Free at last? Race Relations in the USA

• LO’s --- Understand the terms melting pot, push/pull migrations

• Discuss early USA immigration policy

• SC – Listening attentively, taking notes when required and answering exam style questions

Historical Background

• Most of the USA’s population are descended from people who migrated to the USA in search of a better life

• 1776 America declared itself free from British rule and wrote the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776

Declaration of Independence• Created by the Congress it states … “

all men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life and Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What it means:Everyone has the right to life and no one can stop the American people from being as happy and successful as they can be.

The American Dream – create a timeline – where and why?

• In the 1800’s working conditions worsened for many Europeans

• 1880’s the USA needed more unskilled workers to fill factory positions

• Most early immigrants came from Northern Europe – Britain, Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia

• 1900 – new wave of migrants from Poland, Italy and Russia arrived from poorer areas

Melting Pot

• America is often defined as a “melting pot” wherein people immigrate and leave their previous nationality distinctions and traditions becoming someone else …. An American

• This can be compared to Britain which is a Mosaic – this celebrated immigrants heritage and encourages them to maintain traditions

Push vs PullA PUSH FACTOR is something that makes an individual want to leave the place they are living i.e. warA PULL FACTOR is something that makes a new location appealing i.e. employment opportunities

PUSH PULL

How many factors can you think of for each?? You have 1 minute!

The American Pull Factors

• Work• Enough food to eat• Political freedoms• Religious freedoms• The idea of a brighter future – American

Dream

‘Give me your tired, your poorYour huddled masses yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these the homeless, tempest tossed to meI lift my lamp beside the golden door’

Ellis Island “The Isle of tears”• “no migration in history is comparable to the

great hordes that have crossed the Atlantic during the past 20 years to enter our territory”

All immigrants were given a number when they landed on Ellis and taken to be ‘processed’Doctors marked them with chalk

H for possible heart problemsF for any rashes or blotches on their face“feeble minded” – this meant the

families were sent back to where they had come from

Following the medical inspections they had to answer another set of questions:

Do you have a job waiting? Etc.Once they passed this test they were given a landing card and could move on to the mainland heading for the American Dream

American Dream

• What is the American Dream?

– In your pairs discuss and create a definition in your own words for this term.