ABSTRACT
During the Civil War, large-scale racial violence occurred for the first time in the North. Toward the end of the War, black troops were increasingly used by the Federal forces; not all of these troops were used solely in support, though such was generally the case until almost the end of World War II. In the war itself, various New York Irish regiments made impressive records. The New York draft riots of July, 1863, had their origin largely in a fear of black labor competition which possessed the city's Irish unskilled workers. Upon emancipation, they believed, great numbers of Negroes would cross the Mason-Dixon line, underbid them in the Northern labor market, and deprive them of jobs. The movement of Negro strikebreakers into the East St. Louis, Illinois, area, touched off the demonstrations, while the upgrading of a few Negro employees signaled the start of the ugly Philadelphia transit strike of August, 1944.
