Social change in WWI

European immigrants

Wartime Experience:War virtually stopped flow of immigrants.Fear and propaganda led to calls for

restriction.

European immigrants

Positive change as a result:Those in the country by 1914 were

drafted.Service in military helped reduce some

ethnic rivalry.

European immigrants

Negative change:Many refugees applied for

entry after war.Fear of radicals and

Bolsheviks led to restrictions.

Immigration Quota Acts of 1921 and 1924 reduced immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.

African-American Civilians

Wartime Experience:Businesses needed labor and recruited

southern blacks.Letters from kin, newspaper articles pulled

African Americans to northern cities.Great Migration of 500,000 for wartime

jobs.

African-American Civilians

Positive change:Industrial growth in 1920s attracted more

to North including Caribbean workers. Created a cultural and racial rebirth called

the Harlem Renaissance,

African-American Civilians

Negative change:De facto segregation in jobs and housing.Northern ghettos like Harlem. Returning white soldiers who feared job

competition caused race riots in St.Louis and Chicago in 1919.

KKK reborn in South and Midwest.

African-American Soldiers

Wartime experience:300,000 volunteered. Served in

segregated units.Few saw combat except for 369th Harlem

Hell-fighters.

African-American Soldiers

Positive change after war:Men welcomed home in Harlem.Croix de Guerre awarded by French.Pride and determination to achieve

equality created a “New Negro.”

African-American Soldiers

Negative change after the war:Few experienced any long term increase

in status.No drop in discrimination.Anti-lynching laws continued to fail. Silent parade in NYC to bring public

awareness to lynching and riots.

Mexican Americans

Wartime experience:1000s migrated North to take jobs in

western agriculture and industry.

Mexican Americans

Positive change after the war:

Southwestern farms and industries continued to need cheap labor.

Immigration Restriction Acts of the 1920s exempted workers from the western hemisphere.

Mexican Americans

Negative change after the war:

Residential ghettos of Spanish speaking population developed in western cities, such as Houston and Los Angeles.

Women

Wartime experience:Women moved into

jobs previously held by men.

Labor Department created separate women’s regulations to “protect women” with 8 hour day, minimum wage and rest periods at work.

Women

Positive change after war:

19th Amendment passed

Trend of working outside the home continued but only in “women’s jobs.”

Daughters of WWI generation expected more freedom.

Women

Negative change after war

Failed to get Equal Rights Amendment passed.

Most women forced to give up high paying wartime jobs when men returned.