Safia Hussain
Changing portrayals of civil rights issues:
Q: How far can the second world war be regarded as the key turning point in the changing
geography of civil rights issues in the USA in the period 1850-2009.
World war two could be argued as a major reasons for the changing geography of civil rights issues
however it must be weighed against earlier migrations especially after the Emancipation
proclamation in Jan 1863, the first world war and post world war II.
EVIDENCE FOR:
The scale of movement of the black population during World War II was unprecedented as it fuelled
a ‘defence migration’ of black Americans to the North and Western cities. For example, during world
war 2, around 120,000 black Americans moved into the Los Angeles area as the pacific coast was a
hub for aircraft production and shipbuilding. In the 1940s, Chicago’s black population doubled to
500,000. This is significant because between 1940 and 1950, another 1.5 million African Americans
had left the South. The migration continued at roughly the same pace over the next twenty years. By
1970, about five million African Americans had made the journey, and the geographic map of black
America had fundamentally changed. Roughly one of every seven black Southerners pulled up stakes
and headed north or west.
The extensive population movement during World War II resulted in many blacks experiencing a
higher standard if living due to the higher wages paid in industrial work. The Second world war
accelerated the ‘Great Migration’ out of the south. Black unemployment feel from close to 1 million
in 1940 to 150,000 in 1945. Around 2 million blacks migrated from the south in the 1940s to find
employment in places such as New York, Detroit an Oakland, which meant black income rose higher
than any other decade in the 20th century. In 1941, A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington
Movement forced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue an executive order mandating an end to
racial discrimination in defence industries and setting up an agency, the Fair Employment Practices
Committee (FEPC), to enforce it. The agency carried out hearings and complaint process did provide
a forum for black political mobilization that would bear dividends in future years. An example of
racial integration was introduced the navy by in 1946, this in turn fuelled further migration.
The movement to the cities in the north resulted in increased tensions that exploded into serious
race riots. Although there were no Jim Crow Laws in the North, there was still competition for
housing and jobs which resulted in increased white hostility for example in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania white transit workers walked off their jobs in protest of the promotion of eight blacks.
Their stoppages brought the city to a halt, effectively closing the vital Philadelphia Navy Yard which
resulted in 8,000 federal soldiers being sent to run the buses and streetcars. The war also led to race
riots in urban areas such as ‘The Detroit race riot’ of 1943, it occurred as a result of Detroit’s auto
industry being converted to the war effort, which exacerbated existing social tensions and housing
shortages as a result of 400,000 migrants.
The rural-to-urban movement within the south led to racial violence. By the end of World War II, the
character of the black population had shifted: the majority was urban. In 1970, at the end of the
second Great Migration, African Americans were a more urbanized population than whites: more
than 80 percent lived in cities, as compared to 70 percent for the general population of the United
Changing portrayals of civil rights issues:
Q: How far can the second world war be regarded as the key turning point in the changing
geography of civil rights issues in the USA in the period 1850-2009.
World war two could be argued as a major reasons for the changing geography of civil rights issues
however it must be weighed against earlier migrations especially after the Emancipation
proclamation in Jan 1863, the first world war and post world war II.
EVIDENCE FOR:
The scale of movement of the black population during World War II was unprecedented as it fuelled
a ‘defence migration’ of black Americans to the North and Western cities. For example, during world
war 2, around 120,000 black Americans moved into the Los Angeles area as the pacific coast was a
hub for aircraft production and shipbuilding. In the 1940s, Chicago’s black population doubled to
500,000. This is significant because between 1940 and 1950, another 1.5 million African Americans
had left the South. The migration continued at roughly the same pace over the next twenty years. By
1970, about five million African Americans had made the journey, and the geographic map of black
America had fundamentally changed. Roughly one of every seven black Southerners pulled up stakes
and headed north or west.
The extensive population movement during World War II resulted in many blacks experiencing a
higher standard if living due to the higher wages paid in industrial work. The Second world war
accelerated the ‘Great Migration’ out of the south. Black unemployment feel from close to 1 million
in 1940 to 150,000 in 1945. Around 2 million blacks migrated from the south in the 1940s to find
employment in places such as New York, Detroit an Oakland, which meant black income rose higher
than any other decade in the 20th century. In 1941, A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington
Movement forced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue an executive order mandating an end to
racial discrimination in defence industries and setting up an agency, the Fair Employment Practices
Committee (FEPC), to enforce it. The agency carried out hearings and complaint process did provide
a forum for black political mobilization that would bear dividends in future years. An example of
racial integration was introduced the navy by in 1946, this in turn fuelled further migration.
The movement to the cities in the north resulted in increased tensions that exploded into serious
race riots. Although there were no Jim Crow Laws in the North, there was still competition for
housing and jobs which resulted in increased white hostility for example in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania white transit workers walked off their jobs in protest of the promotion of eight blacks.
Their stoppages brought the city to a halt, effectively closing the vital Philadelphia Navy Yard which
resulted in 8,000 federal soldiers being sent to run the buses and streetcars. The war also led to race
riots in urban areas such as ‘The Detroit race riot’ of 1943, it occurred as a result of Detroit’s auto
industry being converted to the war effort, which exacerbated existing social tensions and housing
shortages as a result of 400,000 migrants.
The rural-to-urban movement within the south led to racial violence. By the end of World War II, the
character of the black population had shifted: the majority was urban. In 1970, at the end of the
second Great Migration, African Americans were a more urbanized population than whites: more
than 80 percent lived in cities, as compared to 70 percent for the general population of the United
