The Race Issue in America 1929-90
Black Americans in 1929
This unit will ask you examine changes in the lives of Black Americans from 1929 to 1990. As
with any historical enquiry that focuses on change, we need to start by getting a picture of life at
the start of our period.
Background
The majority of Black Americans were descended from slaves, brought over from Africa to work
on plantations in the southern states of America during the 17th and 18th centuries. Even after
the international trade in slaves had been abolished, the plantations in the south of the United
States continued to rely heavily on slave labour. As the United States grew, a gap emerged
between the northern states who had a mostly industrial economy, and the southern states who
remained heavily agricultural, and this gap was one of the causes of the Civil War which was
fought between the southern and northern states between 1861 and 1865. After the war, slavery
was made illegal, however there remained a massive gulf between the experience of white and
black Americans.
Life for black Americans in 1929
Even through slavery was made illegal in the US in 1885, black and white Americans did not
become equal. Slavery was replaced by segregation, which meant that the two races were not
allowed to mix. Black people lived in separate neighbourhoods, went to separate schools,
travelled on separate buses, and even had to use separate public toilets. Until the 1940s the Red
Cross even kept black and white people's blood separate. This last fact should tell you something
about the attitude towards black people in America - they were considered to be fundamentally
different to whites.
There was another side to segregation though. Black Americans were not just separate, they
were worse off. Schools for blacks received much less funding than white schools. Black people
were banned from many places. Many jobs were closed to blacks, and the vast majority
continued to work, for very low wages, on the farms and plantations where their ancestors had
been slaves. The laws that enforced segregation were known as the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow had
been a character from a 19th century comedian's act that was based on making black people
look stupid. Because segregation was enforced by law, there was very little that blacks could do.
In 1929 the vast majority of America's black population lived in the southern states, where their
ancestors had been slaves on the plantations. However during the 1920s, as America grew
richer, and more and more jobs became available in the northern states, and over 800,000 black
people moved north looking for more work. This is know as 'Migration to the North'. On the
plus side, many northern states didn't have laws enforcing segregation and many black people
were able to find work. On the other hand, even without segregation laws racism was common,
black people usually ended up with the lowest paid jobs and were the first to get fired. In the
cities black neighbourhoods quickly grew up. These were known as Ghettos.
The Race Issue in America 1929-90
For your exam
Make sure you understand and can explain the four key ideas from this section:
➡
Segregation
➡
Jim Crow Laws
➡
Inequality of wealth and opportunity between black and white Americans
➡
Migration to the North