Among the many reasons for the Black people to migrate to the North were: the subordinate status of the Black people to the whims of the white communities; a belief of more opportunities for jobs, education, and the freedom to live the lives guaranteed them in the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution of the United States of America, and to be free of the extreme punishments for noncompliance of the Jim Crow Laws inundated throughout the southern states after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The Ida Mae Brandon Gladney family was an example of these migratory people. The Gladney family left in the fall of 1937 by a Jim Crow train for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the night that George, Ida Mae’s husband, settled with Mr. Edd for his …show more content…
year of hard labor in the cotton fields on the Pearson plantation. The attack on Joe Lee, George’s cousin, was the catalyst which expedited the move north for the Gladney family. This money allotted George enough to pay for tickets to Milwaukee. The days of picking cotton bolls was over for Ida and George. The journey to Milwaukee was long and crowded in the designated area, and anxiety regarding their basic needs when they did arrive was weighing heavily on their minds. But their strong belief in God helped to calm this uneasiness. Ida and George noticed the lure of Chicago, Illinois on their way to Milwaukee, but quickly put it to the back of their minds. They were filled with excitement on the closeness of their destination in Wisconsin. A busy city life was a brand new way of living for the Gladney’s; it was a direct opposite to the familiar quiet, solitary labor of the cotton fields of Mississippi. George scoured the city for a job in the middle of a recession. Employment was almost nonexistent for the unskilled labor that George was seeking. As a result of scarcity of jobs, the caste system raised its ugly head yet again. Meanwhile, Ida settled her family in Irene’s living room. (Ida Mae made the best of it all as was her custom to do when faced with uncontrollable circumstances.) Two months later, George was still without a job.
Ida chose to return to Mississippi for the birth of her daughter “for the express purpose of having the baby in the familiar hands of a midwife”. While she was there, George relocated to Chicago seeking steady employment where he obtained a series of small jobs and was finally able to rent a one room basement apartment for his returning family. George gradually improved jobs and obtained steady employment with the Campbell Soup Company, which ended up being his lifetime occupation. Throughout this period of time, George sought improved housing and a better environment for his growing family. However, they were still obligated to live within the allotted areas for Black families which were extremely overpopulated. Ida Mae was not too proud to accept advice from migrants who were there before her and The Defender's periodic lists of “do's and don’ts” . She was above all not a complainer or a slacker, but would work alongside of her husband determined to help achieve the objectives they courageously set out to accomplish, more opportunities, freedom to practice all aspects of life granted in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and protection from the Jim Crow laws for all of their
family. Ida Mae labored at a variety of domestic jobs in her quest for employment, even trying jobs in factories to be able to contribute to family expenses. Finally, she was hired as a hospital aide at Walther Memorial. This choice was far more suitable for her skills and talents and a gross change from the demanding cotton fields in Mississippi. In the 1940s, George and Ida followed their Christian instincts and attempted to help other family and friends make the journey to the North a more pleasant experience than their own encounter. Saint, George’s brother who helped them to escape Mississippi, came with his family and stayed in Chicago. Ida Mae’s younger sister Talma’s husband paid them a visit, but decided to remain in Mississippi. When others came to see what life was like in the North, Ida and George’s children were interested in them. The children could not relate to the strangers because stories of their roots were never discussed. Therefore, they were simply beneficiaries of “the same southern peasant food, the same turnip greens, ham hocks, corn bread” , and music found in the unfamiliar South. While Ida and George’s hearts remained in love with family and friends in Mississippi, they were busy raising their family and did not have time to go back to Mississippi except for illnesses or funerals. Ida returned for her mother’s illness and funeral, as well as the death of her younger sister, Talma. George returned to his brother Willie’s funeral. In the 1940s, the Gladney’s were registered voters residing in the city of Chicago, Illinois. “Suddenly, the very party and the very apparatus that was ready to kill them if they tried to vote in the South was searching them out and all but carrying them to the polls.” They were allowed to vote without paying a poll tax. Ida became