Essay #1 In the turn of the century era (roughly 1890s-1920s), for people who were not middle-class WASPs: did they mostly experience America as a land of plenty, freedom of opportunity, and tolerance? If not, then how did these people cope with and/or confront their problematic situations?

What follows are points that would be included in an excellent (A+) response. (The points would not necessarily have to follow this structure.) These are points to support an argument that African Americans and non-WASP immigrant workers did not mostly experience America as a land of plenty & tolerance (all of you tried to make this argument -- no students argued the opposite perspective, which is why I’m not including the alternative argument here.)

African Americans in the South: Racism: voting restrictions, sharecropping (lack of economic opportunities), Jim Crow (de jure segregation), lynching/mob violence

African Americans in the North: Racism: economic discrimination, particularly types of jobs they could get; de facto segregation, particularly in housing – faced with the ghetto; violence from whites, e.g. targeted by KKK, neighborhood ‘improvement’ associations

How Afr Ams dealt with it:

- tradition of self-help: build own communities, institutions, charities. Churches very important in this regard. Cultural movements, such as Harlem Renaissance.

- moving (Great Migration)

- Booker T. Washington’s ideas of accommodation and learning basic trades.

- DuBois’s/NAACP’s ideas about confrontation, demanding political rights, cultivating a Talented Tenth. Challenging residential segregation (case of Ossian Sweet).

Immigrant Working-Class Problems

- At workplace: de-skilling, loss of control/alienation from work.

Low wages (poverty). Women and child labor. Long hours.

Unsafe working conditions. Insecurity, no safety net.

- Faced Nativism: religious and ethnic discrimination. (e.g. American Protective Association)

Ideas about racial hierarchy, Social Darwinism, Eugenics.

Coercive policies from employers seeking to Americanize them.

Immigration Restriction policies.

- against Japanese & Chinese

- 1924 Imm. Restriction Act. aimed at keeping out Southeastern Europeans and non-

Europeans.

- Poor Urban living conditions: crowded housing, poor sanitation, disease.

How they dealt with it:

- labor unions

- Self help: Kin & ethnic organizations. Ethnic neighborhoods. Preserve ‘old country’ traditions.

- Return to country of origin

- Leisure activities

- Saloon: important ethnic male institution (more than just a place to drink alcohol)

- Political Machine

- Use services offered by Progressives. Try to assimilate to WASP America.