American streets revolutionized in the 1920's as the number of automobiles soared from 6 million to 27 million. (Hoover) In 1980, “87.2 percent of American households owned one or more motor vehicles, 51.5 percent owned more than one, and fully 95 percent of domestic car sales were for replacement. Americans have become truly auto-dependent.” (History)But though automobile ownership is virtually universal, the motor vehicle no longer acts as a progressive force for change. As Automobiles dominated highways, oil, steel, and road construction dominated economy. In order to maintain these automobiles, Oil is needed to run them, steel is needed to create them, and roads are needed to use them. During the 1920s about $1,000,000 was spent on highways alone. Now that the average person could own a car, house wives weren't confined in their home, children didn't need to move when parents got transferred to a city away, doctors could get to clients more easily, and culture had more of a chance to spread. No other historical force has so revolutionized the way Americans work, live, and …show more content…
As Chicago, New York and other cities’ black populations expand exponentially, migrants were forced to deal with high competition for living space and job opportunities, resulting in widespread racism and prejudice. JIm Crow laws became norms, limiting black economic power. Black newspapers advertised available opportunities in the cities of the North and West with stories of people dream coming to reality. By 1919, 1 million blacks had left the South in hope to be the person the Chicago Defender would publish about next.. In the 1910s, the black population of major Northern cities grew by large percentages, including New York, Chicago , Philadelphia and Detroit (history).The north had not legalized segregation, but racial prejudice acted as a separation of its own. After the U.S. Supreme Court declared racially based housing ordinances unconstitutional in 1917, Whites agreed not to sell housing to blacks; these would remain legal until the Court struck them down in 1948. The summer of 1919 began the greatest period of interracial strife in U.S. history. The most serious took place in Chicago in July 1919; it lasted 13 days and left 38 people dead, 537 injured and 1,000 black families without homes. Due to the loss of housing, blacks created their