What factors made the civil rights movement for Puerto Ricans unusual compared to other groups?
What will be an ideal response?
The ideal answer should include:
- Becoming a territory: Puerto Rico was made a territory of the United through the Jones Act of 1917; all Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship
- Impact of territorial status on Puerto Rico: diversified, subsistence-oriented agriculture shifted to a single crop export-sugar; absentee owners from the United States dominate the sugar industry and controlled most of the island's arable land; few island residents benefitted from the sugar industry; unemployment and poverty were widespread by the 1930s; Puerto Rico forced to import its foodstuffs
- Migrations to New York City: small Puerto Rican communities began to form in New York City during the 1920s; East (or Spanish) Harlem was the largest of these communities; during World War II, Puerto Rican workers were recruited by the federal government for industrial jobs in Chicago and the Northeast; "Great migration" took place between 1945 and 1964, with the mainland population of Puerto Ricans leaping from 100,000 to 1 million; direct airline service between Puerto Rico and New York City in 1945 made the city very accessible; by 1970, 10 percent of the New York City's population was Puerto Rican
- Puerto Ricans and race: many were black and faced both racial and ethnic discrimination; Puerto Ricans were barred from most craft unions and excluded from certain neighborhoods; children were not served by a public school system insensitive to language differences and were tracked into obsolete vocational programs
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