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¶ … 20th century farming in America was dominated by the small family farm. Labor was provided by the family members and there was no issue regarding wages. Beginning in the early years of the 20th century and increasingly thereafter large-scale commercial agriculture displaced the family farms but the corporate farmers found that hand labor remained more cost effective for harvesting certain fruits and vegetables. This work was highly seasonal and the corporate farmers had to rely upon migrant workers in most cases to staff their farms. These migrants were exposed to exceedingly low wage, exploitation, and wretched living and working conditions. Yet, when the U.S. Congress finally passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 an exemption for these workers was crafted in order to pacify the strong farm growers' lobby (Keyserling). Workers in other areas of work were granted the right to organize under the terms of the new legislation but farm workers were not. Over the next thirty years there were many efforts by unions to rescind the exemption granted the farming industry but they all failed.
The 1960's in America were marked by a series...
A Chicago-based organizer who played a prominent role in organizing many of these movements was Saul Alinsky (Hoffman). Alinsky was looking to organize Mexican-American farm workers in California and enlisted the assistance of a young Cesar Chavez. Chavez initially joined Alinsky's Community Service Organization (Encyclopedia Britannica) in an effort to register Mexican-Americans to vote but he later left and formed the National Farm Workers Association (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Chavez and his fledgling union recognized the plight of the migrant workers in California and began slowly to organize workers. As collective bargaining rights had been denied farm workers under the terms of the Wagner Act (NLRA), Chavez was forced to adopt alternative measures to force the issue of farm workers' rights. After a series of protests and walks that served to draw attention to his movement, Chavez organized the San Joaquin Valley table grapes boycott. Because Chavez's union could not legally strike the growers they were forced to use outside influences such as the power of the consumer…
Works Cited
Encyclopedia Britannica. Community Services Organization. 15 March 2011 <<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/726312/Community-Services-Organization>.
-- . National Farm Workers Association. 15 March 2011 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404780/National-Farm-Workers-Association>.
Feriss, Susan, Ricardo Sandoval, Diana Hembree. The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998.
Hoffman, Nicholas von. Radical: A Potrait of Saul Allinsky. New York: Nation Books, 2010.
Having started as a bookkeeper in Cleveland, John D. Rockefeller accumulated money while being a merchant, and then bought his first oil refinery in 1862. By 1870 he had started Standard Oil Company of Ohio. His secret agreements with railroads allowed him to ship his oil with rebates and discounts, thusly driving competitors out of business. By 1899, The Standard Oil Company, acting as a holding company, controlled the stock
This doesn't explain why the Irish had such a difficult time, but in America, religious differences are often the cause of intolerance as well. The truth is that without immigrants in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century -- and of course the two hundred years before this, this nation would not be where or what it is today and to remain true to our roots we must accept that
Concurrently, while the agrarian sector and movements suffered from the effects of urbanization and the nation's laissez faire form of government, cities flourished as more and more economic progress happened in the area of industrialization. New technology allowed new industries to flourish; increased immigration made possible the increasing mandate of political groups and movements and policies that supported the path towards industrialization and urbanization. Railroads became a cause for faster
Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois The Perpetuation of the "Color Caste" and Socio-economic Stratification in "Black Reconstruction in America" by W.E.B. Du Bois William E.B. Du Bois, American writer and historian, is known for his active participation in promoting Black Power movements in American society during the early 20th century, a period wherein society is dominated and controlled by the white American race. During this period also, there is
History Of the Media in America Media America, a History Media incorporates mediums such as advertisements, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and now -- the Internet. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was only in the 1920s that people began to actually talk about 'the media,' and a generation later, in the 1950s, of a 'communication revolution,' however, the art of oral and written communication was actually quite important in ancient Greece
Brazil Many people today see Brazil's diverse racial and cultural foreground as one of the nation's strengths. Throughout its development as a nation, the intermixing of several different cultures has given this country it own unique blend. Race and the mixing of race has played a key role in this development. The widely held belief that Brazil was less able to develop due to its mixed races spurred many discussions and