a volunteer at the polls, helping other migrants learn the logistics of how to place their votes. At this time, the Black migrant vote gave F. D. Roosevelt another term in the White House. After years of paying exorbitant rents, George and Ida and their grown children, Velma, who was teaching, James, who had secured a job driving a bus, and Eleanor, who was a ticket agent for the elevated train, pooled their resources and bought a three flat home on the South side of Chicago. This provided a home for James and his family on the first floor, George and Ida Mae on the second floor, and Eleanor and her kids on the third, or a tenant to help make house payments. This move allowed the family to stay close together. However, when they moved in, slowly but surely the white neighbors moved out. It was another silent way of displaying that segregation was alive in Chicago. Soon the whole area consisted of Black families. Within a decade, notice came from Ida’s sister Irene in Milwaukee that she was having eye surgery and was hoping Ida could come help with her recovery. George asked Ida not to go, but a friend provided transportation, so she and Eleanor went to Milwaukee. At the age of 68, after “two previous heart attacks”, George was not in the best of health, but did not believe in doctors. He refused to believe there was anything wrong with him. Unfortunately, George Gladney left this world while Ida Mae was in Milwaukee with Irene, leaving his family to fend for themselves. Ida was inconsolable and blamed herself for not being with him in his time of need. Life had many changes for Ida without her mentor and partner, George. Facing challenges of family obligations along with neighborhood transformations alone kept this beloved grandmother alert. Crime and sin were all around them, but as always, church going Ida focused on positive assets of her home in Chicago. In later years, Ida retreated to the front window of her apartment where she had a full view of these unsavory happenings. As always, she was mindful of all events that might affect her loving family. Ida and George did achieve some of their goals they desired in their migration from Mississippi. While the caste system and segregation were still active, there were more opportunities for a variety of employment, as well as a quality education for their children. George and Ida found jobs more suited for them than the hot, manual labor of the cotton fields of Mississippi, and their children had choices of jobs that would not be available to them if George and Ida had stayed in the place of their birth. The northern states were not as steeped in slavery as the needs of southern plantation owners, so the 13th, and 14th amendments were not as big a threat to their livelihood. Black people were able to secure a variety of jobs from anyone willing to hire them. They would not be subject to Jim Crow Laws that threatened their very existence. Chicago was not the utopia that older migrant’s stories professed it to be, but Ida and George had the strength, courage, and insight to create a happier life for themselves and their descendants.
They wanted to be saved from their lives of slavery. What we know about the white slaves is far more than what we know about the black slaves. So as little as is known about the white slaves, far less is know about the Africans. Because nothing is known about the African slaves that were sent to Yeardley and Piersey’s plantation everything that has been said about it is all just what has been assumed and rumored.
...African-American women domestic workers in Atlanta during the periods between Reconstruction and World War 1 demonstrate they were active participates in the economic, social and political life of the New South. In addition, the private and public spheres accorded to white woman was non-existent for African-American women. Hunter concludes that the strategies employed by the washerwoman’s strike are inconclusive at best and evidence is lacking whether their demands for wage increases ever materialized. She does note however, that washerwoman did maintain the appearance of independence not enjoyed by most workers.
Ida B. Wells was born into slavery, and lived in Holly Springs Mississippi. She was later freed, and learned from her parents what it meant to be a political activist. By 1891, Wells was the owner of the newspaper, Free Speech, and was reporting on the horrors that were occurring in the south. Wells, along with other people of the African American activist community were particularly horrified about the lynching’s that were occurring in the south. As a response to the lynching that was occurring, and other violent acts that the African American community was dealing with Wells wrote three pamphlets: Southern Horrors, The Red Record, and Mob Brutality. Muckraking and investigative journalism can be seen throughout these pamphlets, as well as Wells intent to persuade the African American community, and certain members of the white community to take a stand against the crime of lynching. Wells’ writings are an effective historical text, because she serves as a voice to an underrepresented African American community.
