Changing geography Flashcards
when was the slow migration out of the south
1865-1917
where did a/a slowly migrate to
Cincinnati New York Philadelphia Detroit Cleveland
push factors in slow migration
yellow fever
boll weevil
lack of opportunities
kkk
pull factors in the slow migration
Lincoln ww1 industries decreased amounts of European migrants as war scabs (used to break strikes) biblical 'promised land'
What was the significant of the slow drift north
• Between 1880-1900 black Americans only made up 1% of immigration in to New York
• A misunderstanding between a white policeman and the white of a black man led to the Tenderloin race riots in 1900 the New York times recorded a 1000 person mob trying to clean the streets of black people
• Black Americans fought back send the violence continued through the summer in New York
• There were also race riots in Ohio and in 1908 in Springfield Illinois (Lincolns birthplace)
• Northerners also
- Made black voting hard
- Some refused to sell or rent property to blacks
- Schools promoted to de facto segregation
- Labour (trade unions) excluded black members
when was the great migration
1915-1945
stats to show the great migration
7 million out of 8 million a/a lived in the cotton belt 1910
over the next 15 years 10% moved north
1910-1930 a/a population in northern states increased by 40%
push factors for the great migration (brief) 5
cotton discrimination violence economic boom depression
examples of discrimination in the south
poll tax
grandfather clause
literacy tests
why did a/a violence boom in 1915
birth of a nation released
kkk re born
why was the economic boom a push factor
led to overproduction in agriculture
Cause and consequences of the great migration
- Reason, jobs, schools, escape racism and violence
- Detroit black population 1910: 6,000 1930: 120,000
- Only 750,000 black Americans lived outside in 1900, end of the 20th century there were 10 million living outside the south
- Consequences Chicago had a black own newspaper as population rose
- Black, schools and politicians
- White people moved away as blacks come in, leading to place like Harlem being pretty much all black
- In the summer of 1919 over 20 race riots broke out across the nation, worst in Chicago, Threw riots erupted when white people threw stones at a black swimmers resulting in him drowning this lead to African Americans attacking white neighbourhoods and the whites doing the same leaving 15 whites dead and 23 black people and 500 injured
- Since 1915 the coloured population had doubled in 4 years just from over 50,000 to now 125-150,000
- White neighbourhoods formed the property owners association to keep black people out, in a number of causes from January 1918 to august 1919 there were bombings of coloured homes and houses occupied by black people a total of 20 bombings took places, yet only two people had been arrested and neither were convicted
1917
WW1- Estimated that 400,000 black Americans left the old south from 1916 to 18 to take advantage of job opportunities created from the war. The widely read newspaper there “Chicago defender” produced in the north, urged black Americans to migrate North. 4% shift. Between 1910 and 1930 the black population in northern states increased 40%
What was the impact of black migration during the second world war 1941-45 ?
- Executive Order 8802 25th June 1941- Fair employment practice committee (FEPC)
- Around 2 million black Americans migrated from the south to seek employment in defence industries
- Black income rise faster in the 1940s than in any other decade of the twentieth century
- 1943 Race riots in Detroit, a hate strike was conducted by 25,000 white people against black workers as they saw rivalry from black people rises, after a few days tension generated greater and around 8,000 were arrested and 85% of them were black, Nine whites and 25 blacks died, 800 people were injured. The Detroit Mayor blamed “Negro Hoodlums” and denounced the mingling of negros and white in the same neighbourhoods, he was re elected as mayor. Black Americans in Detroit called it the black pearl harbour
- 1943 Harlem, black people wated revenge for the Detroit riots so when they heard a black soldiers got shot in the back of the head they took the opportunity and rioted ( 1485 stores looted $500,000 cost of damage, 1000 had been arrested and 700 injured including 400 police officers)
- In 1943 black researchers recorded 242 major racial clashes mostly in the north and west
- In san Francisco the black population quadrupled, and its mayor called in the “Negro invasion”
What cause the great post-war changes in American cities?
17% of Americans lived in suburbs in 1920
33% of Americans lived in suburbs in 1960
Between 1948-58 13 million homes were built in the US and 11 million of these were in suburbs.
