Racism in AmericaKKK and the Great Migration

The Great Migration

•During World War I, African Americans served as soldiers.• Thanks to wartime industries, 600,000

African Americans left the South and moved into Northern cities.• They got wartime jobs and settled

down in communities like Harlem in New York City.

Race Riots•When World War I ended, many men

were unemployed.• There were race riots in northern

cities: •Desperate, unemployed white men

attacked black neighborhoods.• It was called the Red Summer of

1919.

The Ku Klux Klan

Violent• The Ku Klux Klan was a violent

organization.• It was founded in 1866 for the sole

purpose of terrorizing African Americans in the U.S. South.

Race Hatred and Religious Hatred• The KKK had always stirred up racial

hatred.•But in the 1920s, it began stirring up

religious hatred.

Record Membership• During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was

reborn:• They had a new slogan: Patriotism,

religious fundamentalism, and white supremacy.• They attacked African Americans - plus

immigrants, Catholics, and Jews.• They elected Klansmen to political office.

Not just in the South•By 1924, the Klan was in its heyday: • It had four million members.• The KKK was not just a big deal in the

South (Georgia, Alabama).• It had millions of members in the Midwest (Indiana) and the West (Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon).

The “Invisible Empire”•Members were often the guy next

door - the pharmacist, the dentist, the real estate salesman.• They often dominated local and state

politics.

Why?•During the 1920s, small-town

America was intolerant of anyone they considered to be “un-American.”• They terrorized anyone who was not

a WASP - a White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

The Great Migration

The Causes• From 1900 onward, many African

Americans moved out of the rural South and into Northern cities.•Between 1916 and 1970, six million

black Southerners moved to cities in the North and West.

The Push Factors• Life in the South was a nightmare: • Sharecropping• Jim Crow laws• the KKK • lynch mobs

The Pull Factors• The No. 1 reason: J.O.B.S. During World

War One, war-time jobs opened up.•More opportunity: Higher wages, better

housing, better schools, and the right to vote.• Northern cities offered libraries,

museums, theaters, night school for adults.• These opportunities were off-limits or

unavailable in the South.

World War I• The first wave of the Great Migration

began in 1916, just before the U.S. entered World War I.• Northern industries hired black workers

for the first time. Why?•When World War I began, government

orders began and immigration came to a halt.•With no immigrants available to work,

factory owners turned to African Americans in the South.

The Drawbacks•Northern cities had race riots, racial

discrimination, and residential segregation.•But life in the North was definitely

better than in the South.

The National Urban League•Who helped the black immigrants?• Black newspapers - they encouraged people

to move out of the South and into the North.• Black churches helped migrants find jobs and

housing.• The National Urban League was founded in

1910 to help black migrants find jobs and housing.

The Results• Half in the North• Before World War I, 90% of all African

Americans lived in the South.• By 1970, the majority of African Americans

lived in the North.• Black Communities• The Great Migration created the first large,

urban black communities in the North.• The cities with large black communities were

New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and many others.