immigration

Online Course Begins – Cleveland: Many Peoples, One City

This course has been postponed. Please check back soon for an updated schedule.

Course Information

Title: Cleveland: Many Peoples, One City

Course Description:

We came to Cleveland as immigrants from foreign countries and migrants from other parts of the United States, often to search for work but also to escape oppressive conditions elsewhere or to reunite with families.

We settled here to raise our families and pursue our careers, and we came to call Northeast Ohio home. Yet while we have found common ground, we also celebrate our differences and remember our connections to the homes of our ancestors. This course will examine the diverse ethnic and religious communities of our region with special attention to the inter-racial and inter-ethnic relationships that have both shaped our community and hindered its development.

Students will examine the histories of the migrants to the region and their efforts to build organizations to serve their social, cultural, and political needs while fitting in to the community around them. The mutual aid organizations and cultural societies founded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to meet the needs of Cleveland’s new residents fostered a separation from the larger community even as they encouraged integration into an American society made up of a bewilderingly diverse array of immigrants. While greater Cleveland is a diverse community, the region’s continued racial and ethnic segregation presents difficult challenges to future development. Students will consider both what unites us as residents of Northeast Ohio and also what divides us, using the events of the past as a guide to understand the present moment. The goal is to learn more about our neighbors.

Note: Any readings recommended for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: TBD

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: Sean Martin, PhD, Associate Curator of Jewish History

Pricing:

Course Registration | $75

WRHS Member Registration | $65

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, we will email you a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.

Online Course Begins – Golden Doors & Border Walls: An Overview of Immigration to the United States

Course Information

Title: Golden Doors & Border Walls: An Overview of Immigration to the United States

Course Description:

We often refer to ourselves as a “nation of immigrants,” yet the question of who should come to America and who is capable of becoming an “American” has often clouded that more hopeful characterization of our nation.

This six-session course will examine the history of immigration and migration to what is now the United States from the time of the first peoples to the present. Students will examine the shifting patterns of global immigration and migration to North America, and particularly Northeast Ohio, over time and examine, in detail, the historical issues and events that created those patterns. Central to this examination will be a focus on the evolution of laws and policies, both within and outside of the U.S., that sought to regulate or stop the flow of immigrants and which also challenged the right of those already in the U.S. to become citizens.

Xenophobia, the fear of the stranger, has been ever present in this history. How and why it occurred at different times is central to understanding American immigration history. Equally present over time was the conception of the United States as a “refuge” – a place welcoming all who sought safety, liberty, and opportunity. One session of the course will be fully devoted to the way we have come to remember and to celebrate this aspect of the national experience. The core purpose of this course is to challenge the participant to consider whether this concept reflects reality – either then or now.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, July 9, 16, 23, and 30; Aug. 6 and 13

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, WRHS Senior Vice President of Research & Publications and Krieger Mueller Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $75

WRHS Member Registration | $65

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, we will email you a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.