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March 24, 2011

Political scientist and labor studies professor Janice Fine spoke on a panel as part of the 100th anniversary remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. She contrasts the situation of immigrant workers in at the turn of the twentieth century with low-wage immigrant workers today. This nineteen-minute talk covers the issues of migration and the role of migrants in the labor force, immigration policy, labor standards and occupational health, and trends in immigrant worker organizing. From 1990 to 2000 more immigrants arrived in the U.S. than in any previous decade, and while many lessons can be learned from past struggles for immigrant workers’ rights Professor Fine notes the ways that ethnicity, legal status, and the changing nature of work impact opportunities for low-wage immigrant workers and their ability to organize.

Historian Mae Ngai spoke on a panel as part of the 100th anniversary remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. She provides a historical perspective on the often contentious relationship between organized labor and immigrant activism. This fifteen-minute talk spans U.S. history from the racialized arguments of Samuel Gompers, to the more inclusive rhetoric of the 1960s’ “children of the triangle generation,” and through to the present. Professor Ngai argues that organized labor poses the wrong question when it asks: Are immigrants good or bad for us?

In the nineteenth century, Cubans were the largest Latin American or Spanish-speaking population in New York City. Lisandro Pérez discusses the importance of these immigrants to both Cuban and U.S. history in conversation with ASHP/CML staff members Andrea Ades Vásquez and Pennee Bender. Due to New York City’s importance in sugar refining and marketing, thousands of Cubans viewed the city as their business, communications, and educational center. The New York Cuban community provided political organizing, visions of modernity, and approaches to nation building to the island throughout the nineteenth century and introduced New Yorkers to a diverse Spanish-speaking population of businessmen, cigar workers, laundresses, and seamstresses.

“Cubano New York: Nineteenth Century Immigrants to the World’s Sugar Capital” is a Now and Then podcast conversation. The series features conversations and interviews with scholars, educators, and ASHP/CML staff members on topics in history.

• How were they perceived?
• What institutions were built from their participation?
• What meaning might we extract from their experience?
• How does their experience resonate for today’s immigrant?

Groneman uses historical visual evidence and select primary sources such as census data to unpack the profound impact Irish immigration had on society. Different from the wave of Irish immigrants who came at the turn of the nineteenth-century, the Irish famine group swelled urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, and New York, and established Irish-American identity through the development of ethnic neighborhoods, the Democratic Party, parochial schools, and labor organizations.

Carol Groneman is professor emerita of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

The images shown here are from The Phillips Collection.  For more on the Great Migration go to Up South: African-American Migration in the Era of the Great War.

Fritz Umbach and Kojo Dei, John Jay College, CUNY
“Teaching America and the Slave Trade in Global Perspective”
The Graduate Center, CUNY
February 8, 2008

While most Americans understand slavery solely through the prism of its existence in the Americas, in fact the “peculiar institution” as practiced in the new world makes up only a small part of the global history of slavery. Historian Fritz Umbach and anthropologist Kojo Dei outline the complex history of slavery within African societies, along with Africa’s extensive and long-lasting slave trade with India and the Islamic middle east. A close examination of the transatlantic slave trade reveals that African rulers were far from the victims of European traders; in fact, they held the upper hand.

In Part 1 of this podcast, Professor Dei explains anthropological understandings of slavery in West African societies and Professor Umbach describes the ways that African slave traders exerted dominance over their European trade partners.

In Part 2, Professor Umbach analyzes the captain’s log from the slave ship Sally for evidence of African strength in the transatlantic slave trade.

Carlos Sanabria, Hostos Community College, CUNY
“Demographic Revolutions: Hispanic Migration to the United States”
Hostos Community College, CUNY
April 24, 2009

Why did we come here? And why are we so poor? Historian Carlos Sanabria discusses migration and the situation of the U.S. Hispanic population in the post-World War Two period. He outlines areas of study such as the demographic revolutions which led to the growth, dispersal, and diversity of the Hispanic population in the U.S.; migration stories from locations such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Puerto Rico; and the causes, successes, and shortcomings of Hispanic migration among the different groups. Dr. Sanabria is coordinator of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Hostos Community College, City University of New York.

Early twentieth-century progressivism was a constellation of efforts undertaken by a wide range of people whose perspectives on reform were rooted in their race, class, region, and religion. In this talk to New York City teachers, Nancy Hewitt weaves together the “big P” progressivism of major reform campaigns, which are well represented in most history textbooks, with stories of the “little p” progressivism of workers, immigrants, women, and African Americans.

In the first part of this podcast, Hewitt describes some major progressive reform campaigns and highlights the role of Atlanta, Georgia, female activists in conservation and civic reform, known as municipal housekeeping. In the second part, she continues her discussion of municipal housekeeping by focusing on northern cities and also offers several examples of reform efforts involving both middle-class and working-class women.

Images Used in this presentation:

Kevin Kenny, Boston College
“Irish Americans and the Meaning of Race in the Mid-Nineteenth Century”
The Graduate Center, CUNY
December 13, 2007

Speaking before an audience of New York City teachers, historian Kevin Kenny describes the profound impact of the first great wave of Irish immigration to the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century. Swelling the populations of major U.S. cities in a way that no previous immigrant group had ever done, the Irish played a central role in the growth of cities in the nineteenth century U.S., notably in New York City’s Five Points neighborhood. Like other immigrant groups, they experienced some prejudice from the native-born population; unlike other groups, however, such discrimination was never written into law.

In Part 1 of this podcast, Kenny outlines the demographic impact of Irish immigration on Ireland and the United States and discusses how Irish immigrants were both perpetrators of racism and victims of prejudice. In Part 2, he interprets a series of images that reflect the negative stereotypes that influenced the way native-born Americans viewed the new arrivals.

Images used in this presentation: