Roy Adriano
March 17, 2011
History 15B, Section 8
McBane
The Backyard War – Struggle for Equality The drastic shift in American demographics in the 20th and 21st centuries brought about reactions, especially tensions, from the many facets of the American people – African Americans, Whites, and ethnic minorities alike. Although African Americans are most commonly associated with the Civil Rights Movement, the struggle for equality on American soil was one that was experienced by a number of groups of immigrants. These groups included the Japanese, who experienced racial segregation through internment camps throughout the west, the Jews, who were turned away after attempting to seek refuge in American democracy, and the Mexican Americans, half a million of it’s whom enlisted in the U.S. armed services for the chance to claim the country as their country, too. This paper will examine the struggles of the different racial groups, and reactions to the events that, during a tumultuous time in history, greatly divided a nation. From the year 1910 to 1920, tens of thousands of Blacks migrated to the Northeast and Midwest United States from the south because of the increasing opportunities for economic prosperity. Despite being free, they were enslaved by the harshness of poverty. The poor conditions and circumstances that Blacks experienced as sharecroppers and tenant farmers pushed them to migrate to the North, where they were welcomed with opportunities to prosper.1 On the other hand, Blacks were pulled from the South to the north because of immense labor shortages. Northern factory managers set aside their prejudices towards Blacks and sent recruiters to the South in order to bring Blacks to work in their factories, that lacked employees due to the cut off of European immigrants.2 Despite the fact that they were welcomed to be a part of the workforce in the