America Moves to the City

• Urbanization: the physical growth of urban areas which result in rural migration & suburban concentration into cities

• In 1860, 20% of Americans lived in cities with a population of at least 2500

• By 1900, that percentage increased to 40%• By 1950, it was 54%

But why???

• The mechanization of farming greatly reduced the number of farm jobs

• Conversely, the rise of big industry caused an increase in factory work

• New immigrants arrived (we’ll talk about that Thursday)

• The allure of the city had a big impact on Americans at this time, sort of like....

“Good, Wholesome Fun and the City”

• The city offered attractions like never before• Electricity & telephones became common by

1900• Huge departments stores offered city dwellers

both jobs & shopping opportunities• New, impressive engineering feats offered

jobs as well as prestige to growing cities• Brooklyn Bridge built in 1883

New Lifestyles

• Waste & garbage disposal became a new, and major, issue

• Criminals flourished, and “urban crime” became a phenomenon (and never stopped!)

• Dirty water, dirty air, & dirty humans became a problem for cities

• Horrible slums, called tenements, became the common living space for the poor working class

Tenements• Average bedroom size: 8.5x8.5 ft• Parlor (biggest room): 11x12.5 ft; only room w/ direct

sunlight; had small adjoining kitchen & bedroom• Entire apartment measured 325 square feet• No running water; toilet located in backyard or

common hallway • By 1900, 2/3 of New Yorkers lived in tenements

(roughly 2 million)• Average family was 6-8 people

“Dumbell Tenement”

Political Corruption

• Large urban centers were often run by corrupt “political machines” controlled by “political bosses”

• The machines often offered jobs to the poor & immigrants in exchange for votes

• Machines became involved in city-run services like hospitals & schools

• Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall is the most famous (NYC)

Women & Minorities

Women

• More than 1 million women entered the work force in the 1890s

• Vast majority of working women were single• Work was segregated among class & race• Blacks: domestic service• Native-born: social workers, secretaries, store

clerks, telephone operators• Immigrants: sweatshops, factories

• Some middle & upper class women became social reformers

• Jane Addams established the Hull House in 1889

• Settlement houses were run by wealthier people to help the poor

• Addams would win Nobel Peace Prize in 1931

Blacks

• Ex-slave Booker T. Washington taught at a black school in Tuskegee, Alabama

• Believed that blacks should learn valuable skills like agriculture to achieve economic security

• He did not challenge segregation or white supremacy

• Criticized by other blacks for being “accommodationist”

• W.E.B. Du Bois called Washington an “Uncle Tom” for not challenging for not fighting enough for blacks

• Born in Massachusetts, first black to earn a PhD at Harvard

• Demanded complete equality for blacks

• Helped found NAACP• Died in Africa in 1963

The “New” Immigrants

What is “new”?

• Most immigrants in the 1870s – 1900 came from Southern or Eastern Europe

• Most were either Catholic or Jewish, & spoke no English upon arrival

• Most arrived in big eastern harbors like NYC & Boston; most stayed there & lived in ghettos

• Immigrants were pushed out of their native countries by oppression and/or poverty, & pulled to America by the promise of freedom & economic opportunity

Reaction to Immigrants

• An estimated 12 million immigrants came through Ellis Island from 1900-1924

• Nativism: the American belief that immigrants were inferior to Native-born white Americans (especially White Anglo-Saxon Protestants); & that immigrants would steal jobs from Native-born Americans

• The process of “Americanizing” immigrant’s children was practiced by the government & schools

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

• By the 1880s, politicians in California blamed unemployment & low wages on the influx of Chinese immigrants

• The Act, passed by Congress, temporarily banned Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. & excluded Chinese living in the U.S. from gaining citizenship

• Two U.S. Supreme Court cases upheld the law, saying the government did have a right to bar certain people from entering the country

• However, in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), the court ruled that children of Chinese immigrants born in the U.S. were citizens, per the 14th amendment

Questions:

• Did Nativists have a point? Why or why not?• The Knights of Labor actually supported the Chinese

Exclusion Act. Why?• From ~1900 to ~1950, immigrant children &

grandchildren became assimilated into U.S. society & culture. Is this good or bad?

• Situation: an immigrant arranges a marriage for his/her 13 year old child because this is the common custom in their home country. Should this be allowed in America?