The white middle classes had a new home
Pull: why compete for houses in urban area, FHA offered cheaper mortgages, Suburbia was cheaper for land than cities, The US now had highways increase car ownership and the option of commuting
Push: Higher taxes, high rent, pollution, poor whites, black Americans
Levittown’s
The Levitt bros built the first Levittown’s in Hempstead long island NY
17,000 homes for 80,000 residents with 7 village greens, shopping centres, 9 swimming pools and 2 bowling alleys
Residents were expected to mow their lawns on a weekly basis, no washing hung out at weekends, no fences
Excluded Jews from the development
In the north and south
Chicago
1944-46 there were 46 fire bombings of black homes in white neighbourhoods
In 1949 the white circle league was established to keep white neighbourhoods free of negros
In 1951 there were housing riots in Chicago cicero suburb as serval thousands whites drove out the one black family
90% of all Chicago’s housing was subject to restrictive covenants limiting its use and occupancy
And the projects began, there were white and black areas of segregation housing for the impoverished, Segreburbia was born
Econmic prospects in 1968
After 1968 manufacturing in the North declined rapidly e.g. Detroit manufacturing firms decreased by a 1/3!
Those employed in manufacturing therefore decreased too - by half!
Black Americans clearly perceived economic betterment in the South as the old industrial North became known as the ‘Rust Belt.’
This draw jobs southwards
Cheaper wages, land and government tax breaks incentivised investment in the South – and the workers followed!
Employment opportunities in the ‘Sun Belt’ outweighed those in the ‘Rust Belt’ … manufacturing output actually increased in the South despite competition globally from China and other parts of Asia.
House prices represented a huge difference in quality of life; as did groceries, bills, health care and socialising e.g. average house price in the North was $244,000 compared with $153,000 in the South.
The ‘call to home’
Those who had left in the Great Migration had taken their ‘southern’ culture with them – returning to the Deep South felt like home.
Many still had family present in the South – security + jobs + relatives in need of care?
“Grandma is here … this area is the Mecca.” Jesse Blayton, a black American businessman.
“This is home. This is where my roots are.” Morgan Freeman, born in Tennessee and raised in Mississippi.
It was possible to buy land and build homes. In fact some had acquired ‘heirs’ property’ as land had been left to multiple family members since the Reconstruction era when it had been forcibly redistributed!
1850-65
15% of the population
3M black slavery and half a million free black America
Lincoln was perceived as a major threat to slavery.
In 1861 10 more states secede from the union to form the confederacy
The main issue in the war was maintaining an indissolude union not slavery
By the end of the civil war 1/3 m black Americans had fought for the union
The civil war terraformed the position of black Americans with 1863
1865 Slavery was abolished 1868 Granted citizenship. 1870 Granted voting right Freedmen’s bureau 1866 southern homestead act Sharecropping
Slow drift North 1870s-80
The cost $ of moving was too much and most 90% remaining in the south
Those that did move occupied certain areas of the northern cities e.g Chicago, new yok
Push factors after the civil war included the KKK and the boll weevils effects upon cotton crops
Pull factors, included the image of the north as the trues promise land, pay was better, black Americas could be used as strike breakers as they weren’t in Trade unions
In 1914 great war brough an abrupt end to European labour flooding into the USA so demand for (Black) labour increased
Great Migration 1915-41
Effects on war increasing demand
1910-1925 saw 10 k black Americas migrate out of the south
Between 1919-30 the black population increased by some 40% in northern states with the biggest
increases in Detroit Chicago and NY leading to 1919 Chicago red summer
1916-18 ½ million black Americans left the deep south for jobs due to WW1
Some go and fight
1920 economic boom
As Europe Recovers from the war the demand for US crops fell so did demand for farmers making cities seem more attractive
The bool weevil returned.
The depression and new deal offered mixed fortune as the south states attempted to maintain segregation
Grandfather clauses and lynching and the KKK reveal in 1915
1941-54 impact of WW2
National income, wealth and production all doubled.
Unemployment has been reduced to 8m from 12m
due to the new deal prior to the wars outbreak
Conscription gave the rest jobs.
Although 3/4m black Americans continued the great
migration North many now began to move west to the war industries in LA
