Required Reading, Joanne Reitano, The Restless City pp. 131-153 and 164-170
The questions below may feature on your quiz/final exam
1. “Federal support for Prohibition reflected a long-standing belief that alcohol was the source of
urban poverty, disorder, and vice.” This conviction was part of an underlying prejudice according
to the author. Please explain.
2. Name two New York politicians who opposed Prohibition.
3. In the midst of the nation’s worst depression, New York produced two architectural icons, name
both.
4. New York nurtured two major non-violent African American movements of self-assertion. In
150-250 words, name and explain both movements and discuss the major difference between
both.
5. Puerto Ricans who had settled in East Harlem after 1917, drew two lessons from the 1926 East
Harlem Riot. What prompted the riots and what were these two lessons?
6. In 1928, Al Smith won the Democratic presidential nomination. Why did he lose the elections to
Edgar Hoover, according to the author?
7. The fate of New York City mayor Jimmy Walker (1926-1932) was tied to that of the nation.
Please explain this statement.
8. In the 1930s, the Communist Party organized its largest New York City demonstration which
attracted 35,000 people. What did communists ask for and how did the demonstration end?
9. Who was New York’s first Italian American mayor? What, according to the author, was his
greatest ambition and how did he try to realize/translate this ambition?
10. Why were the riots of 1935 and 1943 considered “turning points” in American history?
11. In what way did the Depression deepened the dilemmas of Harlem, according to the author?
12. What was the “Jobs for Negroes” campaign and what caused the campaign’s organizers to split
into two groups?
13. “The riot of 1935 demonstrated how minor incidents mask major conflicts”. What minor
incident sparked the riot of 1935?
14. LaGuardia created a Commission on Conditions in Harlem, please summarize the four main
demands made in the Commission’s report and explain what LaGuardia did in response to this
report and more importantly what didn’t he do?
15. What was Powell’s Double V campaign? Did LaGuardia support this campaign?
16. In the context of Stuyvesant Town, why was LaGuardia’s position considered inconsistent or
17. What prompted the 1943 riots?
18. What is the core American Dilemma according to Gunmar Myrdal?
19. What prompted the 1964 Harlem Riots and in what way did these riots impact the rest of the
country?
20. What was Malcolm X’s main criticism of Martin Luther King Jr.?
21. The 1964 Harlem riots brought Martin Luther King Jr. up from the South for a summit of African
American leaders. What did he call for and why did he feel it was so important that these
changes were implemented in NYC?
22. Why did some local African American leaders see Martin Luther King Jr. as an interloper?
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