Editing Rochester, New York (section)

===Twentieth century===

Rochester saw an expansion of new industries in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Irish immigrant James Cunningham founded the [[carriagemaker]] [[James Cunningham, Son and Company]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://carriagemuseumlibrary.org/home/library-archives/carriage-manufacturers/james-cunningham-son-co/|title=James Cunningham Son & Co|website=carriagemuseumlibrary.org|publisher=[[Carriage Museum of America]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917205345/http://carriagemuseumlibrary.org/home/library-archives/carriage-manufacturers/james-cunningham-son-co/|archive-date=September 17, 2016|access-date=February 28, 2020}}</ref> James Cunningham and Sons later founded the [[Cunningham Car Company]], a pioneer automobile maker.<ref>Like many early companies, its production was small, about 400 a year including [[hearse]]s, designed by [[Volney Lacey]]. [[G.N. Georgano]] ''Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930''. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985)</ref> German immigrants [[John Jacob Bausch]] and [[Henry Lomb]] launched [[Bausch & Lomb]] in 1861 and inventor and entrepreneur [[George Eastman]] founded [[Eastman Kodak]] in 1892. [[Xerox]] was founded in Rochester in 1906 as the Haloid Company.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.xerox.com/go/xrx/template/019d.jsp?view=Factbook&id=XAG&Xcntry=USA&Xlang=en_US |title=Xerox Corporation Fact Book: Company facts, history, information |publisher=Xerox.com |access-date=December 28, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090805182953/http://www.xerox.com/go/xrx/template/019d.jsp?view=Factbook&id=XAG&Xcntry=USA&Xlang=en_US |archive-date=August 5, 2009  }}</ref> In the early 20th century, Rochester became a center of the garment industry, particularly men's fashions. It was the base of [[Bond Clothing Stores]], [[Fashion Park Clothes]], [[Hickey Freeman]], and Stein-Bloch and Co.<ref name="industry" /> The Erie Canal was rerouted south of Rochester by 1918 to allow widening as part of the [[New York State Barge Canal|Barge Canal]]'s construction.<ref>{{cite web |title=Erie Canal Time Machine - 1918: The Barge Canal |url=http://www.archives.nysed.gov/education/primary-source-sets-erie-canal-1918 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228214742/http://www.archives.nysed.gov/education/primary-source-sets-erie-canal-1918 |archive-date=February 28, 2020 |access-date=February 28, 2020 |website=New York State Archives |language=en}}</ref> The short-lived [[Rochester subway]] was constructed in the abandoned canal bed and operated from 1927 to 1956.<ref name="subway">{{Cite journal |last=Lipman |first=Andrew David |date=April 1974 |title=The Rochester Subway: Experiment in Municipal Rapid Transit |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v36_1974/v36i2.pdf |journal=Rochester History |volume=XXXVI |issue=2 |pages=}}</ref>

The dawn of the 20th century in Rochester saw rapid growth, driven by waves of immigrants arriving from Germany, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McvKelvey |first1=Blake |title=Rochester's Ethnic Transformations |journal=Rochester History |date=July 1963 |volume=XXV |issue=3 |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v25_1963/v25i3.pdf |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref> The city also grew in area, annexing suburban neighborhoods from the surrounding towns to arrive at its present borders.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barnes |first=Joseph W. |url=http://libraryweb.org/~digitized/books/Rochesters_era_of_annexations_1901-1926.pdf |title=Rochester's Era of Annexations, 1901–1926 |publisher=PhD Diss., State University of New York at Buffalo |date=January 1974 |pages=167–176}}</ref> The population reached 62,386 in 1870, 162,608 in 1900, and 295,750 in 1920. By 1950, the population had reached a high of 332,488.<ref name="census1">{{cite web|title=New York – Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html|access-date=May 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html|archive-date=August 12, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The surge in new arrivals, along with increased [[industrialization]], resulted in the city becoming a hotbed of labor activism.<ref>{{cite web|last=Donahue |first=Linda H.|url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/guest-column/2016/09/03/rochesters-long-history-organized-labor/89841542/|title=Rochester's long history of organized labor|date=September 3, 2016|access-date=May 19, 2021|website=Democrat and Chronicle |archive-date=May 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519155946/https://amp.democratandchronicle.com/amp/89841542|url-status=live}}</ref> From the 1920s and continuing into the post-war era Rochester grew into a power center for newly formed industrial unions.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rochesterlabor.org/laborhistory.html|title=Labor History|access-date=May 19, 2021|archive-date=January 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129051121/http://www.rochesterlabor.org/laborhistory.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It was one of the very few American cities where the labor movement was powerful enough to mount a successful [[general strike]] when in 1946 an estimated 50,000 workers across multiple sectors walked off in support of hundreds of city employees who had been fired for attempting to unionize.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rochesterlabor.org/strike/|title=The 1946 General Strike of Rochester New York|access-date=May 19, 2021|archive-date=May 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507190508/http://www.rochesterlabor.org/strike/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Moscow |first1=Warren |title=THOUSANDS RETURN TO ROCHESTER JOBS |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/05/30/88365808.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 30, 1946 |page=2}}</ref>