Eric Arnesen’s book, Black Protest and the Great Migration: A Brief History with Documents, successfully portrays the struggles of early life for African Americans as well as why they migrated to the north in the years of World War I. During the first world war, the lives of as many as 500,000 African Americans changed dramatically as southern blacks migrated to the north. The migration escalated a shift in the population from extremely rural people to urban people in the years following the second world war. Those who lived in the south, particularly black southerners, had many reasons for why they wanted to move to the north. Due to the failure of Reconstruction, which was supposed to re-build the South after the Union victory and grant slaves
The Kenderian family was sweet and wholesome before the Turks took everything away from them. Vahan is worried when his father hasn’t returned (13). This is a strong indicator that he loves his father, even all the unwanted discipline couldn’t make him bitter towards his daddy. Vahan is not concerned with money, school, or health, as the Kenderian’s are one of the richest Armenian families in their part of Turkey (4). The irony of Vahan surviving out of his entire family is that he goes a full circle. In the beginning of the book (4), he scoffs at beggars as if they are trash, and near the middle of the novel (103), Vahan is the beggar. This shows how different reality is from what Vahan thought his life would be. His father told him to never be a beggar, and then he dies and Vahan is the beggar. Before the genocide starts, Vahan is considered the “black sheep” for standing out in a not-so-great way. Vahan is a rebel; he speaks out of turn, falls asleep at school, and gets in trouble often (5-6). His rebellious side keeps him alive through the massacre. All the other Kenderians conform easily, but Vahan doesn’t die as easy. While people are dying all around him, Vahan stays strong. If he gave up his hope, he truly wouldn’t have anything left.
Blacks have always had a challenging time since slavery. Conditions were harsh during this time period as many lived in extreme poverty. The South offered little agriculturally since farming did not pay. In the North, wages were three times higher than in the South. Blacks wanted to escape racism in the South and moving North promised a better life. The North was experiencing labor shortages in factories, and blacks took advantage of that. Many blacks built and created their own cities to escape racism. Moving to the North symbolized freedom from racism, but many of them did not obtain what they had hoped.
In the south, cotton was becoming a huge success for the southern farmer. Cotton, being a very laborious crop, required the ownership of many slaves per plantation. Unlike the immigrants of the north, slaves were property. Slaves were also much less of a profit. When a slave became ill he could not simply be replaced, he needed to be cared for, after all, this was the plantation owners property. On the other hand in the north if a worker became to ill to work, there were several immigrants waiting for the job.
During the Harlem Renaissance period, Alain Locke considers African Americans as transforming into someone “new.” He describes how African Americans migrated from the south to the north and were given new opportunities. The old Negro was being taken away from constantly being scrutinized by the public and whites. The Negros transformed into stronger intellectuals which was significant because before they weren’t allowed to do so. For example, “Similarly the mind of the Negro slipped from under the tyranny of social intimidation and to be shaking off the imitation and implied inferiority.” The “new” Negro strived for equal rights. Alain Locke describes other factors that pushed African Americans to move north to discover a “rebirth.” The “new” Negro went north to obtain the opportunity to move up from the bottom, to get away from the Ku Klux Klan, and to get away from the pressure of having to many poor crops. For instance, he says “The wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of the northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social and economic freedom, of a spirit to seize, even in the face of an extortionate and heavy toll, a chance for the improvement of conditions.” By moving North the African Americans had a chance to live a better life and were set free of depending on the whites to take care of them in exchange for their labor. He also believes that the Negro began to experience something “new” by the way they began to understand and accept the Negro race. For example, Locke says, “With this renewed self- respect and self-dependence, the life of the negro community is bound to enter a new dynamic phase, the buoyancy from within compensating for whatever pressure there may be conditions from without.” The “new” then recognized the ability to become independent, which was a significant role of the “new” Negro because by gaining independence they then discover a life for themselves.
