Migration/WWI Flashcards
What were causes of migration?
WORLD WAR ONE: Lack of immigrant workers and economic opportunities in the North. Chicago Defender news encouraged migration North.
SOUTH: Poor economic opportunities, voting qualifications, ill treatment, and poverty. Boll weevil took out cotton crops. Sharecropping left African Americans in debt, and due to illiteracy they struggled to understand the settlement. In 1915 floods ravaged farm acres in Alabama and Mississippi.
COMMUNITY: Encouragement of friends and family to move North, close knit AA communities.
What population rises were seen in Chicago, and what cultural centres were established?
African Americans fled to New Orleans. Skilled workers and former slaves could find employment but many unskilled citizens struggled. Chicago population of black citizens rose from 6500 in 1880 to 110,000 by 1920.Cultural centres for African Americans developed such as Harlem in NYC, by the 1920s it had 200,000 African Americans living there. Philadelphia’s black population rose by 500%.
What wage disparities did WEB Du Bois find?
In 1902 WEB du Bois found that black painters received $1.80 compared to whites who earned $2.30, and black stationary engineers earned $2 compared to $3 for white workers each day. Unions rejected black membership, but the United Federation of Miners in Alabama didn’t.
What cities attracted black migration? How many migrated, and what decline in the Southern population was seen?
500,000 moved between 1914-24, rising to 750,000 over the next decade. Northern cities attracted most, but Washington DC, Birmingham, and New Orleans attracted many migrants. Over 6 million migrated between 1910-70. The black population had 89% living in the South in 1910, but this collapsed to 53% by 1970. Southern politicians attempted to stop attempts to move but failed.
What Mexican migration was seen?
Mexicans also took part in the Great Migration, unused to neccesities such as indoor toilets and plumbing, and seen as uncivilised by white Americans. Puerto Ricans immigrated to the North in search of work, with 2000 Puerto Ricans in 1910 rising to 53,000 by 1970.
How did Woodrow Wilson enforce war participation?
In 1917, the US entered war. Farming and heavy industry benefitted from wartime production. Woodrow Wilson issued the Espionage Act to shut down criticism of government and the Selective Service Act to conscript 4 million into the army. Wilson rejected efforts by BT Washington to create equal opportunity for African Americans, removing them from government.
What were Chicago Race Riots?
White Americans serving in the war returned with hostility as seen in Chicago race riots July 1919 where a black teen drifted onto a whites only beach and was stoned until he disappeared under the water, leading to Irish and Polish workers attacking the ghettoes, killing 23 black people and making 1000 homeless.
What was the impact of WWI on African Americans and immigrants?
Black people resurged in government as they were voted into city councils and black newspapers rose.
Anti-German feeling rose during the war and prohibition, with most breweries being ran by German citizens. Furthermore, Italian-Americans criticised the war, with Cronaca Sovversiva being shut down as an Italian publication, with editors deported.
African Americans were treated better when serving abroad.
