Making of the Second Ghettoby Arnold R. Hirsch

Examining the Effects of the Great Migration on Migrants and Residents in

Northern Urban Centers

Learning and Teaching American History Summer Institute 2003

Illinois State University

Group Participants

• Donita Duffee-Lexington Unit #7• Patrick Martin-Lexington Unit #7• Megan Novotney-NCWHS Unit #5• Glen Petersen-NCWHS Unit #5• Kevin Suess-NCHS Unit #5• Eric Wagner-Kelvyn Park H.S. CPS

Question for Inquiry

How has the Great Migration impacted the social, economic, and political factors that shaped the lives of the migrants and existing residents in northern urban centers?

First Order DocumentONE WAY TICKETONE WAY TICKET

I pick up my life, And take it with me, And I put it down in Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Scranton, Any place that is North and East, And not Dixie.

I pick up my life And take it on the train, To Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake Any place that is North and West, And not South.

I am fed up With Jim Crow laws, People who are cruel And afraid, Who lynch and run, Who are scared of me And me of them I pick up my life And take it away On a one-way ticket- Gone up North Gone out West Gone! Langston Hughes, 1947

First Order Document Justification

• Length

• High Interest Material

• Interdisciplinary Connections (Poetry)

• Prominent African American Author

• Prior Knowledge

First Order Document Justification

• Poem acts as a “vehicle for inquiry”• Suitable for various ages/abilities• Springboard-2nd & 3rd Order Documents• Generative

– Race Riots – Segregation (i.e. De Facto/De Jure)– Demographic Shifts– Cultural Diffusion– Movements (i.e. Environmental Perception, Push/Pull)– Civil Rights (i.e. Jim Crow Laws)

Second Order Document #1Support

• Demonstrates exodus of African Americans from southern states to northern states between 1940-1960.

• Map allows students the opportunity to inquire about the population shifts.

2nd Order Document #2Support

LUTCHER, LA., May 13, 1917

Dear Sir: I have been reading the Chicago defender and seeing so many advertisements about the work in the north I thought to write you concerning my condition. I am working hard in the south and can hardly earn a living. I have a wife and one child and can hardly feed them. I thought to write and ask you for some information concerning how to get a pass for myself and family. I dont want to leave my family behind as I cant hardly make a living for them right here with them and I know they would fare hard if I would leave them. If there are any agents in the south there havent been any of them to Lutcher if they would come here they would get at least fifty men. Please sir let me hear from you as quick as possible. Now this is all. Please dont publish my letter, I was out in town today talking to some of the men and they say if they could get passes that 30 or 40 of them would come. But they havent got the money and they dont know how to come. But they are good strong and able working men. If you will instruct me I will instruct the other men how to come as they all want to work. Please dont publish this because we have to whisper this around among our selves because the white folks are angry now because the negroes are going north. * * * NATCHEZ, MISS., Sept. 22–17

MR. R. S. ABBOTT, Editor.

2nd Order Document #3Support

Chicago’s public housing "was intended to provide poor people with a higher standard of living. It was supposed to be an example of what a benevolent government could do. It was engineered to give a chance at a better life to people who had been left behind by the American Dream.

In theory, splendid.

In practice, a disaster."

2nd Order Document #3 cont’dSupport

• According to an article in Architectural Forum, this “open corridor design and unfinished concrete construction minimize cost and rents.”

• Additionally, the article compared this particular housing with “plush New York insurance projects being built to rent for as much per room as Ogden Courts are likely to obtain per apartment.”

Second Order Document #4Refute

• Herblock-1966

• Washington Post

• Slums=bomb=riots

• North not “escape”

Second Order Document #5Refute

• The South Deering neighborhood of Chicago was an entry point for African Americans during the 1950s. Hoped for integration turned into white exodus and black isolation.

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Identify the 1st Order Document

• Author-Langston Hughes• Title-“One Way Ticket”• Date-1947• Type-Poem

Analyze the 1st Order Document

• Main Idea- Great Migration: Causes and Effects• Relationship to Other Documents-The basis upon which

all other documents will support/refute the point of inquiry. • Preceding Conditions that Motivated the Author-

Southern segregation and “Jim Crow” laws prompted African Americans to leave the south.

• Intended Audience and Purpose-Other African Americans and is a call to promote migration.

• Biases of the Author-Hughes was a social justice activist and his experiences as a black man in the south.

• Questions to Ask the Author-Did Hughes believe that blacks would truly be accepted in their new communities?

Historical Context of 1st Order Document

• Important People, Events, & Ideas of the Time– Local/Regional-African American Migrants, Milton C.

Mumford, Holman D. Pettibone, Race Riot of 1919, Integration vs. Segregation, Racism, CHA

– National-Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harlem Renaissance, The Great Depression, HUD, NAACP

– World-WW I, WW II, Marcus Garvey, Back to Africa Movement

• ConclusionsThis poem serves as a gateway to a variety of historical topics relating to social, economic, and political factors that shaped both the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement.

1st & 2nd Order Document References

1st Order Document One Way Ticket Langston Hughes 1947

www.pbs.org/goingtochicago/images/photos/migrants.jpg

2nd Order Documents#1-Liberty Equality Power: A History of the American People-with Infotrac,

Vol. 2John M. Murrin, Johnson, McPherson, Gerstle, E. Rosenberg

#2-www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5332/#3-Architectural Forum, January 1950, pgs. 84-85#4-The Built-In Bomb 1966 Washington Post fromThe Herblock Gallery

– MindSparks Interactive Learning Tools; Highsmith Inc 1995#5-www.suntimes.com/index/census.html

Habit of Mind and Vital Theme and Narrative

• Habit of Mind-Understand how things happen and how they change.

• Use of Habit of Mind-Identify the reasoning behind migration and the realities of change and relocation.

• Vital Theme and Narrative-Patterns of social and political interaction.

• Evidence that supports Vital Theme and Narrative-Social mobility and questions of social justice and key arguments in the documents.

• Evidence this document supports other 1st, 2nd, 3rd Order Documents within this Theme-Promotes the reader to pose questions to the status of social justice and how that can be attained or lost.

Relationship to a Discipline in the Social Sciences/Social Studies

• Discipline-History• Evidence of Relationship-Historic movement of

populations• NCSS Theme-Three: People, Places and

Environment.• Evidence of Relationship-How/why humans

settle in their locations.

3rd Order DocumentSuggestions

• Types of 3rd Order Documents– Periodicals

– Photos

– Statistical data

– Personal Accounts• Diaries, letters, etc.

• Examples of 3rd Order Documents– The Pantagraph

• December 2002 Issues

– Relative Websites• http://

www.columbia.edu/~sk652/

• http://www.suntimes.com/census/data.html

• http://www.wethepeoplemedia.org/