History 2-3 page paper - "To what extent did WWI alter the status of Americans between 1914-1920"?

Du Bois believed that African-American support for the war would strength- en calls for racial justice. In contrast, William Monroe Trotter, founder of the Boston Guardian, believed that victims of racism should not support a racist gov- ernment. Trotter condemned Du Bois’s accommodationist approach and favored protest instead. Nevertheless, despite grievances over continued racial inequality in the United States, most African Americans backed the war.

THE GREAT MIGRATION In concrete terms, the greatest effect of the First World War on African Americans’ lives was that it accelerated the Great Migration, the large-scale movement of hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks to cities in the North. This great population shift had already begun before the war in the late 19th century, when African Americans trickled northward to escape the Jim Crow South—but after the turn of the century, the trickle became a tidal wave.

Several factors contributed to the tremendous increase in black migration. First, many African Americans sought to escape racial discrimination in the South, which made it hard to make a living and often threatened their lives. Also, a boll weevil infestation, aided by floods and droughts, had ruined much of the South’s cotton fields. In the North, there were more job opportunities. For example, Henry Ford opened his automobile assembly line to black workers in 1914. The outbreak of World War I and the drop in European immigration increased job opportunities for African Americans in steel mills, munitions plants, and stockyards. Northern manufacturers sent recruiting agents to distribute free railroad passes through the South. In addition, the publisher of the black-owned newspaper Chicago Defender bombarded Southern blacks with articles contrasting Dixieland lynchings with the prosperity of African Americans in the North.

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History ThroughHistory Through

THE MIGRATION OF THE NEGRO, PANEL NO. 1

(1940–41) This painting by Jacob Lawrence shows three of the most common destinations for African Americans leaving the South. Why do you think the artist has not shown any individual facial features?E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

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Making Inferences

How did the war open opportunities for African Americans?