History Holiday Work by Mahmoud.
Faced by such intimidation, discrimination and poverty, many black people left the rural south and moved to the cities of the northern USA. Through the 1920s the black population of both Chicago and New York doubled: New York’s from 150,000 to 330,000 and Chicago from 110,000 to 230,000.
In the north, black Americans had a better chance of getting good jobs and a good education. For example, Howard University was an exclusively black institution for higher education. In both Chicago and New York, there was a small but growing black middle class. There was a successful ‘black capitalist’ movement, encouraging black people to set up businesses. In Chicago they ran a successful boycott of he city chain stores, protesting that they would not shop there unless black staff were employed. By 1930 almost all the shops in the South Side belt where blacks lived had black employees. There were internationally famous black Americans, such as the singer and actor Paul Robeson. The popularity of jazz made many black musicians into high profile media figures. The black neighbourhood of Harlem in New York became the centre of the Harlem Renaissance. Here musicians and singers made Harlem a centre of creativity and a magnet for white customers in the bars and club. Black artists flourished in this atmosphere, as did black writers. The poet Langston Hughes wrote about the lives of ordinary working class black Americans and the poverty and problems they suffered. Countee Cullen was another prominent poet who tried to tackle racism and poverty. In one famous poem (‘For A Lady I Know’) he tried to sum up attitudes of wealthy white employees to their black servants.
