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RESEARCH PAPER #1
Impact of Poverty on the
African-American
Community
By: Brandon Lockhart
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In the very beginning before Ohio became a state, very few Blacks resided in the area
known as the state of Ohio today. In 1800 only 337 Blacks lived in Ohio. By 1860
36,700 Blacks resided in the state. Cleveland began to grow and many Blacks moved to
this location for a better opportunity. Most of them had little money and could not afford
to purchase land to become farmers. They hoped to get jobs in the cities by becoming
factory workers or skilled artisans. Blacks who could not find those jobs took lower
paying jobs as nannies, housekeepers, waiters, waitresses, and day laborers. During
the first decades of the twentieth century Ohio’s Black population significantly increased.
The First World War ignited the Great Migration. The war effort led to increased
demand for industrial products made in the North, but also a labor shortage. With the
native-born and immigrant populations relied heavily upon off at war, companies looked
for help in the south. Many northern companies offered well-paying jobs, free
transportation, and low-cost housing as an incentive to move north. The Great Migration
began in the 1910s and continued through the early 1940s. During this thirty-year period
hundreds of thousands of Blacks moved from the South to the North. Thousands of
Blacks who participated in the Great Migration settled in Ohio. They provided
businesses in Ohio’s industrial centers, including Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo, and
Akron, among other cities. The growing Black population in Ohio dramatically altered
the state. Most Blacks were forced to live in segregated communities. Cities
experienced a huge building boom during the 1910s and 1920s. In fact a study of
housing in Akron completed in 1939 determined that 60% of the city houses were
constructed between 1914 and 1924, when the Great Migration was at its peak. The
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Great Migration created new opportunity and hope for Blacks but equality did not result
from the migration in the 1910s, 20s, 30s, or 40s. Black students were not segregated in
public schools or classrooms as they were in some other cities but exclusion of blacks
from restaurants and theaters were common. The most serious discrimination occurred
in the economical region. Between 1870-1915 Cleveland became a major
manufacturing center, but few blacks were hired. Blacks were not hired to work in the
steel mills and foundries that became essential for the city‘s economy’s growth. As a
result by 1910 only about 10% of local black men worked in skilled trades. Some
migrants worked in foundries, in meatpacking companies and servants of the wealthy
typically wound up in dirty, backbreaking, unskilled and low-paying occupations. These
were the least desirable jobs in most industries but the ones employers hired black
workers for. Although these jobs often paid more than double than what the migrants
would have received in the South. The conditions Blacks confronted in the north were
better but still had bad conditions. Racism and prejudice were still very prevalent.
Government policy kept African Americans out of many neighborhoods through redlining
the restriction of neighborhoods in which people of certain racial and ethnic groups
could get approved for a mortgage. The National Housing Act of 1934 contributed to
limiting the availability of loans to urban areas, particularly those areas occupied by
Blacks. Populations increased so rapidly between Black migrants and new White
immigrants that there were housing shortages in most of the cities. The newer
immigrants were forced to compete for the oldest, most rundown housing. White groups
created territories which they defended against change. Discrimination restricted Blacks
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to crowded neighborhoods most of the times. In some cities Blacks became increasingly
integrated into society. As they lived and worked more closely with Whites the divide
became increasingly indefinite. This period marked the transition for many Blacks from
lifestyles as rural farmers to urban industrial workers. Blacks also often encountered
residential discrimination, in which white home owners and realtors prevented Blacks
from purchasing homes or renting apartments in white neighborhoods. When numerous
blacks moved into white neighborhoods, whites would quickly relocate out of fear of a
potential rise in equal opportunity. Prior to the migration Blacks were often dispersed in
small clusters in several city neighborhoods where they lived in isolation and
