CARIBBEAN IMMIGRANTS

480 WD

In the early 1900s the largest number of black immigrants were English-speaking Caribbean (West Indians) who settled in the Northeast, mainly in New York City. These immigrants were only 1.3 percent of the NYC population and faced intense racism, but by 1923 they became a 12.7 percent of the city’s population. Many of these immigrants were young, unmarried men. According to Winston James, a few women arrived and held occupations as teachers, doctors, lawyers, and craftsmen. James also comments that many of these immigrants had literacy levels above American blacks and even some