Marguerite Gallorini12/03/2014

Diaspora and Cultural Identity StudiesNYU GSAS

I) Background

African Americans

Greek immigrants

II) Ethnic institutions

The NAACP and the AHEPA/GAPA

Ethnic newspapers

III) Occupation-related distribution in Northern Cities

African Americans were more prey to racial discrimination

Not same history in relation to the US

But

Greeks at the time were also considered as ‘swarthy’ or ‘Orientals’, if not black, and thus also knew somediscrimination

General anti-immigrant feeling from native whites and ‘old immigrants’ from Northwestern Europe

‘Great Migration’ from 1910s to 1930s: 400.000 AfricanAmericans moving to the North

De facto segregation ethnic enclaves: the ‘ghettos’

More possibility for action in the North, however thisdid not extend necessarily to the whole of the black population

Mass immigration to the US fromthe 1890s to the 1920s: 400.000 Greeks moving to the US

Bigotry in small towns regrouping in big cities

More opportunities than in Greece

Prevalence of Greek small businesses (likerestaurants): due to their experience of the marketeconomy back in Greece

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909

In early 1910s, it opposed racial segregation

It was also influential in winning the right of African Americans to serve as officers in World War I

It opposed the lynching of blacks throughout the United States by educating the public

AHEPA: American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association.

Founded in 1922 by assimilationist Greeks

It helped a lot in the integration of Greeks into the American society

GAPA: Greek American Progressive Association

Founded in 1923 by traditionalistGreeks, in response to the AHEPA

Its aim: cultural retention, not to lose the Greek cultural identity

Provide information about the new society

Keep contact with the home country

Provide information about the ethnic community and the transitional phase between the two cultures

Interpret political, economic, social and cultural developments according to a particular viewpoint

Articulate interests of the ethnic group vis-à-vis the new and old societies

(-William Joyce)

The Chicago Defender:

Founded in 1905, played a great role in the Great Migration by providingadvertising and information on life in Chicago and job opportunities

The National Herald:

Founded in 1915, in response to The Atlantis royalist political stance. It also provided advertising clearly directed at Greek settlers.

African Americans helped whitening Greeks

Greek immigrants seemed to fare better than blacks in the job market:

Their prejudices, even if existent, did not have the same long-lasting or extensive consequences

They managed more successfuly to translate theirhuman capital into higher occupational status

Labor unions were more accepting of them than theywere of blacks

Enclave economy: relatively viable explanation – and itis what saved Greeks more so than blacks

Blacks below ‘new’ Southeastern immigrants below ‘old’ Northwestern immigrants below native whites

Bernard Rosen’s study: 427 interviews among 6 ethnicgroups, of which Greeks and African Americans

Main obstacle for reaching the same social status stillseems to be race

Books

Joyce, William L. Editors and Ethnicity: A History of the Irish American Press, 1848-1883 (Irish Americans), New York: Arno Press, 1976

Marks, Carole. Farewell – We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989

Rhodes, Leara D. The Ethnic Press: Shaping the American Dream, NY: Peter Lang, 2010

Spear, Allan H. Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto 1890-1920, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1967

Xenides, J. P. The Greeks in America, New York: G.H. Doran Company, 1922

Documentary

The Journey: The Greek American Dream. Dir. Maria Iliou, 2007, 87 min

Articles

Gibney, Matthew J.; Hansen, Randall. Immigration and Asylum:

From 1900 to the Present, Volume 1/3, 2005

Kouvertaris, George A. “First and Second Generation Greeks in Chicago: An Inquiry into their Stratification and Mobility Pattern”, in International Review of Sociology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (March 1971)

Rosen, Bernard. “Race, Ethnicity, and the Achievement Syndrome”, in American Sociological Review, 24 (February 1959)

Tolnay, Stewart E. “African Americans and Immigrants in Northern Cities: The Effects of Relative Group Size on Occupational Standing in 1920, in Social Forces, Vol. 80, No. 2 (Dec. 2001)

“The Ahepa and the Gapa (Editorial)", in Saloniki-Greek Press, August 11, 1935