The setting of A Raisin in the Sun is a ghetto in Chicago, where most blacks lived. Colas goes on to explain how these districts consisted of over priced, over crowded and poorly maintained apartments and homes; and that in the ghettos the crime rates were high and public services were limited. Colas also lets us know that most blacks living in the ghetto had hopes of leaving to move to better suburban neighborhoods, but segregated housing kept them stuck in the ghetto. An interesting fact that Colas brought out was that the housing industry was the greatest cause of segregated housing in Chicago; within the housing industry many social scientist observed that real estate agencies play the largest role in maintaining segregated communities. He also revealed that real estate agents made enormous profits manipulating whites with the fears of integration.
Even though Harlem was mostly populated by the African-American community they could still not escape the racial segregation that the white Landlords showed them. During this time the white landlords would charge African Americans significantly more rent then they would to a white renter. However throughout the 1920’s, 118 792 white people left the area of Harlem and 87 417. This was due to the Jim Crow Laws being passed and an uprising of the Klu Klux Klan in the south. Even though being a slum, Harlem was considered the spiritual home for African Americans alike, all over
Immigrants would settle in poor inner-city areas such as London, Birmingham and Bradford where most working class whites lived. White people in these areas began to move out, as Bushnell and Warren states “By 1957 the government was concerned at what was described as ‘white-flight’ and ‘segregation in some of Britain’s major towns and cities.” This shows us that some white people were uncomfortable with the increasing numbers of immigrants settling in previously ‘white-dominated’ neighbourhoods and were prepared to leave in order to get away from them. Additionally there were also rising tensions between British citizens and immigrants, with phrases such as “immigrants are taking our jobs” and “they’re here for benefits” becoming popular amongst the various racist remarks. Hostility towards immigrants continued to increase as John D. Clare says “In 1964 a Conservative won the Smethwick Parliamentary seat from Labour with an openly racist campaign slogan: ‘If you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour’. This suggests that there was a considerably large amount of British citizens with racist opinions on immigrants and that even government officials were supportive of this racist attitude.
Since suburban housing was scarcely available to blacks, they were left with one logical option, which was to settle within the city limits. Living in apartments, townhomes, and tenements, the blacks would often resort to service and industrial-based careers. Their economic rise to a middle class status is due in part also to their major contributions in America’s industrial sector during WW2. The second factor drawing to a rise in civil rights awareness could be tied to technology (or the lack of it). The technologies presented to blacks exposed a clear rift between the rights of whites v. the rights of blacks.
Thus, the Civil Rights movement was able to create significant social and political change in America. The Civil Rights movement resulted significant change in social in several ways. First, with the Jim Crow law, which promoted racial separation that caused restrictions, discrimination in employment, housing, and schooling remained a significant obstacle for African Americans living in urban ghettos in the North and the West. This segregation led to the rebellious actions such as sit ins a tactic often used by the Congress of Racial Equality. Sit ins is when black males, often college students that sat down at the whites-only lunch counter.
al. indicate that race is the strongest factor in segregation, followed by class, and then life cycle. Even though racism is a strong determining factor, it is steadily declining whereas class segregation is increasing. Judd and Swansrom (2012) place these finding in a historical context arguing that many federal provisions enacted prior to 1960 and early in the decade contributed to these trends. As white flight incurred after World War II, sending white veterans and their families to suburbs, coupled with the expansion of highwys, the geographical makeup of the city became that of “white suburban donuts” surrounding “black inner city holes”.
The letter then talks about why King was in Birmingham. The fundamental reason that King was in Birmingham was because there was inequality there. It says that Birmingham is one of the most segregated cities in the United States. King believed that we are all part of one large union. If something has an effect on one of person, then it will have an effect on everyone.
♦ White soldiers hated the Blacks who had moved into their neighbourhood. 50,000 Blacks had moved into Chicago between 1900 and 1920. ♦ Blacks and Whites were segregated and when blacks crossed into white areas they faced harsh treatment ♦ The Blacks felt unfairly treated. ♦ The increased segregation concentrated the Blacks into one area and this led to a consciousness. 9 1919 to 1945 Social clubs also became a focus for Black politics and culture.
The methodology of their studies was based on the comparisons of cities with high and low levels of segregation and the effects on the society based on the changes in those levels of segregation. study gives credence to the argument that the isolation of the black community was a driving force for the concentrations of poverty within black urban neighborhoods. Economic dislocation is held responsible for the many of the societal problems that these communities grapple with. It is concisely argued that the withdraw of economic resources within the black urban communities were instrumental in the creation of what they call the “underclass.” It was through this economic restructuring, of the cities in which the majority of African-Americans lived, that the opportunities for a large demographic effectively disappeared. The trends of isolation of poor communities demonstrate the negative effects of a downward spiral of poverty that continually worsens its
Consequently because of their brown colored skin they are seen inferior compared to the Anglo and it sustains like this even in the twentieth century. Ralph Guzman, author of The Function of Anglo-American Racism in Political Development of Chicanos: from Chicano Politics: Readings, states that the Anglo assume that Mexican Americans “are their inferior” (49). Who are they to say that Mexicans are inferior? Their light skin and colored eyes do not make them a better person compared to any other. The fact that many of these Mexican Americans come from very poor cities and where poverty is extreme has to do a lot with these Anglo’s assumptions.