Jazz Opportunities

The Jazz Age: Prevailing Opportunities for African Americans During the Jazz Age, jazz music, primarily dominated by African Americans before 1920, began to gain popularity among whites and transformed into an important aspect of American culture. The increased popularity of jazz music led to a growing acceptance of African American culture and presented African Americans with the opportunity to gain social status. Music has always played an essential part in African American life and its aspects have influenced the creation of jazz. Jazz music, referred to as “jass” before the 1920s, is heavily rooted in African- American folk music(Axelrod 48). Although some slave owners did not allow their slaves to partake in work songs, many allowed it because it provided aid to production. Work songs displayed their use of call and response and synchronization. In addition, African Americans expressed their longing for freedom and their loyalty to their faith through spirituals. Spirituals were primarily vocal, and included improvised lyrics and harmonies. It is said that African music is closely related to …show more content…
The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group stationed in the South, terrorized African Americans, and as well as immigrants, Catholics, and Jews going into the 1920s. .Membership to the Ku Klux Klan drastically increased, ranging from three million to up to eight million participants (History.com Staff).The Jim Crow Laws was also primarily instituted in the southern states; however, it affected northern states as well. These laws were a series of anti-black laws that upheld that whites were superior to blacks in all aspects of society. Segregation was instituted in hotel, libraries, entertainment, stores, and virtually every aspect of public life. However, jazz allowed some African Americans to gain social standing in a much segregated