African-American experience in Youngstown 1940-1965 /

Abstract

The twentieth century has seen many changes in American society. The United States has gone from a predominately rural society to a predominately urban society. The city of Youngstown, Ohio, was a part of this population shift, and by 1930, the population reached 170,000, while a decade later inl940 the population decreased slightly to 167,720. With the onset of World War II, Youngstown's steel industry needed many unskilled workers, which helped to bring about the last major wave of migration into the Mahoning Valley. One of the largest groups of people who came to Youngstown during the 1940s and 1950s was African-Americans from the South. The purpose of this study is to determine whether African-Americans, especially the migrants, were able to build a viable community in Youngstown, how well they handled the effects of segregation and discrimination in the city, and how the city of Youngstown compared to other cities in the North in their treatment of African-Americans. There are many aspects of the African-American community that must be considered when doing a study such as this. Chapter one of this thesis will deal with the migration itself and the factors that led the migrants to leave the South for Youngstown and other urban cities of the North. Next, chapter two examines the effects of discrimination in the area of public facilities on the African American community and how the black community responded. The next chapter discusses the development of community organizations that were created between 1940 and 1965 in an effort to develop a strong African-American community in the city. The final two chapters analyze the black community in the areas of housing and employment respectively, and the effect racism and discrimination had on blacks in those areas.