African American Urbanization

In Chapter 2 of the text “Slavery, Emancipation, and Class formation in colonial and Early National New York” explores the centrality of slave labor and race to the development of class relations in colonial and early national New York City. In the 1600’s slave labor was noted as the central point to New York’s colonial economy and to the survival of European culture. The North colonial economy relied more heavily on slavery for free laborer than Manhattan. As a result of the slave era African American males and females became to central force and the foundation of New Yorkers ‘slave economy. Between 1600 and 1738 the slave population

Abraham Levitt bought acres of farmland in Long Island with a plan to build houses with his two sons, Alfred and William. The land was transformed into Levittown which would end up housing thousands of people, many were WW2 veterans. Since it was such a huge success he would go onto build two more in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This became the start of Suburbia, or affordable housing in communities which fueled the American dream as well as racism and segregation.

Just shortly after World War II had ended, a group of developers started to buy land on the outskirts of cities and used mass-production techniques to build modest and inexpensive tract houses in these areas. Many people could not afford the expensive living in the city so when news got out that affordable housing was up, families started moving out to the suburbs. The G.I. Bill had also financed low-cost mortgages for returning soldiers, which meant that often times it would have been cheaper to buy one of these houses then rent an apartment in the city. Living in the suburbs allowed families to live under one income meaning mothers could stay home and take care of the family. Most people also had cars which could get them from their home in the outskirts into the city everyday for work.

Due to the overcrowding in urban living and the growth in the assembly line, cars were becoming easier to buy, and the Interstate Highway Act allowed workers to live farther away from their place of work. After World War II FHA loans also became more readily accessible and helped stimulate the housing boom in the American suburbs. Families that had delayed having additional children could now live in an affordable home of their own with a yard, a car, a few family pets and whatever else their hearts desired. The suburbs offered people the independence to decide where they wanted to grow old and raise a family at. In these suburban neighborhoods home buyers were seeking exclusivity and relative seclusion, but along with this was affordability and popularity, no longer was there a sense of individuality but conformity and the concept of “keeping up with the Joneses”.

The body politic is a social construction rooted in whiteness that has been historically defined as a privilege as opposed to a right. The presence of non-white, minority groups in the U.S. created social anxieties that perpetuated the idea of citizenship and social membership as a right only exclusive to whites. In making membership to the body politic exclusive to only whites, non-white minorities become the objects of discriminatory policies created by white, powerful institutions. Public health, housing, and urban planning policies are mediums through which people of color are racialized and confined to segregated spaces away from the white community. Aside from governmental and local laws, discourse and language serve a political purpose

American demographics were drastically changed due to World War II. The most dramatic of these changes was the migration of African-Americans from the South to the North. This migration was larger than the “great migration” from World War I, which moved approximately one and a half million African-Americans from the South to the North between 1910 and 1940. In the 1940s, two million African-Americans migrated from the South to the North and three million would migrate in the twenty years following the war, resulting in a great demographic change within the United States. As Brinkley points out, this change would have taken place with or without the war, but due to industrial work opportunities presented due to the war, it accelerated the movement of African-Americans from the South into the North and the center of the country.

The 20th century cultures of many modern cities were forged in this period. For instance, in 1910, the Black population of Detroit was 6,000, by the start of the Great Depression in 1929; this figure had risen to 120,000. Other cities, such as Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, also experienced surges in their Black populations. At the same time, these cities were receiving hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Major industrial cities were places of numerous languages, an influx of peoples from mostly rural social and economic cultures, and staggeringly rapid change in the early decades of the 20th century.

Jobs were lost, prices were raised, and even after many government attempts, things were not getting better. However, during the war, jobs and wages increased to help wartime needs and the gap between the classes grew smaller. This brought the growth of a middle class. More and more Americans now “...were flush with funds for buying houses and otherwise establishing families” (Brands 69). Being able to buy homes, for many Americans, is a symbol for prosperity. During this time of economic stability for the majority middle class, families grew and these children, called Baby Boomers, grew up in this environment of hope. These children didn't have to face the hardship their parents did and were able to live better lives based on the current strength of the American economy. The rise in consumers meant the rise in demand, “Much of the economic activity revolved around the physical needs and wants of the Baby Boomers and their families” (Brands 71). With the hope of their parents and the will to strengthen the economy and social equality, this continued dream of success was carried on. The ideas of success greatly vary between the aforementioned modern take and the ideas of the

The post 1945 period was an interesting time to live in America. It is during this period that the American dream became a reality for most Americans. Years of intensive wartime sacrifice were over and gone was the poverty borne out of the Great Depression. The American dream was being redefined and here stood a chance to own a house in your own land, a car and a dog. Families that had put on hold getting another child finally put away their worries and the country experienced a post war baby boom. Despite all the positives, it was also during this period that racial fears were ripe. This coupled with the desire to vacate the decaying cities is what prompted a huge number of white Americans to move to the suburbia area.

Following World War II, the United States experienced a high birth rate, adding on average 4.24 million new babies to the population every year between 1946 and 1964. The generation of baby boomers resulted a strong post war economy. Americans thought confident that they would be able to support a larger number of children. The baby boom influenced the economy as a core demographic for products tied to their age from toys. After nine months after World War II ended, “the cry of the baby was heard across land.”

Among the American population, there was a desire for individual freedom following World War II. One being able to attain a large living space and accumulate material wealth became engrained in the American Dream. Many realized that the suburbs and living in planned subdivisions of land was an affordable option. This led to the growth of suburbia throughout the late 20th century.

When World War II ended America experienced a “baby boom”. Americans were quick to procreate. They felt the future held nothing but tranquility and prosperity. They were right. Between 1945 and 1960, the gross national product more than doubled from $200 billion to more than $500 billion1.

An article by Wilcox and Wolfinger, Then comes marriage? Religion, race, and marriage in urban America examine the role that religious participation and the norms and behaviors it promotes plays in encouraging marriage among new parents in Urban America. This is the first study to offer a quantitative analysis of the association between religion and marriage among urban mothers.

When travelers arrived in the metropolitan areas, they found that it was over crowded. Also, due to the large population, jobs went rapidly. This was just another pull back to the rustic community. The jobs travelers had left were becoming needed causing the pay to escalate. In addition to this, artists moving out of the towns could take these offers of employment that had been left behind.

The beginning of the twentieth century signaled a major transformation in the United States that brought about a new economy based on consumption and mass production. The onset of new technologies that were developed towards the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century had affected the entire U.S. populace, which ultimately led to a society marked by a whole new lifestyle centered around technology, music, and entertainment. These new technologies not only affected every facet of American life, but they had also helped to revolutionize the American advertising industry spurred by the creation of new mediums between the consumer society and the marketers. Through the creation of the radio, and later the television, the advertising agencies were able to play a very influential role in the mediation of commodities to consumers. However, the success of the