[[File:Rochester Downtown - Late 1930s.jpg|thumb|Rochester in the late 1930s]]

During [[World War II]], Rochester factories produced a variety of goods for the war effort, including fuel tanker ships, optical equipment, and radio proximity fuses, amounting to {{Currency|1.2 Billion|USD}} of military orders.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marcotte |first1=Bob |title=Arsenal of Freedom: Part One Rochester Products that Helped Win World War II |journal=Rochester History |date=Winter 2004 |volume=LXVI |issue=1 |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v66_2004/v66i1.pdf |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref> Following the war, the city began engaging in [[urban renewal]] projects to revitalize downtown, including the construction of [[Midtown Plaza (Rochester, New York)|Midtown Plaza]] and freeways like the [[Inner Loop (Rochester)|Inner Loop]], and the demolition of the Front Street neighborhood.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Morrell |first1=Alan |title=Whatever Happened To ... Front Street? |url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/03/22/whatever-happened-front-street/6702515/ |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=[[Democrat and Chronicle]] |date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030202411/https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/03/22/whatever-happened-front-street/6702515/ |archive-date=30 October 2020}}</ref> By the 1970s, the city experienced highway revolts against new projects,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Riley |first1=David |title=Swillburg to celebrate highway project's defeat |url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2015/10/08/swillburg-celebrate-highway-projects-defeat/73519192/ |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=[[Democrat and Chronicle]] |date=7 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111101336/https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2015/10/08/swillburg-celebrate-highway-projects-defeat/73519192/ |archive-date=11 November 2023}}</ref> and in the 2010s, the city began filling in the Inner Loop to restore older neighborhoods.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Nadja Popovich |author2=Josh Williams |author3=Denise Lu |title=Can Removing Highways Fix America's Cities? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/27/climate/us-cities-highway-removal.html |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=27 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211005916/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/27/climate/us-cities-highway-removal.html |archive-date=11 December 2023}}</ref>

In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Rochester's population as 97.6% White and 2.3% Black.<ref name="census1" /> Rochester's black population tripled to more than 25,000 during the 1950s. Casually employed by the city's major industries, most African Americans in the city held low-pay and low-skill jobs, and lived in substandard housing. Discontent exploded in the three-day [[1964 Rochester race riot]], which resulted in five deaths, 350 injuries, nearly a thousand arrests, and 204 stores looted or damaged.<ref name="Goodman 2014">{{cite web | last=Goodman | first=James | title=Riots revisited: 3 days that shook Rochester | website=Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | date=July 20, 2014 | url=https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/07/19/roberta-abbott-buckle-rochester-riots/12855941/ | access-date=April 11, 2021 | archive-date=January 24, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124230646/https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/07/19/roberta-abbott-buckle-rochester-riots/12855941/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Hosmer, Howard C. ''A Panoramic History of Rochester and Monroe County, New York'', 1979. Windsor Publishers.</ref> In the wake of the riot, the Rochester Area Churches, together with black civil rights leaders, invited [[Saul Alinsky]] of the [[Industrial Areas Foundation]] to help the community organize. With the Reverend [[Franklin Florence]], they established FIGHT (Freedom, Integration, God, Honor, Today), which successfully brought pressure to bear on Eastman Kodak to help open up employment and city governance.<ref>{{cite web |first1=James |last1=Goodman |first2=Brian |last2=Sharp |title=Riots spawned FIGHT, other community efforts |newspaper=[[Democrat and Chronicle]] |date=July 20, 2014 |url=https://eu.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/07/19/franklin-florence-dorothy-hall-kodak-fight/12853477/ |access-date=November 20, 2019 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308174408/https://eu.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/07/19/franklin-florence-dorothy-hall-kodak-fight/12853477/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>R. D. G. Wadhwani. "Kodak, FIGHT, and the Definition of Civil Rights in Rochester, New York: 1966-1967". ''The Historian''. Vol. 60, No. 1 (FALL), pp. 59-75</ref>

With industrial restructuring in the later 20th century, Rochester's manufacturing workforce shrank.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Owens |first1=Cassie |title=Can the City of Kodak and Xerox Rebuild Its Workforce for the Digital Age? |url=https://nextcity.org/features/can-the-city-of-kodak-and-xerox-rebuild-its-workforce-for-the-digital-age |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=Next City |date=15 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118195853/https://nextcity.org/features/can-the-city-of-kodak-and-xerox-rebuild-its-workforce-for-the-digital-age |archive-date=18 January 2022}}</ref> Kodak, long the city's largest employer, conducted massive layoffs prior to a 2012 bankruptcy. Demographic changes also occurred, including thousands of Puerto Ricans moving to the city after World War II.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McCally |first1=Karen |title=Building the Barrio: A Story of Rochester's Puerto Rican Pioneers |journal=Rochester History |date=Fall 2007 |volume=LXX |issue=2 |url=https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v70_2007/v70i2.pdf |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref>