206 a short history of the united states
urban centers in the 1920 s. They became city folk and worked in facto-
ries and offices o r ran local service establishments. Their manner,
clothing, and style of living also reflected the many changes that had
taken place. The long, trailing dresses that women wore earlier in the
century slowly gave way to shorter skirts revealing more and more leg.
Large, plumed hats that required pins to keep them in place were no
longer fashionable and were discarded altogether or replaced by smaller,
more comfortable ones.
The most important exception to the generalization about the ur-
banization of the country was the South, which looked no “different
than it had at the end of Reconstruction in the 1870 s.” Southerners
planted and harvested crops as they had for de cades, and suffered chronic
agricultural depression. The grinding poverty inflicted on African-
Americans because of racial bigotry and discrimination sent 500 , 000
of them northward to industrial cities following World War I. They
became an essential part of the population migration that so character-
ized the 1920 s. Their number continued to rise during the de cade when
another million blacks deserted the South and headed north to fi nd
employment in factories and packing houses.
A postwar economic boom was one basic reason for this migration.
And the boom developed because of a revolution in technology. New
products were developed, new machines were invented, new methods
were devised to increase productivity, and new industries were founded,
in turn stimulating the nation’s economy. A good example of what was
happening was the invention of the “horse less carriage.” Automobiles
by the millions rolled off assembly lines in American factories in the
1920 s. Henry Ford applied the assembly-line technique in producing
his cars, and the Model T Ford became the favored means of transpor-
tation. By the end of this de cade the automobile industry provided
employment for nearly 4 million individuals.
The electrification of the nation also grew at a tremendous pace,
with nearly seventy percent of American homes receiving electric
power. The increase in the demand for power resulted in the expansion
of the industry, and it soon became the second most important eco-
nomic activity in the country. Consequently, the production of home
appliances, motorized machines, and electric turbines also expanded.
Radio transmitters and receivers, which had been invented prior to the