Throughout the 1900s, the African American citizens and visitors to Detroit, Michigan faced discriminatory treatment by the white citizens of Detroit and the surrounding areas. As a means of lessening the unfair treatment of African Americans, several groups, including the Detroit Urban League, were organized to increase the welfare and decrease the negative actions toward and hatred of the African American people of Detroit. The Detroit Urban League focused on the involvement and incorporation of African American adults and youth in the workplace, housing, and education settings of Detroit.
According to Elaine Moon, the author of the book African American life series: Untold tales, unsung heroes, “In 1916 the Detroit Urban League was founded to address the needs of the large number of blacks who were migrating to Detroit in hopes of finding a better life” (Moon, 1993, p. 13). Mr. Forrester B. Washington (IMAGE 1) was one of the founding members of the Detroit Urban League. As new job opportunities, especially in the industrial and car manufacturing fields, were being created in Detroit, African Americans applied for several of the available jobs in hopes of gaining an income to support themselves and their families. However, most of the African American job applicants were turned down by many of the white employers, even if the African Americans had the necessary education and skills to successfully perform the job tasks on a daily basis. Upon noticing this rejection of African American job applicants by white employers, the Detroit Urban League implemented informational meetings regarding employment in the daily operation of their organization. Thomas Sugrue, the author of the book The origins of the urban crisis: Race and inequ...
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...gue officials conducted various surveys regarding the number of African American employees in several types of jobs. These surveys showed, on average, a very low percentage of African American employees in many, if not all, of the job types the Urban League surveyed. In response to this low percentage, Urban League officials and members created several programs to assist African American youth and adults in having success with obtaining higher education and steady employment. With their efforts, the Detroit Urban League has opened many doors for the African American citizens of Detroit which were previously thought of as unattainable. As the services and programs offered by the Detroit Urban League continue to grow and evolve, the positive impact the Urban League has had for many of the African American citizens of Detroit will continue for many generations to come.
More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)
Cleveland’s black population was quite small before the “Great Migration” in 1915, but then began to gradually increase. This meant that black associations and leadership depended very much on white support. The socioeconomic position of blacks, however, at the same time, got worse as whites got stricter on discriminatory control over employment and public places. After 1915, Cleveland’s black population grew quickly, starting racist trends. One of the results was segregation of the living conditions of blacks, their jobs, and in social aspects. As isolation increased, however, this began the growth of new leaders and associations that responded to the needs of the ghettos. By 1930, the black ghetto had expanded; Cleveland’s blacks had increased class stratification in their community, as well as an increasing sense of cultural harmony in response to white prejudice.
Though social problems affect a wide variety of people from all races, classes, and cultures; minorities, specifically African Americans, encounter social problems on a multi-dimensional basis. Poverty, employment rates, discrimination, and other social problems strike African Americans in such a way that it is nearly impossible to separate them; each individual has different background, socially and physically, that would determine in which order his or her social problems need to be solved. Impoverished blacks in the inner city may have difficulty finding or keeping jobs, while others may have jobs, but face troubles with work discrimination that prevent them from moving upward .Underemployment, workplace inequalities, and unbalanced medical attention are three closely related social problems that, if ameliorated together, could increase upward mobility, decrease poverty levels, and tighten the lifespan gaps for not only blacks, but also other minority groups. The purpose of this paper is to show what effects these three problems have for blacks.
African Americans who came to America to live the golden dream have been plagued with racism, discrimination and segregation throughout a long and complicated history of events that took place in the United States dating back to slavery to the civil rights movements. Today, African American history is celebrated annually in the United States during the month of February which is designated Black History Month. This paper will look back into history beginning in the late 1800’s through modern day America and describe specific events where African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America.
As the United States developed and grew, upward mobility was central to the American dream. It was the unstated promise that no matter where you started, you had the chance to grow and proceed beyond your initial starting point. In the years following the Civil War, the promise began to fade. People of all races strived to gain the representation, acknowledgement and place in this society. To their great devastation, this hope quickly dwindled. Social rules were set out by the white folk, and nobody could rise above their social standing unless they were seen fit to be part of the white race. The social group to be impacted the most by this “social rule” was the African Americans. Black folk and those who were sympathetic to the idea of equal rights to blacks were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Burton, 1998) The turning point in North Carolina politics was the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898. It was a very bold and outrageous statement from the white supremacists to the black folk. The Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from the local government and destroyed the neighborhood by driving out the African Americans and turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. (Class Discussion 10/3/13) This event developed the idea that even though an African American could climb a ladder to becoming somebody in his or her city, he or she will never become completely autonomous in this nation. Charles W. Chesnutt discusses the issue of social mobility in his novel The Marrow of Tradition. Olivia Carteret, the wife of a white supremacist is also a half-sister to a Creole woman, Janet Miller. As the plot develops, we are able to see how the social standing of each woman impacts her everyday life, and how each woman is ...
