Causes Of Discrimination In African Americans

Shane Rigsby R.
History 313 - Prof Gorman
4/4/16
Discrimination in the north (African American) One of the most dramatic demographic events that had a significant change in America would be the Great Migration. It had to do with the moving of 6 million of African American from the southern hemisphere of the united states to the northern hemisphere around the time of the 20th century. To better explain this event in American history it would be best to start with the chain of events that caused it in the first place. That starting point would have to be the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This was an announcement that was laid out to say that if any state if not by the start of the 1863 that is in rebellion would have all there slaves declared
So about the time when the civil war was ending there was about 4 and half million African Americans in the United States and about 10% of them would be in the north and the bulk majority would be in the south. The main reason for this would be because of their lack of skills, funds, a good education, and property ownership. This is a part of the fact that they had no real way to gain any of these essential things to be their own self efficient individual due to the lack of opportunities open to them, no government support/ help in the south. So even though they were free at that time they could not escape the trap of slavery i.e. sharecropping. Since their Emancipation from slavery, southern rural blacks who had suffered living on a plantation economy which gave them little chance of opportunity. Even a few African Americans were lucky enough to buy land, most were sharecroppers, tenant farmers, or farm labors. And majority of the migration during World War 1 or at the end of it would be happening in some northern cities, which included but not limited to, were Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis and 2/3 of African Americans moved to those major cities in the north. But a good thing to know about the migrations is that they happened in waves starting
This is because during that time there was a mass industrialization and the factories with the need for the production of railroads and automotive vehicles caused a need for employment not only because of more jobs but most of the jobs was done by white man; And this was mostly in the north. Since at this time most white man were fighting in the war that put out the opportunity that there were open positions. The main reason why this was so important had to has been the socio-economic life of African Americans at that time. They had the motivation to migrate because they wanted and needed to leave the South’s oppressive economic conditions and the idea of a greater prosperity in the north. African American in the south did not have any economic opportunities and this left them not being able to participate in society. That leads to one of the biggest reason why African Americans wanted to leave the south. This created another problem for them which was how do they pay for traveling to the north? Some African Americans had the finances to afford the trip while others had to go through paid agents that was a part of the businesses in the north would also pay for them. This happened again in the 1920’s where another millions of African Americans left the south fleeing from Jim Crow to seek out the job opportunity. And at that same time in the 1920’s immigration overseas was being shut down so even more