Black Metropolis Racism

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The effects of segregation and racism forcibly isolated black communities. From this forced exclusion, arose within Chicago, the Black Metropolis. The blatant and violent expression of white individuals in response to integration and black social upward mobility only served to further reinforce the promotion of a collective race consciousness within black communities. The Great Migration was a result of migrants being motivated to find autonomy through achieving an adapted version of the “American Dream” in order to find reprieve from the hardships and struggles that impeded their ability to attain success in the South. The dream of the Black Metropolis was comparable to the “American Dream”, if not an evolved version of it. The dream ascribed…show more content…
Chicago’s Black Metropolis, Bronzeville in particular, utilized the actions and restrictions of Jim Crow, to mobilize and “...[sanitize] the most brutal elements of the…era.” Black leaders aimed to revitalize the their communities and purvey its attractiveness to investors to consciously create an atmosphere of black solidarity and impact in order to showcase a “...[minimization of] the extent and nature of white control over the neighborhood.” Chicago’s black community thrived in the environment it created within its confines; Jesse Binga established and invested in the Thirty-Fifth and State Street district and quite literally, built that area from the ground up using black capital and…show more content…
Accordingly, their dreams and aspirations of their proximity to the “American Dream” were encouraged and propagated by the ease of which jobs initially greeted them as they sought to enter the workforce in Chicago. The rapid influx of the black Southerners met the unskilled labor niche that factories were looking so desperately to fill. The initial prosperity of African Americans weighed heavily on this respect. The Black Metropolis began as a community with a significant working class that retained the ability for upward social mobility. Nonetheless, as the numbers of migrants rose and number of available labor opportunities fell, the autonomy of many black individuals within Chicago followed. A major challenge was also the fierce opposition from white communities that strived to keep Jim Crow enforced and strong. The vehement protest against integration and the constant violence against black elites who attempted to cross racial barriers, severely hindered the advancement of the Black
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