Week 8 Reflection: Migrating to Cruelty

The 1920s consist of many things including urbanization, great economic growth, great migration of African Americans up north and modernization.  

Modernization includes technological advances that resulted in mass production. Automobile production was the most popular form of mass production. At this time the US was in charge of producing almost half of the worlds manufactured goods. They were able to do this because of mass production. With the advances of technology came the rise of corporate profits. However, the wages of the industrial workers did not change. The government supported business so they provided assistance through synergy. Synergy is just the come together of two groups to create something bigger than the one group can create alone. Consumer society grew with mass production which in return increased the middle class. Now these people were buying things because they wanted them, not only because they needed them. Producers were able to catch the consumers eye by the different types of advertisements they put out there. With each advertisement came the belief that the things that were being advertised were a necessity. So ultimately, more families began to purchase these items. Advertisement of “The New Woman”, had many women trying to mold themselves to what they saw on the advertisement. This woman was a mother, married, sexy, and an icon. Sex became a huge marketing tool. African American women didn’t relate to the New Woman the way white women did. They were more conservative with their sexual image than white women were. They already were seen to be promiscuous but now that it was socially acceptable, they didn’t want any parts. 

The New Woman

During the 1920s, the population of cities increased due to blacks moving out of the South. Property became scarce with blacks and whites now searching for places to make homes out of in these cities. Whites wanted to separate their neighborhoods from blacks by creating covenant agreements with their tenants. The Supreme Court eventually got rid of all covenant restrictions. Harlem was the largest African American neighborhood. Over 200,00 African Americans moved to Harlem which was once a white neighborhood. The Harlem Renaissance was the first literary and artistic movement in African American History. Writers like; W.E.B Du Bois, Charles Chestnut and James Weldon Johnson explored their African American roots and backgrounds and were able to share their findings throughout neighborhoods and universities. More African American owned things flourished. For example, by 1919, the first African American owned press agency was founded. 

The most brutal racial violence took place between 1917 and 1923. The migration of African Americans north left a sense of competition between blacks and whites in the work place. The work for many blacks was limited. Many blacks were killed by white mobs in black neighborhoods. In Tulsa, whites destroyed black churches and businesses. White mobs attacking and killing different flourishing black people in black neighborhoods was how they exhibited racial violence. It got so bad that eventually the state of Florida paid $2.1 in reparations.  

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2018). 

Digital History : Closing The Western Frontier

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=9&smtID=2