Dec 17, 2009

Their Eyes Were Watching God | Compare and Contrast

1920s and '30s: The number of unemployed African-Americans during the Great Depression was as much as 25% in northern cities, and well over 50% in many southern cities, figures that were three to four times higher than the number of unemployed whites.

Today: Unemployment among African-Americans averages between 10 and 11%, higher than the 4.5 to 5% among whites.

1920s and '30s: Blues and jazz flourished from New Orleans to Harlem. Although these indigenous American music forms were the dominant mode of expression for the oppressed black culture, they...