The downgrading of African Americans to certain neighborhoods continues today. The phrase of a not interested neighborhood followed by a shift in the urban community and disturbance of the minority has made it hard for African Americans to launch themselves, have fairness, and try to break out into a housing neighborhood. If they have a reason to relocate, Caucasians who support open housing laws, but become uncomfortable and relocate if they are contact with a rise of the African American population in their own neighborhood most likely, settle the neighborhoods they have transfer. This motion creates a tremendously increase of an African American neighborhood, and then shift in the urban community begins an alternative. All of these slight prejudiced procedures leave a metropolitan African American population with few options. It forces them to remain in non-advanced neighborhoods with rising crime, gang activity, and...
Music and Art are two important factors in a society. They are apart of a neighborhood's History. They show how a community has lived, and what was important to the people and how they lived. The Art and Music during certain time periods can show how that community has grown and how it developed. There were many important artist and musician that played a big role in how Detroit, Michigan grew. They also had a big impact on the society of Detroit. Till this day those Artist and Musicians still have an impact on Detroit.
Similarly important was the role black women on an individual level played in offering a model for white women to follow. Because black men had a harder time finding employment, black women had a history of working ou...
Detroit is a story of a once flourishing city that has been on a long downslide for decades. There are miles of unoccupied homes and buildings, and crimes and unemployment are at an all-time high. Many aspects of the city are breaking down, including the school system. The Detroit Public School System has lost over eighty thousand students due to high enrollment in charter schools, the large economic decline, and the departure of residents. For many years no one has taken responsibility for the public school system. However, for Detroit to rise again, it is necessary for someone to take responsibility, make a plan, and make sure that children are safe, well cared for, and are receiving a high quality education when going to school each day. In 2016, schools are low-performing with poor test scores, are falling apart, and teachers and parents have decided to take a stand.
In Los Angeles African American teens were denied access to organized activities of white Americans, such as Boys Scouts. This type of racial barrier caused many African Americans to question if they truly were free. Barriers set up by the white community and law enforcement caused African American youths to create their own sense of identity and self worth through the creation of clubs. The clubs had their various names based on the streets and blocks of south Los Angeles. The clubs provided members with status and a sense of belonging, acceptance, and family among young African Americans, that were otherwise denied entry into white run organizations. Clubs were effective in African Community's, it provided power in numbers.
In the 1940s, African Americans were facing the problem of discrimination. They fought to receive the rights that all Americans were given through the United States Constitution. They were being treated unfairly in society. Their education, jobs, transportation, and more were inferior to a white citizen’s. With the end of slavery and the creation of the Fourteenth Amendment, African Americans were theoretically given their freedom like every other American. The way they were treated denied them these rights that they thought they would obtain. Through the efforts of white bigots and the biased government, African Americans were segregated from the free lives of the white civilian. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans faced discrimination
From slavery to Jim Crow, the impact of racial discrimination has had a long lasting influence on the lives of African Americans. While inequality is by no means a new concept within the United States, the after effects have continued to have an unmatched impact on the racial disparities in society. Specifically, in the housing market, as residential segregation persists along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, limiting the resources available to black communities such as homeownership, quality education, and wealth accumulation. Essentially leaving African Americans with an unequal access of resources and greatly affecting their ability to move upward in society due to being segregated in impoverished neighborhoods. Thus, residential segregation plays a significant role in
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a prime example of Woodson’s argument on “miseducated” blacks. Although Thomas benefitted from programs like affirmative action, once he reached the high point in his career he supported legislature to end such programs. Hampton University and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities must take it upon themselves to teach their students the importance of contributing to their communities once they graduate and enter into the business world. Colleges like Hampton, Howard, Spelman and Morehouse have the opportunity to produce professionals that can restructure and save the black community. Students who graduate from these institutions have the resources and knowledge that are needed to revive the African American community and their economy. Black colleges must educate their students on the need for black businesses, role models and the importance of staying connected to their culture and community.
Zieger, R. (2007). For jobs and freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.
John A. Kirk, History Toady volume 52 issue 2, The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans