Racism in the 1930's Essay

At the time of World War I, Many whites were recruited in the military and sent to Europe. The result was a demand for workers in all types of jobs. Many African-Americans facing a plight in the south because of drought, loss of jobs, and racial discrimination immigrated to northern cities like New York, St. Louis, and Chicago. Between 1910 and 1930, over hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved. In northern

Foner writes that nowhere, was the transfer in black life more profound than in politics. The amazing political mobilization of the black community was one of the most striking features of that period, along with the emergence of a new black political class. At the beginning of the Reconstruction, blacks turned to ministers and men who had achieved prominence as slaves to represent them politically. During

In the 1930’s black people were highly discriminated against. This was mainly because many black people started to migrate form the south to the north in order to find employment. Many

Racism was a larger issue back in the 1930’s than it is today. During the 1930’s many Black Americans were unable to find jobs. With the Great Depression came the “last hired first fired” mindset. Many African Americans felt that this was targeted towards them (Racial 5). This along with Jim Crow laws kept most blacks in a level of poverty, which added to the discrimination (Racial 7). Throughout this time, all the way up into the 1960’s and 1970’s African Americans were under great segregation. During this thirty years, great strides toward social equality were made, but at the cost of numerous racial driven incidents. Many great African American icons were assassinated during this time. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 because he stood up against racial oppression as well as Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated in 1968. Both of these two men were part of the leading force in the desegregation of America (Rosenberg 1). This movement led to great tension between the African American culture and white culture, which led to many very violent cases between the races. A great

churches, bathrooms, and stores were only a few of the many things wrong with this ere.

No longer having to provide slave work for whites, the African Americans began to become more knowledgeable about the privileges that they would be able to have. They began to fight for the right to vote and the right to land. Among fighting for

As much as Reconstruction had initially tried to help the South, it was the sole goal of this movement to, “undo as much as possible of Reconstruction.” State facilities originally that were supposed to help everyone were closed down, and the gap between black and white expenditures on schooling increased. Due to the depression in the 1890’s this worsened the situation for black families trying to make a living in the South couldn’t keep up their farms or the places that their children would learn. “In 1900, no public high schools for blacks existed in the South. Black elementary schools, one observer reported, occupied buildings “as bad as stables””. New laws about segregation also affected blacks in more ways than just demoralization, it also showed what kind of jobs were considered good work for them. In the instance of segregation on railroads, “many blacks could be found in “whites only” railroad cars. But they entered as servants and nurses, not as paying customers entitled to equal treatment. The rise of lynching also affected the way blacks lived their lives, by controlling the way they vote, how they treated whites, and how they couldn’t rely on the justice system to address their grievances. An example of the reduced number of voters is best seen in Louisiana, where the number of voters dropped from 130, 000 to 1, 342, which is directly linked to the use of violence as a way to intimidate black voters. Blacks also had to be careful how they acted around white, since murder wasn’t a federal crime and was handled by the state, many blacks were lynched without fair trials and accused of crimes like raping white women, murder, and theft. A majority of the accused never when to trial. All in all blacks in the South were largely affected negatively as a result in policy changes, social factors, and widespread violence. This injustice carried on

From the 1930s to the 1950s, African Americans were being severely persecuted and ostracized. The Jim Crow Laws allowed for legal segregation and continued control over blacks in the South. Those laws severely restricted the rights of the African American in the southern half of the United States and essentially continued to restrain them even though the United States Constitution forbid it. The North did not have such laws, but blacks still suffered. When African Americans migrated to the North, they were disillusioned by the fact that they were still not equal. The African Americans were instead delivered a subtler form of the discriminatory actions within the South. African Americans struggled for equality everywhere because of white

From the early 1900s – 1920s the Great Black Migration occurred. In addition, the Great Migration occurred in the early 1900s and ended shortly after the Great War. The Great Black Migration was a time where blacks left the south to seek a better lifestyle in the Midwestern, Northern, and Eastern states. Blacks fled the South to seek better jobs, escape racism and discrimination, and to look for better schooling for their children. The Great Black Migration mostly occurred in the states of Illinois, Missouri, New York, and California. During the Great Migration, more than 100,000 blacks migrated to Harlem, New York. In Chicago and New York City, blacks were empowered by black-owned businesses, newspapers, and communities. Newspaper

The Great Migration was the mass movement of millions of African Americans to the Northeast, Midwest, and West around 1910 to1930. African Americans moved away from the South to escape segregation and violence in search of better opportunities. With the U.S. entering into World War I and troops being sent overseas, more job opportunities opened up for African Americans. Blacks enjoyed the unsegregated cities and the benefits that came along with it like better jobs, schools, and homes. African Americans also got more involved in politics and became an important constituency in the North because they were not prevented from voting and some even ran for political offices.

In 1920 many racial issues started to take place. Jim Crow laws were racist laws that told blacks where and what they could and couldn't do. Segregation separated blacks from whites. Blacks could not eat in the same restaurants that whites could. Everything was separated, blacks could not drink from the same drinking fountains, use the same restrooms, and many other public places. This and other violent things caused African Americans to migrate to northern cities so they would not be persecuted. Blacks migrated to many different places to get away from these racial issues. Writers at synonym.com wrote. “By 1919, over a million blacks had migrated to northeastern cities including Detroit, Chicago and New York.” (rac) Black lives were tremendously affected by this many moved to different places. Racism will never stop happening in the world. People will always be racist. Racism was lots worse than it is now back in the 1920s. People were not only killed for being black, but were torchered and died slow deaths because of racism. Hanging or lynchings were the most common form of racism during this time period. Blacks would be hung if they did not do what they were supposed to. Race riots were another form of racism in the 1930s people would get together in large groups and go around and kill or burn black slaves and people. They would do this just because they were racist and that these people were black.

By 1870, the Northerner lost interest in reconstructing the south. The north tried to reconstruct the south and change southerners attitudes about black people. Although they failed at this because many southerners were still racists and believed that the white race was superior to others, blacks were not as good as southern white men. To add to that, the Northerners lost interest in the reconstruction, which gave southerners a chance to gain control of their state governments again.

The many social issues blacks faced in the south prepared them for what they would be facing in the north. Blacks coming from a back ground of slavery continued to following them through the many years of the migration. The Great Migration brought about so many social challenges because for centuries blacks were treated like animals. They were not able to find their niche in an economy that was not created for them. Social issues such as Jim Crow laws, racism, discrimination, prejudice, and other issues that effect a certain population of people, all played a

The flaming cross became the symbol of their terrorist activities, which the police and courts usually ignored. Faced by such intimidation, discrimination and poverty, many Blacks left the rural south and moved to the cities of northern USA. Through the 1920s the black population of both Chicago and New York more than doubled. Chicago's from 110,000 to 230,000 and New York's from 150,000 to 330,000.

African Americans in America in history have gone through many hard times trying to just progress out of slavery and obtain freedom and have equal rights. In this paper I will attempt to explain what some of the important events of the time revealed about the role of African Americans in broader American society in, respectively, the 1920s and the late 1960s. I will explain how and why the roles of African Americans in the 1920s differed from their roles in the late 1960s, and explain how events in the 1920s may have contributed to