African Americans In The 1900's

In the 1900’s, there was a large population of African Americans who lived in the South. However, around 1910’s and 1920’s, they started moving out to other states. Some of them moved to other states looking for better jobs, while others moved looking for better education for themselves and their children. Some just wanted to escape the racism and the discrimination they were facing in the South. African Americans tried to go to the big Northern Cities because they thought they would have better chances. “For example, in 1910, the African American population of Detroit was approximately 6,000. By 1930, the number had increased to 120,000” (History Brief). Throughout the paper, I will be explaining why there was a big African American population
who moved from the South to different states across the country, as well as the letters they wrote defending themselves and their rights. African Americans have been facing inequality in different ways, including Education.
African Americans fled from the South looking for better educational opportunities that would give them more chances to build a strong society. Many African Americans could have graduated from a well-known college with a high degree. However, this was an unachievable dream because of their skin color. Black skinned teachers got paid less than the white men just because of their skin color. For example, in the first letter of "Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918" an African American wrote: “I am compelled to teach 150 children without any assistance and receives only $27.00 a month, the white with 30 get $100” (Letters of Negro Migrants). The previous example explains how an African American was treated differently than white
people. These days, skin color -for the most part- does not matter when trying to find a job opportunity. Back in the Great Migration, African Americans did all they could to move out from the South to get better work opportunities. When a man from Mississippi read the paper of the Chicago defender, which was a newspaper produced in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott every week in Chicago and was considered the most important paper to African American people, he contacted Robert to ask him for favors and help to get opportunities in Chicago. He was not asking Robert to do it for him for free, instead he said, “I am willing to pay whatever you charge I don't want you to loan me not 1 cent but help me to find an occupation there in your town” (Letters of Black Migrants). They did not care what they worked as, all they wanted to do is get a job where they were all treated equally, regardless of skin color. They did not care was they were doing. One of them said “Sir I can wash dishes, wash iron nursing work in groceries and dry good stores. Just any of these I can do.” (Sir I will Thank You).This explains how African Americans were willing to go above and beyond to move out from the South to make themselves a better life. The Chicago defender paper has been such a major role in the African American life’s.
That is because it represented them and their view. It showed what was going on with them back in the 1900’s. It helped them in expressing their feelings and all the tough situations they were going through, like lynching and racism. After Robert S. Abbott started producing the paper, many African Americans read it and contacted him so they could get help. When African Americans read the paper. They felt like there was somebody who knows how they feel and is able to help them. People who learned how to read for the first time expressed how great it was in letters sent to Robert. One man wrote him: “Dear Sir: Permitt me to inform you that I have had the pleasure of reading the Defender for the first time in my life as I never dreamed that there was such a race paper published and I must say that its some paper.” (Sir I will Thank You). When Robert produced his paper, he made sure African Americans knew that they could express how they felt and how the world is not fair to them. Also, this paper gave an opportunity to African Americans who were living in the South to have second and better chances in their lives. That was done by contacting people in different states that could help them. What African American went through in the 1900’s was a shame. Heinous events were committed by white people against the blacks. Nobody should ever go through something like
that.