics were, Economic Boom and Consumerism. America experienced rapid industrial growth, mass production especially for things like automobiles.The Harlem Renaissance was also a big factor of the roaring twenties. The youtube video “The Harlem Renaissance's cultural explosion, in photographs” via pbs news. This period helped pave the way for black artists, writers and musicians in Harlem. There was also the prohibition from 1920-1933. The 18th amendment had banned alcohol which led to a rise in organized crime. Library of congress reads, “When Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920, thousands of legal saloons across the nation closed only to have hundreds of thousands of unregulated drinking establishments called speakeasies pop up. Although Prohibition was meant to ban alcohol and reduce crime, the illegal speakeasy became an American craze, creating a nation of law breakers and emboldening criminals to exploit the new racket. Unlike the previous legal saloons, speakeasies were not subject to pre-Prohibition controls and they welcomed women in as patrons. The massive profits generated by these illicit saloons went to gangsters and crime rates rose. As competition between speakeasies grew, so did the demand for live entertainment. Jazz music and the dances it inspired were the perfect fit for the era’s party mood.”(Thomas) There was also a shift for women finally when the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.
2. The Throughline podcast, Billie Holiday v. the United States, draws a direct connection between Prohibition’s end and the beginnings of the War on Drugs, which led to Holiday being targeted by federal authorities. There was the end of the prohibition in 1933 and the need for a new enemy. Harry Anslinger had a big role in this. The podcast says, “He wants to keep his department going, He invented the modern war on drugs as the pretext for his department. He built it on a strong hatred of people with addiction problems. Also he really hated african americans and latinos, his own senator said he should have to resign for using the ‘N” word so much, so Billie Holiday was everything he hated.” (“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts”) The podcast also says, “ Over the years billie struggled with alcohol and drug addictions, federal agents used that as an excuse to target her. They would threaten her if she sang the song they would arrest her.” (“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts”)
There was Billie Holiday and “Strange Fruit.” Holiday’s song Strange Fruit, which protested the lynching of Black Americans, made her a political target. The podcast says, “ The song is like a poem full of imagery, this metaphor of black bodies on the fruit of the lynching tree, and that the corruption of violence is not just at the fruit its at the root. It’s a very explicit difficult song but also presented in the figurative language of poetry. ‘Strange Fruit’ is a protest song.” and “Strange fruit is released and Billie Holiday makes an enemy of the government.” (“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts”) This case shines a light on how drug laws have historically been used to police marginalized communities.
3. The Supreme Court’s decision in Buck v. Bell in 1927 upheld the forced sterilization of people who were deemed “unfit to reproduce, reinforcing the racist and ableist ideologies of the eugenics movement. A woman Carrie Buck, who was a young woman institutionalized in Virginia, was labeled as feebleminded and was chosen as a test case for the state's sterilization law. When in reality, she had been institutionalized after being raped by her foster brother and becoming pregnant. The NPR podcast says, “She got taken in by a foster family that wanted to help her to a better life - or so it seemed. But they actually made her do all the work and didn't treat her very well. And she wasn't allowed to call her foster parents mother and father. And then eventually she's raped by a nephew of the family and is pregnant out of wedlock. At the time, that was a huge scandal in and of itself. And then when you add in the fact that if the facts came to light, their nephew could be prosecuted for a very serious crime. The foster family decided to have a feeblemindedness hearing for Carrie Buck and to testify that she was actually they said both epileptic and feebleminded - although, you know, total lies. She was not epileptic and never had a seizure. And everyone sort of agreed towards the end of her life that she had never been epileptic. She also wasn't feebleminded. She was doing well in school until her foster family took her out of school it appears because they wanted her to do more work around the house and to let her out to neighbors to do their housework as well. So this is this poor young woman, really nothing wrong with her physically or mentally, a victim of, you know, a terrible sexual assault. And there's a little hearing. She's declared feebleminded. And she gets sent off to the Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, whereas it happens her mother, who probably was also not feebleminded, was already an inmate.” (Fresh Air)
The supreme court ruled that the compulsory sterilization of the ‘unfit’ was constitutional. The NPR says, “He had this famous phrase that is reverberated over the generations - three generations of imbeciles is enough. And by that he meant Carrie Buck's mother, Carrie Buck and Carrie Buck's daughter.” (Fresh Air)
This ruling led to over 70,000 forced stabilizations in the US., disproportionately affecting poor, disabled and minority communities. The Supreme Court Ruling That Led to 70,000 Forced Sterilizations details how this precedent influenced later sterilization abuses. It was used as “means of controlling “undesirable populations, immigrants, people of color, poor people, unmarried mothers and people with disabilities.” (Arnell 31)
Works Cited:
Arnell, Alyssa. 1920’S Powerpoint. 2023. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Fresh Air. “The Supreme Court Ruling That Led to 70,000 Forced Sterilizations.” NPR, Fresh Air, 7 Mar. 2016, www.npr.org/transcripts/469478098.
PBS NewsHour. “The Harlem Renaissance’s Cultural Explosion, in Photographs.” YouTube, 22 July 2019, .
Thomas, Heather. “American Fads and Crazes: 1920s | Headlines and Heroes.” Blogs.loc.gov, Library of Congress Blogs, 24 Jan. 2023, blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2023/01/american-fads-and-crazes-1920s/.
“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts.” Apple Podcasts, podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-united-states-vs-billie-holiday/id1451109634?i=1000493988024.
