Marguerite Gallorini12/03/2014
Diaspora and Cultural Identity StudiesNYU GSAS
I) Background
African Americans
Greek immigrants
II) Ethnic institutions
The NAACP and the AHEPA/GAPA
Ethnic newspapers
III) Occupation-related distribution in Northern Cities
African Americans were more prey to racial discrimination
Not same history in relation to the US
But
Greeks at the time were also considered as ‘swarthy’ or ‘Orientals’, if not black, and thus also knew somediscrimination
General anti-immigrant feeling from native whites and ‘old immigrants’ from Northwestern Europe
‘Great Migration’ from 1910s to 1930s: 400.000 AfricanAmericans moving to the North
De facto segregation ethnic enclaves: the ‘ghettos’
More possibility for action in the North, however thisdid not extend necessarily to the whole of the black population
Mass immigration to the US fromthe 1890s to the 1920s: 400.000 Greeks moving to the US
Bigotry in small towns regrouping in big cities
More opportunities than in Greece
Prevalence of Greek small businesses (likerestaurants): due to their experience of the marketeconomy back in Greece
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909
In early 1910s, it opposed racial segregation
It was also influential in winning the right of African Americans to serve as officers in World War I
It opposed the lynching of blacks throughout the United States by educating the public
AHEPA: American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association.
Founded in 1922 by assimilationist Greeks
It helped a lot in the integration of Greeks into the American society
GAPA: Greek American Progressive Association
Founded in 1923 by traditionalistGreeks, in response to the AHEPA
Its aim: cultural retention, not to lose the Greek cultural identity
Provide information about the new society
Keep contact with the home country
Provide information about the ethnic community and the transitional phase between the two cultures
Interpret political, economic, social and cultural developments according to a particular viewpoint
Articulate interests of the ethnic group vis-à-vis the new and old societies
(-William Joyce)
The Chicago Defender:
Founded in 1905, played a great role in the Great Migration by providingadvertising and information on life in Chicago and job opportunities
The National Herald:
Founded in 1915, in response to The Atlantis royalist political stance. It also provided advertising clearly directed at Greek settlers.
African Americans helped whitening Greeks
Greek immigrants seemed to fare better than blacks in the job market:
Their prejudices, even if existent, did not have the same long-lasting or extensive consequences
They managed more successfuly to translate theirhuman capital into higher occupational status
Labor unions were more accepting of them than theywere of blacks
Enclave economy: relatively viable explanation – and itis what saved Greeks more so than blacks
Blacks below ‘new’ Southeastern immigrants below ‘old’ Northwestern immigrants below native whites
Bernard Rosen’s study: 427 interviews among 6 ethnicgroups, of which Greeks and African Americans
Main obstacle for reaching the same social status stillseems to be race
Books
Joyce, William L. Editors and Ethnicity: A History of the Irish American Press, 1848-1883 (Irish Americans), New York: Arno Press, 1976
Marks, Carole. Farewell – We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989
Rhodes, Leara D. The Ethnic Press: Shaping the American Dream, NY: Peter Lang, 2010
Spear, Allan H. Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto 1890-1920, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1967
Xenides, J. P. The Greeks in America, New York: G.H. Doran Company, 1922
Documentary
The Journey: The Greek American Dream. Dir. Maria Iliou, 2007, 87 min
Articles
Gibney, Matthew J.; Hansen, Randall. Immigration and Asylum:
From 1900 to the Present, Volume 1/3, 2005
Kouvertaris, George A. “First and Second Generation Greeks in Chicago: An Inquiry into their Stratification and Mobility Pattern”, in International Review of Sociology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (March 1971)
Rosen, Bernard. “Race, Ethnicity, and the Achievement Syndrome”, in American Sociological Review, 24 (February 1959)
Tolnay, Stewart E. “African Americans and Immigrants in Northern Cities: The Effects of Relative Group Size on Occupational Standing in 1920, in Social Forces, Vol. 80, No. 2 (Dec. 2001)
“The Ahepa and the Gapa (Editorial)", in Saloniki-Greek Press, August 11, 1935