One of the objections raised by people within and outside the black community, is that Black History Month further segregates (Morgan Freeman made this comment among others). It's important that we recognize contributions of this vital community, but we need to be mindful that American history is Black history is U.S. history. They are blended like strands of a braid. Perhaps nowhere in history is this so keenly felt as in the American "Jazz Age" of the 1920s. The two are wedded.
The progressive movement was mirrored in music (Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Marian Anderson), literature (Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar), labor, religion, film (Paul Robeson), education (W.E.B. Dubois), morality, politics, art. Large cities: New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, St. Louis felt the breath of change more deeply, but there was virtually no place in the U.S. where ripples of it were not felt. Bearing this in mind, here are movies for classroom use that focus on the post-WWI Jazz Age; I recommend using them to explore African American history, too. Read more at
Literature Based Movies for 20th Century Economics and History Classes: The Jazz Age: Post WWI
