United States History: 1877 to the Present

Turmoil and Change: 1890s to 1945

USII.5

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century by

a) explaining how developments in transportation (including the use of the automobile), communication, and rural electrification changed American life;
b) describing the social changes that took place, including prohibition, and the Great Migration north;
c) examining art, literature, and music from the 1920s and 1930s, emphasizing Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and Georgia O’Keeffe and including the Harlem Renaissance;
d) identifying the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Begin the unit with questions about what prohibition was and how effective it was and why African Americans migrated to northern cities.
Explain that reforms in the early twentieth century could not legislate how people behaved.
Discuss how economic conditions and violence led to the migration of people.
Explain how prohibition was imposed by a constitutional amendment that made it illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages.
Discuss the results of prohibition, such as:

Speakeasies were created as places for people to drink alcoholic beverages.
Bootleggers smuggled illegal alcohol and promoted organized crime.

Explain the Great Migration north, including the following information:

Jobs for African Americans in the South were scarce and low paying.
African Americans faced discrimination and violence in the South.
African Americans moved to northern cities in search of better employment opportunities.
African Americans also faced discrimination and violence in the North.

Explain that in 1919 the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution made it a crime to manufacture, sell, drink, or ship alcohol beverages anywhere in the United States. Supporters of Prohibition believed that alcohol caused crime and social problems. Prohibition was supposed to reduce crime, but it actually caused more crime. By the 1930s, most people agreed that prohibition laws were impossible to carry out and in 1933 the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution ended prohibition.
Remind students that African Americans living in the South in the early twentieth century faced severe discrimination and lack of job and educational opportunities. Laws passed in the South made it almost impossible for African Americans to participate in political life -- i.e., to vote or run for political office. African Americans also experienced discrimination in segregated public facilities, such as trains, schools, parks, restrooms, and water fountains. The KKK often enforced such segregation. African Americans had few job opportunities in the South. They went from being slaves to being tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Many wished to come north where it was believed there were more job opportunities and less discrimination.
Have students analyze a series of paintings by the artist Jacob Lawrence in order to gain an understanding of the Great Migration. Lawrence's Migration Series can be found in its entirety with captions by Lawrence at the Great Migration: A Story in Paintings by Jacob Lawrence, http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/odonnell/w1010/edit/migration/migration.html. Multiple copies of the book, The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence (New York: HarperCollins Juvenile Books, 1993), may also be used for this exercise. Select a set of images that best represents the challenges faced by African Americans who were part of the migration. All the paintings in the series are numbered for easy reference. Assign the same set of images to every student, or have them look at different sets of images. Alternatively, show a selection of images to the whole class and analyze the paintings as a whole-group exercise.
An optional activity is to show the documentary film Goin' to Chicago from George King & Associates. The documentary is accompanied by a Web site, http://www.pbs.org/gointochicago/, that offers educational resources, including poetry by Langston Hughes and letters from African American Mississippians inquiring about the opportunities in the North.

WEB SITES

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam008.html
Library of Congress resource guide for the study of black history and culture

http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/gateway/gw_migration.htm
"Jim Crow" gateway the Great Migration Web sites

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2247/
Kennedy Center lesson about migration of African Americans to Harlem, beginning with the original migration of blacks to North America

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