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C Ch ha ap pt te er r 1 14 4 Diversity Comes to a Small City: The Case of Binghamton, NY SUZANNA KLAF, KARIMA LEGETTE AND JOHN W. FRAZIER INTRODUCTION One of the underlying themes of this text is the transforming power of institutional forces, immigration and internal migration on the changing local cultural landscapes of the United States. Particular places such as Allentown, Pennsylvania have become attractive destinations for particular groups, such as Latinos. The key roles of various institutions have been documented. For instance the impact of institutional forces in restricting African-American settlement patterns in certain Michigan cities was presented in chapter 4. Also, chapter 10 illustrated the role of one institution in enhancing the lives and settlement patterns of refugees in the UticaRome MSA. The current chapter continues this theme. The purpose of the chapter is to illustrate both the importance of the changing perceptions of place (Binghamton) and the role of a single institution, Binghamton University , in reshaping the racial/ethnic composition of a small city. Like Allentown and Utica, Binghamton evolved as a small industrial city in the early 20th century. Later, it became a center for high-tech manufacturing employment. The academic institution, Harpur College, began in 1950 by serving a largely local population but then evolved, first into a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts institution and, then, into a major research university. These changes, along with the region’s unique cultural history, have helped shape the composition of the local population and the area’s human geography. In the next section we provide the historical contexts for population growth and subsequent decline in the region. This is followed by a presentation of the emerging multicultural geographies and the underlying factors that are fueling the demographic and racial/ethnic population trends. CONTEXTS FOR POPULATION GROWTH AND DECLINE: THE EMERGENCE OF A DIVERSE EUROPEAN-BASED POPULATION The Binghamton region, now a two-county MSA of 200,536 residents, once was known by the municipal names of its urban core, the “Triple Cities,” which included Binghamton and two adjacent communities, Johnson City and Endicott. Together, they formed a continuous urban region and the area’s population center. The “Triple Cities” became the home of three nationally known industries, as well as numerous others that emerged in the 20th century. Today, the region is referred to as the Greater Binghamton area. The Role of Endicott- Johnson Corporation in the Region’s Early Growth The Endicott-Johnson (EJ) Corporation was in operation by the early 1900s and became a “shoe empire ” by the 1920s. Its tanneries, factories, foundries and die shops, numbered more than twenty overall and were spread across the urban core. EJ operations and, later, its parks and other facilities provided visual evi- 208 Suzanna Klaf, Karima Legette, & John W. Frazier dence that the corporation was the single most important employer in the region. By 1920, the corporation employed more than 15,000 manufacturing workers; by 1950, their labor force exceeded 22,000 (Zahavi, 1988). George F. Johnson was responsible for a labor force of “happy workers.” Similar to other industrial paternalists of the era, Johnson believed that happy workers were productive workers. Thus, EJ provided decent wages, company-built homes, and local recreational opportunities for its workers and their families. These provisions were part of Johnson’s “square deal,” which is still symbolized on the local landscape by the existence of arches bearing the phrase, “Home of the Square Deal.” EJ workers built these arches across the local main streets of Endicott and Johnson City. The EJ concept of fairness for a good day’s work was more than a slogan. New workers received a booklet entitled “An EJ Worker’s First Lesson in the Square Deal,” which described the terms of their “contract” with the company: This company and its Directing Heads, know their business…. Their business is to see that you give them a “Square Deal”: which means fair and sufficient amount of it (Zahavi, 1998, p. 40). Johnson’s paternalism yielded great results for the corporation. More and larger factories supported a growing labor force that at its peak operated on three shifts, twenty-four hours per day and produced 50 million pairs of shoes annually (Davis, 1940; Zahavi 1988). Although the major waves of U.S. immigration had ended by the 1920s, EJ continued to attract immigrants and descendants of immigrants to the region. Historically, the two largest ethnic groups in the region were Irish and Italian. However, EJ also...

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