Monday, October 15, 2012

Research Paper Outline

THESIS: Since previous actions taken to keep Chicago segregated during the Great Migration had failed, Mayor Daley authorized the building of the Dan Ryan Expressway to prevent blacks from taking white employment and land. It stood as a physical separation of the white and black neighborhoods.

Argument 1: Reasons for blacks wanting to migrate to Chicago & the Great Migration
                  a) Living conditions in the South were poor and during the Great Depression, jobs were scarce, especially for African Americans.
                  b) In the south, blacks had no real economic value and they barely had rights. The segregation and discrimination was at an all time high and the system was very unjust.
                  c) The Chicago Defender painted rosy pictures of the high-paying jobs and good life that awaited black migrants. This sparked the Great Migration where the blacks were seeking to escape the horrible ways of the South by going to the North (CHICAGO).

Argument 2: Mayor Daley's and the whites reasons for wanting segregation and the living conditions the blacks were forced to live under in Chicago's South Side.
                  a) The Irish-Americans started riots because they felt as if the blacks were taking over their factory jobs.
                  b) Being segregated gave whites a feel of power and control over the blacks. It made them feel like they were superior to blacks but if they lived in the same neighborhood as a black, the whites would feel equal which isn't a good feeling to them.
                  c) The Black Belt of Chicago, the high-rise housing projects, Bronzeville, and how one family apartments were split into three and everyone in the building used one toilet. The poor living conditions made the different ethnic neighborhoods easily distinguishable.

Argument 3: While the whites were very upfront with their hatred for the new black residents and their want for segregation, Mayor Daley took on more secretive tasks that would segregate Chicagoans.
                  a) The Dan Ryan expressway, which Daley heavily approved, was moved from it's original route and instead was built through the South Side and North Side of Chicago.
                  b) The work of patrolling the South Side's racial borders to make sure no black was in the whites "area" was often taken care of by gangs like Daley's Hamburg Athletic Club.
                  c) Whites used fear: Abusing the blacks, burning down their homes, spitting on their children (IF THEY LIVED IN A WHITE NEIGHBORHOOD.)

CONCLUSION: Since previous actions taken to keep Chicago segregated during the Great Migration had failed, Mayor Daley authorized the building of the Dan Ryan Expressway to prevent blacks from taking white employment and land. It stood as a physical separation of the white and black neighborhoods.

No comments:

Post a Comment