African-Americans in the Early 1900s

The International High school at Lafayette

American History

Unit 3: Immigration and Migration

Mr. Joel

Waseem, Amadou, Berdia

 The African American in the Early 1900s
The Population Fact

In 1790, when the first census was taken, African Americans numbered
about 760,000—about 19% of the population. In 1860, at the start of
the Civil War, the African-American population increased to 4.4
million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of the overall
population of the country.

-The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as “freemen.” By
1900, the black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million.

-In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the South

. Some Northern cities that saw their population dramatically increase by the addition
of so many African Americans include New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, and Milwaukee.
 The African American in the
Early 1900s
Reason for migration
Large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living
conditions, and to escape racial violence.

Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not
exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s.

Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life. Under
Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens.
But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed, with more African Americans moving
south to the Sunbelt than leaving it.

African-Americans left to escape the discrimination and racial segregation of late 19th
century constitutions and Jim Crow laws.

A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it
implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any
other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
 The African American in the
Early 1900s
Life in North

The north life was better then south, but it was not ideal.

Life in the 1900's was depressing and was an era filled with
extremely hard and strenuous work that didn't offer any future for the
average canadian in doing better.

The north gradually had become an economy revolving around

manufacturing and commerce; they focused more on the city life.

The majority of the north was more urban.

 The African American in the
Early 1900s
Quotation

it is a peculiar sensation, this double-

consciousness, this sense of always looking at
one's self through the eyes of others. . . . one ever
feels his twoness, an American, a negro two
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings
two warrings ideals in one dark body, whose
dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn
asunder.

August 1897
Strivings of the Negro Peopleby W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
The African American in the
Early 1900s
Map Connection
This map shows how African
Americans Migration change and
how much people live in different
states.
 The African American in the
Early 1900s
Life Changed
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a blessing for all African Americans, whose freedom
from enslavement and racism, he tried to achieve throughout his lifetime. He was
a champion of the civil rights movement, where he put in all efforts to end racial
discrimination against the blacks.

~1960 Four students stage a sit-in a in Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's

department store after being refused service at the all white's lunch counter
because they were black.

The United States went through a period of desegregation during the civil rights
movement. This was when schools and businesses were forced into allowing
blacks and whites travel, live, work, and go to school together.

But these rights have not come easily as there was much hatred and mistreatment
by many whites.
 The African American in the
Early 1900s
Class Question

Is racism still apply in the country? Can you give one example?