Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
U.S.A.
South
Manufacturing Belt
& Middle West
West
Figure 4.4.
African-Americans in the overall population, by region, in 1910
The Great Migration of blacks to the cities of the Manufacturing Belt started
during the First World War. Heavy industry lacked unskilled labor as massive
European immigration was diminishing.
While school segregation had been made mandatory in 17 southern states and
optional in 4 other states (Maryland, Indiana, Kansas, and New Mexico), northern
cities reacted to this wave of immigrants by sending some of them to ghettos
through the illegal practice of Red Lining (
de facto
segregation). The bigger the
ghetto became, the more attractive it was to new immigrants.
In the North, just like in the South, areas inhabited by blacks grew to become the
poorest in the United States. The Carnegie Foundation asked the Swedish Economist
Gunnar Myrdal [MYR 44] to prepare a report on the situation of blacks. Published
in 1942 under the title “An American Dilemma”, this report was a milestone in the
fight against racial inequality. The report stated that “the treatment of blacks is the
largest and most obvious of all scandals”. By proposing the idea that “blacks in their
struggle for equality have an ally in the consciousness of the white man”, the report
marked an important step in the awareness of this scandalous situation.
In 1948, President Truman declared the laws of segregation illegal. The fight for
civil rights lasted 20 years, with highlights such as the Supreme Court decision in
1954 in
Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education
which prohibited school segregation,
the 1963 march on Washington (“I have a dream”), as well as tragedies, such as the
Watts riots in 1965, the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, etc. The civil
rights fight led to the implementation of a policy of positive discrimination
(affirmative action), the purpose of which is to help to reduce poverty among blacks.
