African Americans and Americans

Government Impact the Lives of Individuals Between 1900 and 1945, the United States was characterized by major demographic, technological and economic changes, which took Americans to the moon. These changes greatly altered the ways that Americans lived and work and constructed a new housing stock, new automobiles and increased production to counter the challenge of the doubling populace. During this period a bigger African-American middle class emerged. A wave of social and economic changes swept across the U.S. between 1900 and 1945.

Nicknames for this period, like the Jazz Age, depict the changes in social conventions which were taking place during this period (Du Bois, 1903). With the booming economy, prices dropped, and wages for most Americans rose leading to a drastic rise in consumer consumption and better living standards. Although women's lives were not significantly transformed by the acquisition of the right to vote, young women changed their dressing style and behaved in ways that shocked the traditional parents.

The mass media played a key role in facilitating these changes notably the motion pictures and the radio. The rapid population growth and the emergence of new technologies escalated the impact of human society on the natural environment in the U.S. Population growth that sparked in the 1900s continued throughout the 21st century (Addams, 1910). This trend drove various forms of environmental changes. Between 1900 and 1945, cities grew immensely as the percentage of people living in cities and towns doubled. However, urbanization levels varied greatly from state to state.

By 1950s, roughly half of the American population lived in towns and cities (Du Bois, 1903). Moreover, migration from rural areas to towns triggered a rapid urban growth. This rapid development of towns reflects a basic change in the relationship between rural and urban areas. For years before 1900, morbidity and mortality rates had typically been higher in cities than in the rural areas. Nevertheless, between 1900 and 1945, the introduction of better treatments and improved sanitation pushed the rates below those in the villages for the first time in American history.

The changes which market the 1900-1956 American society were unevenly distributed throughout the country's peoples and regions. In the South, leaders were subjected to progressive political ambitions. As for the farmers, they lobbied relentlessly for government credit systems to supplement private creditors in the South. In the end, they converted the government supported agricultural system into a network of crop-marketing assistance and scientific advice. However, progressive reforms in the South had its limits.

Attempts to ban the employment of children below fifteen years and enfranchise women were confronted with major resistance (Addams, 1910). In the South, the most striking change that the government made was the intensive wartime exodus of African-Americans to the North. This broke the tie, which had bound the majority of the former slaves to tenancy and agricultural poverty since the end of Civil War (Du Bois, 1903). In this period, animosity towards the African-Americans never changed in the North. Between 1900 and 1945, nearly one million African-Americans fled the country (Garvey, 1923).

These were mostly rural folks who considered the racially segregated labor markets and the housing ghettos of the urban North as the codes of southern racial subordination. Later, human rights advocates, jazz musicians, entrepreneurs and aspiring musicians joined them to make the South a magnet for a newly urban, self-conscious and assertive black culture and politics. Besides changing the American Southwest, new forms of racially segregated labor trends also expanded jobs in the railroads, mines, and farms of thousands of laborers throughout the U.S.-Mexico border.

The automotive sector promoted the phenomenal growth rate of the U.S. economy between 1900 and 1945. Between 1920 and 1930, the number of vehicles on the road nearly tripled. This stimulated the manufacturing of rubber, steel, glass, plate and other materials, which went into producing automobiles (Du Bois, 1903). In this view, Henry Ford was the pioneer of two major developments that spurred this growth with mass production and standardization. In the 20s the U.S. industry manufactured thousands of consumer goods ranging from washing machines to automobiles to electric commodities (Garvey, 1923).

A mixture of advertising created a demand for different products which encouraged mass production. In the end, installment buying motivated individuals to purchase the products. The Committee on Public Information widely used mass media to marshal public support in the course of World War 1. This demonstrated the power of advertising in shaping public attitudes. After the war, advertising agencies used mass circulation magazines, newspapers, and radio to influence consumption patterns. As such, this blurred the different.