How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
How The Restrictions On Rentals And Over-Priced Small Living Spaces
Affected The Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North
During The Great Migration In The Early 19th Century
This is a long title- you may want to condense it a bit
Marissa Wendolovske
2214079 Pratt Institute
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How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
Abstract
Question:
How did the restrictions on rentals and over-priced smaller living spaces that
African Americans experienced in Northern cities in the early part of the 20th
century affect their attitudes (towards what? ) .
Black Americans who moved North for equality, more money, and all around a
better life found themselves facing restrictions on where they were allowed to rent,
over-priced apartments and much smaller apartments then their fellow white
American counterparts. This inequality must’ve do you know that this happened?
What source are you using to support this claim? angered, disappointed, and
skewed the hope of the black Americans view of the North.
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How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
How The Restrictions On Rentals And Over-Priced Small Living Spaces
Affected The Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North
During The Great Migration In The Early 19th Century
It seems you are writing about more than rentals and living spaces, you are writing
about employment and living conditions in the North for African Americans.
In the early part of the 20th century, Black Americans envisioned the north as
a place of restitution and opportunity. From 1916 to 1928, 1,200,000 Black
Americans migrated from the south, and the number continued to increase.
(citation) From 1914 to 1918 World War I occurred, which caused a major slow
down in immigration from foreign countries. According to Isabelle Wikerson, a
contemporary author who recently published a new study of the the Great
Migration, “The war had cut the supply of European workers the North had relied on
to kill its hogs and stoke its foundries.” (Wilkerson, 2010, p. ) Because of the lack of
immigration, cheap, hard labor was difficult to come by, allowing black Americans to
take these jobs. Desperate for cheap, hard labor, businesses in the north sent “labor
agents” to come through the south recruiting black Americans to move up north
(Wilkerson, 2010, p. ) “The trickle that became a stream had now become a river”
and more than ever black Americans were migrating up north for these jobs.
(Wilkerson, 2010), You should put the citation at the end of the sentence.
You need a topic sentence here. You then need to state your argument. It
seems you are arguing that “hope faded” as Kelley and Lewis seem to argue at the
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How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
end. How can you add to Kelley and Lewis’ argument? You have used the primary
source throughout and used it to provide evidence of the terrible conditions
migrants faced. But you do not have primary source evidence that supports the
claim that “hope faded”. You speculate at the end that it “must have” faded. Instead
of speculation, perhaps you can make an argument about how hope was tested by
these conditions. You seem to have evidence to support this. Perhaps you can use
some quotes from Wilkerson’s interviewees to support this claim.
The reasons this overflow of black Americans moving up north after World
War 1 were explored by the (date) Chicago Commission on Race Relations , which
investigated why there was such a large surplus of black Americans migrating north.
They were listed as “some of my people were here”, “persuaded by friends”, “for
better wages”, “to better my conditions”, “better conditions”, “better living”, “more
work; came on a visit and stayed”, “wife persuaded me”, “tired of the south”, and “to
get away from the south”. (Wilkerson, 2010) You need a conclusion to this
paragraph
The north created a hope for black Americans for change. Once word had
spread that the north held opportunities and lacked the racial boundaries the south
had, migration took off. Richard Wright, in his 1941 publication based on oral
histories from many of the migrants, summarized some of the migrants sentimenets
as “Our hearts were high as we moved northward to the cities.” (Richard Wright,
1941) As migration progressed, “by 1918 migration chains linking south and north
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How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
enabled thousands of southerners to choose destinations where they had friends or
relatives to offer a welcoming hand.” You have too many quotes here. You need to
paraphrase some of the quotes. (Lewis, E. & Kelley, R. D.G., 2005) Though this hope
for better, and “welcoming hands” came off as a “second emancipation” (Lewis,
Kelley et al., 2005), it was far from that. According to Lewis and Kelley, “For poor
people this was a particularly daunting challenge. For African Americans in the first
half of the twentieth century, most choices also were limited by racial
discrimination.” (Lewis, Kelley et al., 2005) You need to end the paragraph with
your own argument.
The overflow of black Americans willing to work for lower wages caused them
to become strikebreakers. According to Wright, “To break the strike, the Bosses of
the Buildings appeal to us black folk to work; they send labor agents into the South
to fetch us north; they promise us “protection”; they tell us that they are our “best
friends”… And when the work day is over, we find ourselves fighting mobs of white
workers in the city streets.” (Wright, 1941) White workers in northern cities
become angry and were forced to leave some of these areas because they could not
find jobs. Whites took their anger at not being able to find jobs due to competition
from African American supported “restrictive covenants”, explain what these are
and not renting to black Americans, only whites, recreating the circumstances of the
south, which the black Americans had thought they had left.
The Great Migration in the 1920s and 30s? led to an extreme lack of housing
for black Americans, causing them to live in cramped spaces wherever they could
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How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
find. According to Wright, “A seven-room apartment, which rents for $50 a month
to whites, and cut it up into seven small apartments, of one room each; they install
one small gas stove and one small sink in each room. The Bosses of the Buildings
rent these kitchenettes to us at the rate of, say, $6 a week. Hence, the same
apartment for which white people-who can get jobs anywhere and who receive
higher wages than we-pay $50 a month is rented to us for $42 a week!” (Wright
1941) These over- priced small living spaces negatively affected black Americans
and negatively changed their view of life up north. According to Wright, “The
kitchenette is our prison, our death sentence without a trial, the new form of mob
violence that assaults not only the lone individual, but all of us, in its ceaseless
attacks.” (Wright et al., 1941) You have too many quotes here. You need to break
them up with your own narrative. “The kitchenette throws desperate and unhappy
people into an unbearable closeness to association, thereby increasing latent
friction, giving birth to never-ending quarrels of recrimination, accusation, and
vindictiveness, producing warped personalities.” (Wright, 1941) You need to end
the paragraph with your own argument.
The hope black Americans had formed about the equality in the north soon
faded. According to Lewis and Kelley, “Black Southerners who moved north hoping
to leave behind the color line and racial hostilities quickly learned a harsher reality.
The rules were unwritten in the North, but they were rules nevertheless. These
neighborhoods were off-limits; those restaurants "don't serve Negroes." Sit where
you want on the streetcar but don't be surprised if a white passenger moves away.
Many teachers made no secret of their belief in the inability of black children to
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How The Restrictions On Rentals and Over-Priced Small Living Spaces Affected The
Attitudes Of Black Americans In The North During The Great Migration In The Early
19th Century
learn as quickly as their white peers.” (Lewis & Kelley, 2005) You need to end the
paragraph with your own argument.
These restricted by color rentals and over-priced small living spaces must’ve
You should not use the work “must have” – You need to make an argument that is
more formed. You seem to have evidence here to support the claim that Northern
conditions did not necessarily provide a hopeful context for African Americans to
“start over in a new place”. You describe some of these conditions (mostly based on
Wright’s publication).
angered, disappointed, and distorted the hope held by the black Americans who
migrated up north hoping for “a chance to start over in a new place together.”
(Wilkerson et al., 2010)
References
Lewis, E. & Kelley, R. D.G. (2005). To Make Our World Anew Vol. 2, The History of
African Americans from 1800. New York: Oxford University Press
Wilkerson, Isabel (2010). The Warmth Of Other Suns. New York: Random House
Wright, Richard, & Rosskam, Edwin (1941). 12 Million Black Voices. New York: Basic
Books
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