The biggest social problem the migrants faced was the housing problem. It was one that could not be immediately solved since the problem was of such a vast magnitude. As stated earlier, the population of U.S. cities increased exponentially during the first few years of the migration. By 1919, New York’s population had increased by 66 percent; Chicago’s by 148 percent; Philadelphia’s by 500 percent and Detroit’s by 611 percent (1). This meant that these cities were faced with serious housing concerns that citizens would have to endure for a while. People were forced to live in overcrowded multi-dwelling housing building. Since most of the people were not accustomed to living in such close confines, this situation demanded a totally different …show more content…
But to the newcomers, Chicago’s schools were a significant improvement over the schools they had attended in the South. Many of the southern states provided no school buildings for black students. Classes were taught in whatever structures local blacks could afford to build or in buildings designed for other purposes. Most often, students of all grades attended classes in one room. Educating black children was not a priority in many southern states; some rural southerners believed black children would be ruined by attending school because it made them “unfit for work.” …show more content…
The rising rents in segregated areas along with the resurgence of the once dormant KKK enflamed this tension and led to a period known as “the greatest period of interracial strife in U.S. history at that time...” (1) A wave of riots broke out with one of the most serious being the “Chicago Race Riot of 1919.” The main impetus of these riots was when on July 27, 1919 an African-American teenager was stoned and drowned by a group of white youth for violating what whites called the segregation of Chicago beaches and, the refusal of the police to arrest the white man identified by eyewitnesses as causing it. Enduring for a period of 13 days, this riot left 38 people dead, 537 injured and 1,000 black families without homes.