The cultural transition from youth to adulthood in the U.S. is often a period of chiefly physical maturation, accompanied by progressive changes in perceptions of the world that surrounds oneself. The years in which Anne Moody grew up in Mississippi were marked by often vicious racism, regardless of the emancipation of African-American slaves some 80 years earlier. The laws of many of the former Confederate states, such as the Mississippi Black Codes, often included in them provisions to severely limit the rights of African-Americans. Such passages as the Mississippi vagrant law, fining ‘idle’ blacks, illustrate this through the underhanded encouragement to keep blacks in their former place of servitude. Anne Moody’s coming of age in the era of the oppressive Black Codes was not only that of physical change, but chiefly one of mental growth from that of a victim of the injustices of the Southern U.S. to an active agent of change for her fellow African-Americans.
Throughout her career Ida achieved more than anyone thought was possible for an African American women during that time. However, it was not an easy process. Ida faced many hardships throughout her career including, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and hate from the people she fought against. Ida faced all her problems head on which is a major reason for her success. She continued to persevere even when everyone seemed to be against her. She never took no for an answer and always worked hard till she accomplished her goals. Everyone knew and still knows Ida as a hard worker, determined to fight for the rights of her and others around her. Ida died in Chicago on March 25th of 1931 but her legacy continues to live on.
When the Civil War was in its' early stages, many ex-slaves wanted to get in on the action. They were hoping to get revenge against those who had
Since the beginning, the United States` government, racial slavery had conquered various American identities. “Racism sprung early colonial times due the slavery riot incidence misinterpretations, leading full men, women, and children racial slavery of all different ethnic backgrounds” (Hooker 1). African-Americans held a life long work and Caribbean island shipment originating and affective progression to American colonies. “An importation of 4,000,000 Negroes were held in bondage by Southern planters” (Webstine).Advanced time went, and Northern states nurtured a rapid industrial revolution; Factory introduction, machines, and hired workers replaced any agricultural need of existing slaves. Southern states, however, maintained their original work, continuing the previous circular agricultural system. This suited the firm economic foundation of United States government. However, even continuing economic growth, some Americans still recognized moral rights. The moving disagreement era, America’s Antebellum period grew a deep internal struggle within the American society’s families. “Abolitionists, anti-racial discrimination groups, demanded an end to dehumanized labor treatment in the Southern states” (James 94). However, during this time, women discrimination was also another hot topic taking place. These movements pursued, and women joined numerous groups, and became more society perceived, standing with the thousands African-Americans, immigration workers, and women’s rights, demanding their societal rights. One particular woman advocating her own level in society, gender, race, and all, bringing her standing beliefs was Sojourner Truth. A former run away slave, Sojourner Truth, who originally contemplated no Ameri...
Froner’s account of the efforts of slaves to get north to freedom emphasizes that, although there were many heroic whites who helped, even their efforts would hardly have been possible “without the courage and resourcefulness, in a hostile environment, of blacks,” ranging from those northern free blacks who served on abolition committees to “the ordinary men and women”
Even the murders and the beating of African American turned black citizen away from the south and move out because of Jim Crow laws. Isabel Wilkerson use three unique stories to go into detail about the Great Migration. Ida Mae Gladney is one of the three stories, Gladney left Mississippi for Chicago in 1937. She left sharecropping and moved north, but the main reason that Gladney left because a cousin was attacked and almost killed over a theft that he had not committed. Soon after Ida Mae Gladney husband came home and told her “This is the last crop there were making” then left for the north. For the next story George Starling also another character in the book that had hard times in the south and moved to the north and have reasons. Starling is located in Florida and come from one-star motels. A place where people is overworked, pool hustlers, bootleggers, and fake doctors. Also Starling was great student, but had to find work and left school to start work. George finally got a job in Florida as a citrus picker and got into some trouble for speaking for one of he’s co-workers that was being mistreated. Also Starling started asking for better
The North had confidently been recognized as a manufacturing society. Labor was needed, although not necessarily slave labor. Immigration was an encouragement. Immigrants that were from European regions worked in factories, built the railroads in the North, and developed the West. Very little stayed put in the South.