Rethinking Politics Glickman Summary

During the interwar era, many Americans engaged in political activism that aimed to define, foster, or protect economic rights for African Americans. Despite 1919 being a year of violence towards these people, the rise of organizations such as the Pan-African Congress at the start of this period gave an honest insight on the amount of political, economic, and social change the next 31 years would bring to the American people (Lecture 16, slide 9, 7).

World War I was imperative to African Americans because it “offered lessons about the state of race relations in the world, and insights into the particular problems faced by Black America’ (Keene, 2). A major issue is that African Americans being included in the draft made a statement about their

Glickman demonstrates the rise of consumerism in uniting America. African Americans were more visible within society. Political activism took the form of “consumer politics”, where Americans sought to unite the public and the private sectors (Glickman, 3). This shift from producerism to consumerism highlighted the importance of the American consumer, therefore somewhat uniting Americans under this one label regardless of race (Glickman, 4). This new unity varies greatly from the previously discussed move from inner cities to the suburbs known as “white flight”. Influential white Americans rallied around increasing one’s purchasing power (Glickman, 4). Because consumers are now important, people begin to realize lower wages reduce purchasing power, therefore leading to less goods being consumed. African Americans are severely disadvantaged in the job market, and during the Great Depression, over 50% were unemployed (Lecture 17, slide 12). The previously mentioned “consumer politics” sparked Chicago’s African American community to demand employment from companies that survived upon their identity as consumers and this movement later spread to Harlem and Baltimore (Glickman, 3). The purchasing power craze helps increase employment opportunities and rethink wages received for hard labour (Glickman, 4). Consumers, regardless of race, should have jobs with a living wage so that, in turn, they can purchase more goods from the wealthy producers and therefore complete a sustainable economic flow between firms and households (Glickman,