Gen Ed. 1919

Fear and Hate in Post WWI America

Objective:

Describe how immigration and migration created social tensions after World War I

Immigrants are "pulled" to Ohio

Cleveland: a Case Study

Cleveland (population 796,841):

42,000 Germans

49,000 Poles

46,000 Czechs

140,000 Slavs

31,000 Hungarians

30,000 Russian Jews

21,000 Catholic Italians

A New Type of Immigrant = New Fears

This wave of immigration was;

• Eastern European
• Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish
• came from VEEEEERRRRY backward rural villages

Americans thought they:

• Were anarchists and communists
• Pledged allegiance to the Pope
• Were going to undermine and destroy American culture

Dayton's Old North

Was home to German, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and Lithuanians

Were recruited by Malleable Iron Works and the Barney and Smith Car Company

But what were Americans really afraid of?

Each set up their OWN (Catholic) churches, butcher shops and social clubs which became the backbone of their communities

Holy Cross (Hungarian) Catholic Church

St Adalbert's (Polish) Catholic Church

Food for thought:

In 1910 unemployment in Ohio was .8%

There was a need to actively recruit workers from over seas

When World War I began immigration stopped

So... where did the factories get the workers they needed to meet war production demands?

Northern factory owners actively recruited Southern Blacks during the war.

The promise of a job and the escape from the Jim Crow South caused what is known as the "Great Migration"

Strikes Sweep the Country

Cleveland:

African Americans forced to live in high crime area of Central Ave and "roaring 3rd" street.

Defacto Segregation:

Bird's eye view of Cleveland 1929

Cities in Ohio maintained racial motivated housing laws which quickly create housing shortages and heightened racist fears

But...

In an effort to gather Africa-American workers Ohio created the Negro Workers Advisory Board to place workers in jobs in the cities

African American Newspaper Office

In Akron blacks could not live in the GoodYear or Firestone company towns and lived in "railroad cars, shanties, abandoned buildings, shacks and tents" (Harry Smith)

When soldiers began returning home racial tensions spilled over into inner city confrontations, violence and riots:

It worked:

By 1920:

• Ohio's African American population grew by 67%
• 98.8% of that growth occurred in 9 Ohio cities
• African American men made up:
• 73% of Cincinnati industrial workers
• (64% in Cleveland and 59% in C-bus)
• African American WOMEN worked in many jobs that were still closed to other women

Chicago: July 27, 1919 an African-American teen drowns on a segregated beach...

A week later 23 Blacks and 15 whites had been killed and over 500 had been injured while over 1,000 African-American homes had been torched

1.6 million African-Americans migrate to the North between 1916 and 1930

"Labor will rule and the world will be free"

Back in Ohio:

"Americanism v. Alienism"

People quickly began to embrace the new Ku Klux Klan which had been "reborn" in Georgia in 1915

Government uses propaganda to paint strikers as:

• UN-American
• communists
• anarchists

Who threatened the very fabric of American freedom

AND...

Incite African Americans to "rise up against injustice"

Seattle: January- Shipyard workers organized by AFL and IWW strike. Federal troops called out.

Cleveland: May Day parade. Fighting breaks out. army tanks called in. 2 people killed

Boston: September- police strike. Governor Calvin Coolidge fires them all. calls National Guard

Chicago: November-

400,000 workers strike.

INFLUENZA!!!!!

Akron: November 18, 1919 a Black man is lynched making the second lynching in Ohio that year (first was in Springfield)

Basically creates a perfect storm of FEAR which allows for the rise of the KKK in the North, stricter Jim Crow in the South, and nationwide conservatism

The Spanish Influenza:

• Kills 20-40 million people worldwide
• Kills 700,000 Americans ALONE from died between 1918 and 1919
• The Flu was like the perfect storm:
• starts in Spain
• Sweeps through a war torn Europe
• Able to spread easily and quickly by returning service men
• doctors had never seen anything like it before
• citizens told to wear masks
• public places closed

Red Scare Spreads Fear of Anarchy

By 1923 Ohio had over 400,000 Klan members

Striking workers, social tension, and fear of Russian Bolshevism

Attorney General Mitchell Palmer used Federal agents to raid labor offices and "radical" organizations

• 5,000 arrested held without charges
• Hundreds of immigrants deported
• Basically eliminate the IWWs AND the Socialist Party

Dayton:

"I can recall in those days that my father, who was on the board of the trustees of his church, was greatly disturbed when many members of the church joined the Klan and even went so far as to request a Sunday evening service that members would attend in full regalia - white robes, hoods and masks. Over his objections, the board agreed to allow the meeting. The night of the meeting, we children shivered with anticipation as the white-robed Klan members filed in and sat in a body, and we tried to recognize the members by their hands or their shoes" (Roz Young).

Targeted not only African-Americans but

University of Dayton campus

"Rome, atheists…the so called liberal element, the ex-saloon keeper, the gambler, the scarlet woman and the bootlegger"