Did all Americans have a chance at the American Dream? The Other America Did all Americans have a chance at the American Dream?

Decaying Inner City As technology creates new manufacturing jobs & GATT eliminates tariffs, many business relocate to the suburbs “White flight” causes cities lose tax base, jobs, and consumers many Af-Ams and Latinos left behind in poverty & urban decay Urban Renewal Govt creates Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to fix cities HUD will clear out blighted/run-down areas of city Ex: Using eminent domain, Mexican-Ams forced out of an LA “barrio” Chavez Ravine for housing project Discuss: should the govt tear down and replace neighborhoods that are blighted – be sure to discuss positives &negatives

The Battle of Chavez Ravine Chavez Ravine housing project cancelled during “Red Scare” Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley wants new stadium in Brooklyn, City of NY offers him land in Queens – he refuses O’Malley wants land in Los Angeles, he buys LA Angels stadium in S. LA, trades it for Chavez Ravine Chavez Ravine residents removed to build Dodger Stadium

Discrimination against Mexican-Americans To pay less wages many businesses bypass bracero program and encourage undocumented Mexicans to enter US Resentment begins to grow against Mexicans in US Ex: “Operation Wetback” – mass deportations, 88 die Ex: Longoria Incident - undertaker in Texas refuses to bury Mex-American war hero, Mex-Ams outraged at discrimination Native Americans Nat-Ams form Congress of American Indians to improve lives Termination Policy: US announces it will no longer give federal economic support to tribes, policy is failure

Jim Crow South Till whistles at a white women in Bryant’s Grocery Store Roy Bryant & JW Milam kidnap Till from uncle’s house, kill him and sink his body to bottom of a river 1955: Emmett Till, a fourteen year old from Chicago heads to Mississippi to visit relatives Both men arrested but found not guilty by an all-white jury, northern blacks & whites finally realize how bad South is