Biography On History

People or Events from the 1920's

Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867 in the house of the preacher and musician, William Carey Wright. His family moved from one place to another in his early childhood and finally settled in Madison, Wisconsin in 1878. In order to cover difficulty in monetary issues of his family, Wright started working for the dean of the University of Wisconsin's department of engineering during 18th year of age. However, his love for architecture forced him to leave Madison for Chicago in 1887. There he found work with two different firms, and selected to work under the partnership of Adler and Sullivan. He worked directly under Sullivan for six years. Wright left Sullivan and started working on the top floor of Schiller Building that was designed by Sullivan in Chicago in 1893. In 1898, he started working from home to keep a balance between family and work. He had completed about 50 projects by the year 1901. He was architecturally creative in the time from 1922 to 1934. During 1920s, Wright designed many houses in California utilizing precast “textile” concrete blocks. In 1923, he used textile block system on the John Storer house located in Hollywood, California. In the same year, Samuel Freeman house was built. He designed projects on his organic theory, i.e. designs have to be according to the nature. Wright died in 1959 (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, franklloydwright.org).

Margaret Higgins Sanger

Margaret Higgins Sanger was born in 1879. She was an American nurse, and was popular as a birth control activist and sex educator. Her mother was a devout Catholic. Sanger went to Claverack College and Hudson River Institute for studies. She started teaching in New Jersey to manage the monetary problems. At the age of 19, her mother died, and she left the teaching position in order to take care of her family. After that she received nurse’s training at the White Plains Hospital and the Manhattan Eye and Ear Clinic. She married William Sanger, and the couple was blessed with three children. However, the marriage ended in divorce. Sanger retained the Sanger’s surname for the whole life. In violation of Comstock Law of 1873, she started providing contraceptive information. She started The Women Rebel in 1914. She opened the America’s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. However, she was arrested and incarcerated in a house for nearly 30 days in violation of obscenity laws. Sanger was able to frame birth control as a kind of medical issue, and founded The American Birth Control League (ABCL) in 1921. She organized the Birth Control Conference in the same year in New York City. Moreover, she organized the International Birth Control Conference in the New York in 1925, World Population Conference in Geneva in the year 1927, and the International Contraceptive Conference in 1930. She became the honorary chairman of the Planned Parenthood Federation (Birth Control Federation of America) in 1942. She was also selected as the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in Bombay, India, in 1953. She wrote many books in the decade of 1920s having nationwide impact in promotion of the cause of birth control. Those books included Pivot of Civilization and Women, Morality, and Birth Control written in 1922, Woman and the New Race written in 1923, and Happiness in Marriage written in 1926 (Cullen-DuPont 228). Sanger died in 1966.

Red Scare

Red Scare is the fearful promotion of the probable promotion of communism or radical leftism. The first Red Scare started after the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917, and in the U.S. it was related to worker revolution as well as political radicalism. During World War I, nearly 13 million people served the war industries or armed forces, and after the end of war, these people were left without jobs. During that time, the American nation faced economic difficulties as well as increase in worker unrest. Among the major problems or strikes at the end of war was Seattle shipyard strike of 1919. On February 6, a general strike resulted, when 60,000 workers struck in the Seattle area. Although there was no violence or arrest, strikers were referred to as “Reds”, and they were charged with the incitation of revolution. That Seattle Strike became one of the most important national news. On February 10, the strike was ordered to be finished. After that strike, every strike for the next six months was considered as the “conspiracy against the government," "crimes against society," and "plots to establish communism." On April 28, a bomb plot was uncovered with Mayor Hansen, who was involved in stopping the Seattle strike, as an intended victim. On May Day, rallies were established throughout the country. On September 9, Boston police started a strike. At the end of September, nearly 365,000 steel workers refused to do their jobs. However, strikers were considered as “Reds” and unpatriotic. At that time, the nation was facing the fear, and there were a series of anarchist bombings. Expression of views became difficult at that time as civil freedom was disregarded. People started thinking that Bolshevik-style revolution is coming in America. However, by the summer of 1920, the fear went away, the Red Scare ended, and the nation started thinking about normal life (Burnett, law2.umkc.edu)

Works Cited

Cullen-DuPont, K. Encyclopedia of Women's History in America. Facts On File, Incorporated, 2009. Print.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. "Biography". franklloydwright. Frank Lloyd Wright, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015 < http://www.franklloydwright.org/about/FLLWBio.html>.
Burnett, P. "The Red Scare". franklloydwright. University of Missouri-Kansas City, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015 < http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/saccov/redscare.html >.