The Racial Conflict Between African Americans And The Whites In The United States And The Decline Of The Central City

The research of urban history on African Americans in the twentieth century is one of the hot spots of research of American history in recent years. More than90%of the population of the African Americans in the United States lived in the cities, especially big cities, which made an obvious impact on the development of the big cities and the social questions. So it can also be said that the history on African Americans in the twentieth century is the history of urbanization on African Americans. The research of history on African Americans in the nineteenth century started early and have gained a lot of results. But the research was just a little worse in the twentieth century. The appearance of the new urban history on African Americans in recent years has improved this situation. This paper studies the connection between the aggravation of the racial conflict between African Americans and the whites and the decline of the central city in the United States, which is one of the hot spots of research in the research upsurge of new history on African Americans.In the first part, the paper explores the problem of urbanization of African Americans in the United States. The urbanization of African Americans in the twentieth century was achieved by two great black migrations. The African Americans started the course of urbanization in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The first great black migration began from World War I. During World War I and after the war, the African Americans who lived in the southern rural areas of the United States promptly seized the opportunity of the scarcity of labor in the northern factories. And they migrated from the southern rural areas to the northern and western cities on a large scale in order to improve their economic and political status. The second great black migration started from World War Ⅱ. After the outbreak of World War Ⅱ, the surge in demand on labor of American military industry is the main pulling force of the second great black migration. And after World War Ⅱ, the factors which are disadvantageous for African Americans to survive in the southern rural areas are the thrust of the black migration. The great black migration made the level of urbanization of African Americans improve greatly.In the second part, the paper focuses on the problems of racial discrimination in American society and the aggravation of racial conflict between African Americans and the whites. Due to the ingrained racial discrimination and prejudice, the whites showed great resentment on the arrival of African Americans. Therefore, the urbanization of African Americans was boycotted by the whites. In order to get rid of the racism in the southern rural areas and the economically poor dilemma, tens of thousands of African Americans left the southern rural areas for the cities from the beginning of the twentieth century. The dramatic increase in the number of African Americans in the northern and western cities exacerbated the competition of employment in the cities, and deepened the hostility and discrimination of the whites on the African Americans. The ghetto of African Americans made the worlds of African Americans and the whites isolated from each other, and made African Americans suffer from racial segregation, leading to a deteriorating racial relationship between African Americans and the whites. However, on the other hand, the concentration of African Americans in the ghetto expanded the power of African Americans, and promoted the national consciousness of African Americans. The African Americans finally launched the black civil rights movement and race riots with vigor and vitality in the1950’s and the1960’s, and won a wide range of political and social rights for African Americans in the United States.In the third part, the paper aims to explore the problems of the racial discrimination and the decline of the central city. Since the twentieth century, especially World War Ⅱ, the urbanization and the expansion of civil rights of African Americans, as well as the continuous enhancement of racial discrimination and segregation of the whites, drove the whites to migrate to the suburbs on a large scale. The suburbanization of the whites brought suburbanization of the industries, resulting in the decline of the central city. The suburbanization of the white middle classes and the wealthy classes and the decline of the central city are related to the housing policy of the federal government. The racial policy on public housing of the federal government and local government also led to the concentration of the poor African Americans in the central city, as a result of the decline of the central city. The low-level suburbanization and the high-level urbanization of African Americans caused the cut of taxes of the central city, and the aggravation of welfare burden, leading to the decline of the central city. The suburbanization of the white middle classes and affluent population and the industry as well as the high-level urbanization and the concentration in the central city, eventually caused the impoverishment and decline of the central city.The fourth part is the part of conclusion. From the beginning of the twentieth century to the1970’s, two great black migrations appeared in the United States under the impetus of the two World Wars, which made the African Americans become a nation with the highest level of urbanization. Due to the urbanization and continuous migration to the central city of the African Americans, the racial conflict between African Americans and the whites was exacerbated, and then drove the white middle classes and affluent population to transfer to the suburbs. The suburbanization of the white middle classes brought the suburbanization of the related industries, which made the taxes of the central city sharply reduced. In addition, the discriminatory policies and measures of the federal government, the local government of the suburbs and financial institutions as well as the department of real estate, made African Americans and other ethnic minorities concentrate highly in the central city, and drove the central city to tend towards decline step by step eventually.