African Americans From The Pacific Northwest Essay

For the United States of America, a large portion of the twentieth century, 1910 to 1970, was characterized by African American movement from the rural South to the urban, industrial North. During this time, known as the Great Migration, millions of southern blacks moved to the North in hopes of a better future, away from the Jim Crow South where they were under constant threat by white supremacist values and endured an unequal treatment from whites even after Emancipation. However, the principal motive for the blacks of the rural South to leave their homes, families, and friends for the urban North was economic; regional wage differences, limited job opportunities in the South compared to the

Before WWI, most black people had been dehumanized, effectively stripping them of the feeling to vote and were bereft from protection from police. “I am in the darkness of the south and I am trying my best to get out,” an inspirational migrant from Alabama wrote to the Chicago Defender. New opportunities for the urban part of the North blos-somed when the war reared its ugly head. The American industrial economy grew vigorously, and as existing European immigrants and white women were unable to meet demand, northern businesses leaned to black southerners to fill their place. When the word of higher wages and ameliorated working conditions spread around, northern businesses were met with positive feed-back as black men, in significant numbers came flocking, thus sprouting a social movement out of urban misery. The War, unknowingly, set the par for work for African Americans and the North became a liberating meadow for all those who sought equality and wanted to avoid the ‘racist menace’.

On the home front, the U.S. government desperately needed workers to fill newly created defense jobs and factory positions left open by soldiers who had left to fight. More than two million African Americans went to work for defense plants, and another two million joined the federal civil service. As these new opportunities drew more and more African Americans into cities, they opened the way for economic mobility.

Beginning after World War II, another major force – the mechanization of agriculture – also contributed to the northward migration.

The Great Migration was a relocation of 6-7 million African Americans from the rural south to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from 1916 to 1930 which had a huge impact on Urban life in the United states. They were driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregations laws, many blacks headed North, Where they took advantages of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the first World War. Between 1910 and 1930, The African American population decreased in the South and increased in the Northern states by about forty percent as a result of the migration. This “Great Migration” was on the largest internal movement of people in the history of the United states and it is a shift that impacted culture, politics, and economics as a new African American communities struggled

African Americans specifically seemed have the most discrimination and lacking of prosperity due to the fact that they were the biggest ethnic group out of the rest of the other ethnic groups. African American soldiers like the rest of the veterans of World War II, received the GI Bill monthly allowance of $50 or $75 if they had a family, each month. The money was often used towards and was intended to be used towards higher education or training (Document J). The government essentially was paying these veterans to go to school and make something out of themselves. African Americans however were not offered this opportunity because of the fact that many colleges were prejudice and had rules about blacks going to their schools. Africans Americans in school at any level were segregated and not treated equal to other people of their age and qualifications because of their race. If African Americans were denied this opportunity, how could the make something out of themselves and add to the prosperity of society? The answer is they could not (Document E). With the opportunity of getting an education lost and not being able to get a degree and therefore a job, at least African Americans could use the money to buy a home in a suburb like many other people were. They could not do that either even though buying homes in suburbs was

By looking at the 1910-1920s, the increase of the manufacturing industry moved a large amount of people from rural areas to where there was a demand for job to Baltimore. However after the 1920s, there was a decrease in the number people because of the depression and the steel manufacturing industry falling. Many of those individuals moved back to the rural community where they could find jobs. Along with this the second Great Migration occurring which influenced many Black to head into industrial region of the nation, and Baltimore was just that. Within the time from of the 1950s-1960s the population change of Whites decreased from 723,673 to 610,512 while the Black population changed from 226,053 to 328,512 ( Demography of Baltimore City,

According to the 1930 census, 37 percent of working African-Americans were employed as agricultural laborers and 29 percent as personal-service and domestic workers. Only 2 percent were classified as professionals (lawyers, doctors, teachers and clergy)…Unemployment increased rapidly in the early 1930's. It was thought that approximately 15 percent of the workforce were unemployed in 1930. African-American organizations estimated that the percentage of unemployed black workers was at least twice the rate of the country as a whole.3

During the early twentieth century, the United States was enduring significant social and economic changes due to its transformation into a commercial and industrial world power. As the need for labor escalated within many urban areas, millions of Europeans emigrated from Southern and Eastern Europe with the hopes of capitalizing upon these employment opportunities and attaining a better life. Simultaneously, many African-Americans migrated from the rural South into major cities, bearing the same intentions as those of the European immigrants. The presence of these minority groups generated both racial and class fears within white middle and upper class Americans. The fervent ethnocentrism resulting from these fears,

There was also a big influx of blacks to Chicago. The numbers of blacks migrating to Chicago was tremendous. Many reasons Tuttle states are the cause for this. The major one is just blacks wanting to leave the south. They wanted to leave the segregated south in hope of a better future. They were tired of the Jim Crow laws, lynching, poor school, and constant harassment. A black said, “Anywhere north will do us”(Tuttle, 79). Another reason was jobs. In the time of war, the big manufactories trying to keep up with the needs of the military were in dire needs of people to work. There were actual labor recruiters whose job was to go out and recruit blacks to work in the factories. Moreover, when the opportunity to work opened up blacks took them in full demand. It was a way out of the south.

In the Encyclopedia of Alabama written by Julie Novkov, it states that African Americans had twice the percentage of the unemployment rate than Caucasians did. This just cares to show that more African Americans had lost their jobs because of their race. This goes along with the article, “Blacks and the Great Depression,” written by Lee Sustar, it shows how African Americans were rarely employed, and if they were, they would have to face the race wage

Oregon has historically been home to hundreds of thousands of people including dozens of Native American tribes dating back before 9500 B.C. As various tribes made the journey across the Bering Strait to relocate, many chose areas in the Northwest to settle. Some of the first to the Oregon area were the Kalapuya Indians who inhabited Oregon more than 8,000 years ago and although many different tribes called our state home the Kalapuya is just one example of people native to Oregon.

After global conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, industrialized urban areas within the North, Midwest and West faced a scarcity of commercial people, because the war put an give up to the constant tide of european immigration to the usa. With war production kicking into excessive gear, recruiters enticed African individuals to return north, to the dismay of white

Right after World War II, many Americans were encouraged by the steady and significant economic progress, including for Blacks. In 1950, many big factories just start up and need workers So, many African-American were offered the steady wages with higher than the pay earned by there parents. But, still, under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second-class citizens. African Americans were not allowed to run machinery or promote it. So, even though they were offered

New populations, and communities of different cultures found that cities offered a variety of jobs and most settled in urban areas. After the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction Amendments ,there were hundreds of thousands of African Americans in search of jobs with little to no experience. Many of these jobs required relocation to cities in order to work in