Following the end of their service in World War II, many African Americans arrived in Flagstaff in search of better economic opportunities. Many of these new arrivals found these opportunities in the logging industry, which was in need of workers. While some of the workers were only seasonal and would return to their homes in the South once the season ended, others set down roots in Flagstaff to build a new life. For instance, John L. Williams migrated from the south in 1944, after serving in the Navy during World War II. He claimed that he had received letters from a friend, who would describe how he had made a large profit working in Flagstaff. Once he returned from overseas, he traveled to Flagstaff and ended up making more money working …show more content…
Many African Americans who have migrated to Flagstaff have stories similar to John L. Williams. For instance, Robert Joe was born in Williams, Arizona in 1939. His parents were born in the South and moved to Arizona before his birth. He states that they lived in Williams for about six years before they moved to Flagstaff so that his father could work in the sawmill. Families would also choose to migrate to Flagstaff after one family member arrived and wrote back about his experience. An example would be Jack Peters. His family migrated to Flagstaff in 1951, after his father’s brother, John L. Williams, had migrated seven years previous. Once one family member, typically a male relative, had migrated to Flagstaff and set down roots, additional family members would follow with the promise of better economic opportunities because of the logging industry. …show more content…
For instance, Annie Watkins states that before she was hired to teach, she helped register people to vote in her district, which was something she would have never been able to do down South. She stated that her parents were afraid once they learned what her job was because they feared that people would attack her for helping register African Americans to vote, which was a common occurrence in the South. African American women were able to involve themselves in politics in Flagstaff, which was impossible to do in the South because of the deep-rooted popular racist beliefs and opinions that permeated throughout Southern
Most of the officeholders were white men who had been on the political margins before the Civil War. In the Deep South, African Americans whom had just been freed from slavery were allowed to serve as state representatives and senators, county commissioners, treasurers, and occasionally sheriffs. They regarded the civil enfranchisement and the political empowerment of African Americans as the grossest of illegitimacies and the direst of threats. Initially through vigilante bands such as the Ku Klux Klan, but eventually through organizations with close ties to the Democratic
of Jim Crow and how they migrated looking for a better life or just to survive to the North
Standing up for yourself as an African-American during that time was a very rare and risky thing, especially if you were a woman. Ruby had only one teacher in a one student classroom because nobody wanted to teach her, they thought she was a waste of breath, time, energy and life. The principal didn't want
While attempting to transcend race boundaries, Brown is also forced to lose her femininity. If she showed vulnerability she would no longer be taken seriously by the community. By her nature she could not aspire to be the epitome of white womanhood, as she could not relinquish her place in the community for the sake of a husband or family. Gilmore describes her as a “diplomat,” a servant to the public. Brown’s life was unapologetically public and political, a fundamental difference between her and white women. However, this was not unusual for black women, especially in the South. Post-slavery, black men were unable to find public work, so women needed
Strangers in the Land of Paradise by Lillian S. Williams explores the settlement of African Americans in Buffalo in the time of the Great Migration. In this book, Williams discusses the process in which migrants from the South made their own black communities in Buffalo while bringing their beliefs and traditions with them, and having those beliefs evolve over time in a new setting. Her work sheds light on the experiences of blacks in Buffalo during a time where many changes were occurring; the Civil War had just ended and the Industrial Revolution was underway. She also speaks on how Buffalo was unique in that it became the final point for those escaping the racism and violence in the South, since it was the last point before crossing into Canada. In her own words, “the book examines the growth and development of Buffalo, the movement of European immigrants and African American migrants into the city, and their ability to secure an economic foothold. It tests the extent to which family and friendship networks for blacks were a significant force in their migration and acculturation. It also describes the establishment of institutions that African Americans created to shape their modern, urban community" (p. xiv).
During the latter 19th and early 20th centuries racism and racial segregation were considerable problems. Mob violence, including lynchings were responsible for the deaths of thousands of black men, women and children, often for crimes they had no part in or which were not even committed. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was born into slavery by James and Elizabeth Wells during the Civil War. She attended Rust College, which was partly founded by her father in Mississippi. After Wells’ parents died of yellow fever, she attained a teaching position at a local school by lying about her age. After some time teaching she moved to Memphis with two of her sisters, where she acquired another teaching position and continued her schooling at Fisk University. While her professional life was moderately successful, her personal life was dismal, however, “it is the very qualities that problematize her personal relationships… that will impel her to undertake… a courageous crusade against lynching” (DeCosta-Willis). Being a freed black woman in the south, Wells had firsthand knowledge of the segregation and racial tension of the time. This knowledge and her experiences gave her insights about the South that were crucial in her successful crusade against lynching and segregation.
Up until 1962 Fannie was like many black people ignorant of voting knowledge. She did not even know how to register. However, one changed her life. She attended a mass meeting at the Williams Chapel Church in Ruleville, Mississippi. This meeting was lead by workers from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). They
The trip from Franklin county to Malden, West Virginia was the first he had ever taken. The trip took Booker’s family many days because all of them had to walk to whole way. They settled in a very small house with many other black and very poor white neighbors. His step-father soon found work for Booker and his brother John. They worked in the salt furnaces and coal mines.
Her abolitionist leanings made her unpopular in her new community, as did her extreme stands on women's rights. She was very vocal about what she felt about women, saying in a speech once "if society will not admit of women's free development, then society must be remodeled." After a couple of years in Kentucky, she was more than ready for a change.
Around 1914 to 1920, over 500,000 African Americans had gathered their belongings and embarked on a journey to the North. World War I and the economic boom that accompanied it created the conditions that made the entrance of black migrants into northern industries possible. However, until then European immigrants had been arriving at an annual rate that surpassed the North’s total black population, thus providing employers with
“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was a newspaper editor and journalist who went on to lead the American anti-lynching crusade. Working closely with both African-American community leaders and American suffragists, Wells worked to raise gender issues within the "Race Question" and race issues within the "Woman Question." Wells was born the daughter of slaves in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. During Reconstruction, she was educated at a Missouri Freedman's School, Rust University, and began teaching school at the age of fourteen. In 1884, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued to teach while attending Fisk University during summer sessions. In Tennessee, especially, she was appalled at
The community of Maycomb, Alabama, as described in the book was not a wealthy area. Families such as the Cunningham’s and Ewell’s made up the lower-class of the community based on the conditions they had to endure. Harper Lee describes the Ewell residence in detail: "Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin” (170). In the 1930s, African Americans were not treated very fairly in American society. They had to face racism and discrimination on a daily basis. Many families had to live in poverty due to the disenfranchisement of the African American community. The problem all began as a result of classism which all ultimately stemmed from the Great Depression.
They thought that her father's request that her tax debt be covered by his donation was something only a woman would believe. This shows that there was even some inequality towards the southern white women.
that were seeking work found jobs in farming, mining, and railroad construction work this help