America in the 1920s was a prosperous nation. Savings during the decade quadrupled. A “housing boom” enabled millions of Americans to own their own home. By 1924, about eleven million families were homeowners. Automobiles, electricity, radio, and mass advertising became increasingly influential in the lives of average Americans. Automobiles, once a luxury for rich Americans, now gave industrial workers and farmers much greater mobility. Electricity put an end to much of the backbreaking work in the American home. Electric refrigerators, irons, stoves, and washing machines eventually became “widespread. On the farm, electric tools such as electric saws, pumps, and grinders made farmers more productive. By 1922, radios were common sources of news and entertainment for American families. With improvements in transportation and communication came increases in the mass advertising industry. In addition to all of this, corporations increasingly offered workers fringe benefits and stock-sharing opportunities.
The overall prosperity of the United States in the 1920s overshadowed the chronic poverty of certain vulnerable populations. These were the same populations that had always been at risk in American history: children, older Americans, minorities, female-headed families, people with disabilities, and workers with unstable or low-paying jobs. According to James T. Patterson, author of America’s Struggle Against Poverty: 1900-1994, about one-fourth of the population in southern rural areas consisted of poor sharecroppers and tenant farmers.4 Over a third of these small farmers were African Americans.