The most defining characteristics were, Economic Boom and Consumerism. America experienced rapid industrial growth, mass production especially for things like automobiles.The Harlem Renaissance was also a big factor of the roaring twenties. The youtube video “The Harlem Renaissance's cultural explosion, in photographs” via pbs news. This period helped pave the way for black artists, writers and musicians in Harlem. There was also the prohibition from 1920-1933. The 18th amendment had banned alcohol which led to a rise in organized crime. Library of congress reads, “When Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920, thousands of legal saloons across the nation closed only to have hundreds of thousands of unregulated drinking establishments called speakeasies pop up. Although Prohibition was meant to ban alcohol and reduce crime, the illegal speakeasy became an American craze, creating a nation of law breakers and emboldening criminals to exploit the new racket. Unlike the previous legal saloons, speakeasies were not subject to pre-Prohibition controls and they welcomed women in as patrons. The massive profits generated by these illicit saloons went to gangsters and crime rates rose. As competition between speakeasies grew, so did the demand for live entertainment. Jazz music and the dances it inspired were the perfect fit for the era’s party mood.”(Thomas) There was also a shift for women finally when the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.
2. The Throughline podcast, Billie Holiday v. the United States, draws a direct connection between Prohibition’s end and the beginnings of the War on Drugs, which led to Holiday being targeted by federal authorities. There was the end of the prohibition in 1933 and the need for a new enemy. Harry Anslinger had a big role in this. The podcast says, “He wants to keep his department going, He invented the modern war on drugs as the pretext for his department. He built it on a strong hatred of people with addiction problems. Also he really hated african americans and latinos, his own senator said he should have to resign for using the ‘N” word so much, so Billie Holiday was everything he hated.” (“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts”) The podcast also says, “ Over the years billie struggled with alcohol and drug addictions, federal agents used that as an excuse to target her. They would threaten her if she sang the song they would arrest her.” (“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts”)
There was Billie Holiday and “Strange Fruit.” Holiday’s song Strange Fruit, which protested the lynching of Black Americans, made her a political target. The podcast says, “ The song is like a poem full of imagery, this metaphor of black bodies on the fruit of the lynching tree, and that the corruption of violence is not just at the fruit its at the root. It’s a very explicit difficult song but also presented in the figurative language of poetry. ‘Strange Fruit’ is a protest song.” and “Strange fruit is released and Billie Holiday makes an enemy of the government.” (“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts”) This case shines a light on how drug laws have historically been used to police marginalized communities.
3. The Supreme Court’s decision in Buck v. Bell in 1927 upheld the forced sterilization of people who were deemed “unfit to reproduce, reinforcing the racist and ableist ideologies of the eugenics movement. A woman Carrie Buck, who was a young woman institutionalized in Virginia, was labeled as feebleminded and was chosen as a test case for the state's sterilization law. When in reality, she had been institutionalized after being raped by her foster brother and becoming pregnant. The NPR podcast says, “She got taken in by a foster family that wanted to help her to a better life - or so it seemed. But they actually made her do all the work and didn't treat her very well. And she wasn't allowed to call her foster parents mother and father. And then eventually she's raped by a nephew of the family and is pregnant out of wedlock. At the time, that was a huge scandal in and of itself. And then when you add in the fact that if the facts came to light, their nephew could be prosecuted for a very serious crime. The foster family decided to have a feeblemindedness hearing for Carrie Buck and to testify that she was actually they said both epileptic and feebleminded - although, you know, total lies. She was not epileptic and never had a seizure. And everyone sort of agreed towards the end of her life that she had never been epileptic. She also wasn't feebleminded. She was doing well in school until her foster family took her out of school it appears because they wanted her to do more work around the house and to let her out to neighbors to do their housework as well. So this is this poor young woman, really nothing wrong with her physically or mentally, a victim of, you know, a terrible sexual assault. And there's a little hearing. She's declared feebleminded. And she gets sent off to the Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, whereas it happens her mother, who probably was also not feebleminded, was already an inmate.” (Fresh Air)
The supreme court ruled that the compulsory sterilization of the ‘unfit’ was constitutional. The NPR says, “He had this famous phrase that is reverberated over the generations - three generations of imbeciles is enough. And by that he meant Carrie Buck's mother, Carrie Buck and Carrie Buck's daughter.” (Fresh Air)
This ruling led to over 70,000 forced stabilizations in the US., disproportionately affecting poor, disabled and minority communities. The Supreme Court Ruling That Led to 70,000 Forced Sterilizations details how this precedent influenced later sterilization abuses. It was used as “means of controlling “undesirable populations, immigrants, people of color, poor people, unmarried mothers and people with disabilities.” (Arnell 31)
Works Cited:
Arnell, Alyssa. 1920’S Powerpoint. 2023. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Fresh Air. “The Supreme Court Ruling That Led to 70,000 Forced Sterilizations.” NPR, Fresh Air, 7 Mar. 2016, www.npr.org/transcripts/469478098.
PBS NewsHour. “The Harlem Renaissance’s Cultural Explosion, in Photographs.” YouTube, 22 July 2019, .
Thomas, Heather. “American Fads and Crazes: 1920s | Headlines and Heroes.” Blogs.loc.gov, Library of Congress Blogs, 24 Jan. 2023, blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2023/01/american-fads-and-crazes-1920s/.
“Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Apple Podcasts.” Apple Podcasts, podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-united-states-vs-billie-holiday/id1451109634?i=1000493988024.