Term Papers on African Americans Throughout 1917-1945

Term Paper Title	African Americans Throughout 1917-1945
# of Words	1372
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.49

African Americans Throughout 1917-1945

The history of the struggle of blacks to gain equality and freedom in America is a disturbing, grievous story, that reveals the courage and determination of the black community.  In the period, 1917-1945, African Americans were concerned with achieving equality under the law.  They however, fell victim to harsh discrimination from the whites.  Many events such as the ‘great migration’, the ‘Black Renaissance’, black political movements, and the Great Depression, effected the outcome of this period but the struggle for racial equality still continued long after.

During the early 1900’s, the majority of African Americans lived and worked in the South where they endured harsh discrimination and brutality.  However, during World War I (1914–1918), hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks, migrated to the North and this was known as the ‘Great Migration’.  African Americans were looking to escape the problems of racism in the South, seek out better jobs and an overall better life in the North.  World War I set this movement in motion.  The war had created a huge demand for labour in the North, as millions of men had left their jobs to serve in the armed forces.  However, many African Americans found that the North did not offer solutions to all their problems.  The African Americans lacked the skills and education for many jobs available in the North, thus, many became labourers or servants, the same work they had done in the South.  Blacks were forced to live in crowded, cheap and run-down housing, in segregated areas where poverty and despair was rampant.  Racial prejudice also existed in the North, and friction between newly arrived blacks and the working class whites over competition for jobs produced race riots.  African Americans soon overflowed the racially segregated areas in the North, but the ‘great migration’ continued for many decades after and the population of blacks in the North increased rapidly.

Discrimination and limited opportunities had always been apart of the lives of African Americans.  During the early 1900’s however, discrimination against blacks became even more wide spread and by the 1920’s many states had passed laws which required the segregation of blacks in schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools, parks, trains and other public facilities.  African Americans found it very hard to get fair treatment and had little opportunity to better themselves economically.  Numerous blacks had to take low-paying jobs as farm hands or servants for white employers and they struggled to survive on their mere wages.  Their condition reflected the beliefs held by most whites that, “whites where born superior to blacks”(1) and that “the Negro must be kept in his place”(2).  Blacks were also intimidated by whites, such as the Ku Klux Klan, who tried to control them through fear, terror and the increased use of threats, beatings and death by lynching.

‘On this spot a few years ago a white man was found

who had been tarred and feathered because he had

preached social equality to Negroes.’  On the other

side were the words: ‘if you are a reckless Negro or a

white man who believes in social equality, be advised

Dade country don’t need you.’(3)

This treatment of blacks was ongoing throughout the period and continued on for many years afterwards, with the same brutality and ill treatment as always.

African Americans however, did not suffer poverty and discrimination throughout the whole period.  During the 1920’s, black culture and pride flourished and became known as the ‘Black Renaissance’.  The movement centred around Harlem, New York City, where aspiring black writers, musicians and artists, gathered to share their experiences and provide encouragement.  In literature, its writers gave detailed and spiritual explorations of black life and culture, which stimulated a new confidence and racial pride within blacks.  This outpouring of literacy work, showed the ongoing African American struggle to find a way, as ...

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