African American History: The Great Migration

For the United States of America, a large portion of the twentieth century, 1910 to 1970, was characterized by African American movement from the rural South to the urban, industrial North. During this time, known as the Great Migration, millions of southern blacks moved to the North in hopes of a better future, away from the Jim Crow South where they were under constant threat by white supremacist values and endured an unequal treatment from whites even after Emancipation. However, the principal motive for the blacks of the rural South to leave their homes, families, and friends for the urban North was economic; regional wage differences, limited job opportunities in the South compared to the

The Great Migration was a relocation of 6-7 million African Americans from the rural south to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from 1916 to 1930 which had a huge impact on Urban life in the United states. They were driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregations laws, many blacks headed North, Where they took advantages of the need for industrial workers that first arose during the first World War. Between 1910 and 1930, The African American population decreased in the South and increased in the Northern states by about forty percent as a result of the migration. This “Great Migration” was on the largest internal movement of people in the history of the United states and it is a shift that impacted culture, politics, and economics as a new African American communities struggled

America in 1857 was a “Nation on the Brink.” Relationships between the Northern and Southern states had been strained for decades. During the 1850 's, the situation exploded. The Compromise of 1850 served as a clear warning that the slavery issue—relatively dormant since the Missouri Compromise of 1820—had returned. African Americans existence in America has been a disaster ever since they have been here. Every avenue of their cultural, economic, literary, political, religious, and social values has been violated to no avail, and then only until the

It has been well documented that migration has played a significant role in the development of the United States. African Americans participated in migration just as much as whites did and have been migrating all throughout the United States since the first African slave ship made its way to Jamestown in 1619. Florette Henri’s Black Migration: Movement North, 1900-1920 (1975) focuses on the beginning of the large-scale relocation of black people from the South to the North and West.

The history of Africa is very complex. Europeans invaded Africa and stripped them of their culture and denied future generations their history. Despite the focus on the time of enslavement in modern history, African history expands far beyond that. African history has been consistently whitewashed and many historians have attempted to put our history in a box. In order to understand and study the African experience, one must realize that the history of Africa extends far beyond the times of enslavement and colonialism.

Many African American’s stayed in the south or in a sense, got stuck. Lack of money, help and education would keep many in the same place as they were throughout the 1800’s. Many didn’t have the means to escape Jim Crow and the south. They simply didn’t have the means or assets to go anywhere. To some, considered the “first migration,” roughly a million African American’s are going to leave the south for economic opportunities in the north at the start of World War I.

Nonetheless, Africans Americans weren’t equally spatially segregated throughout Kansas City. The development of black residential segregation that occurred everywhere including KC occurred at a time when a number of factors pushed African-Americans up from the South, pulling them to different regions of this nation, which came to be known as the “Great Migration” of 1910 to 1930. Factors such as “general dissatisfaction with conditions, the boll weevil’s destruction of crops, the black press, low wages, poor housing on plantations, inadequate school facilities, rough treatment and cruelty from law officers, unfairness in the courts, lynchings, the

Many African Americans had moved north during the Great Migration to escape conditions in the south, but found that discrimination was still prevalent in northern cities. African Americans not only had difficulties finding jobs, but still felt the stigma of being black. Living within the time of legal discrimination, many African Americans soon realized that though they may have escaped the violence of the south, they still had to deal with the challenges and setbacks of being black in America. The Great Migration began in the 1910s and 1920s during World War I. The second wave of migration of Blacks to the north and west began in the 1940s during and after World War II (Alexander, 1998, p. 352). With the war going on, many black people found jobs due to the numerous openings of those fighting in the war. But once the war ended, white soldiers came back, finding blacks filling their jobs and wanting them back. Black men had particularly difficult times finding jobs; “they were the last to be hired or accepted in the unions and were the first to be let go during the Depression” (Dyer, 2001). Not only did the new immigrants face tension with whites over jobs, but also with Northern blacks, who believed that the migrants “threatened their social, economic and political security” (Tolnay 1997, p.1216).

Federal records opens one perspective regarding American history. One example is the establishment of the national archives. Federal records contained amount of information on African American. Federal records also propelled the field of study African American history. Afro American historical research benefited from of the innovation and demands from black scholarship. The need to separate African American from U.S. history became imperative in the late 20th century. However finding records that report the part of African Americans in American work history can be troublesome on the grounds that the government organizations and workplaces that made these records orchestrated their lists and documents by name of foundation.

The first major social change is the emergence of minority groups. These minority group where predominately African Americans a part of the second Great Migration from the rural South to the urban North. African Americans moved in masses from the South to the North, referred to as the first great migration in the early 1900s (Mendenhall, 2010). Between 1940 and 1950, another 1.5 million African Americans left the South; and over the twenty years about another 5 million (Holt, n.d). The growing demand for workers in northern factories, living under the Jim Crow’s laws and racial discrimination helped many families make their decision. McFee (1966) states desegregation of public institutions was a service to African Americans, opened the door to opportunities and had a dynamic effect. In reality, civil rights were fought for years and these so-called

The Great Migration of Southern blacks northwards and out of the Southern states created two fundamental crises in the lives of white Southerners, that of economy and that of identity. The inability of the white South to internalize the rapidly changing realities of race relations, and to move beyond the paternalist worldview that it clung to, would compound and then exacerbate a very concrete crisis in the evisceration of the traditional labor supply of the South. Unable and unwilling to recognize and embrace a new sense of identity in relation to African Americans, the

There are countless examples of how African Americans have transformed history or made a mark on our country. African Americans have displayed heroism and bravery for what we believe in. Without Black History Month as a holiday, these people would not have been recognized for all of their many achievements. We must continue to celebrate the achievements of African Americans, and we must correct the inconsistences of the past. Black History Month should be kept as a national holiday as long as we are the United States of America.

As African Americans transitioned from slavery, there were practices put in place to help with this transition. Colleges were created specifically for African Americans. The 1960’s was a trying time for the nation as civil rights laws were implemented to protect the rights of African Americans. Even though progress was made, African American males still faced challenges. The scope of this capstone is the matriculation of African American males.

During the arrival of the African Americans to America, many things went on when they got there. While in America, African Americans faced a very difficult life. They had to live in a whole new country and try to learn a new language to be able to understand their owner. Also, the number of slaves brought to America was so big , the amount of slaves outnumbered the whites.

The Great Migration, is known as the largest in U.S. history, African Americans, left the rural south for cities and came with their hopes and their dreams of a new and different life, seeking relief from labor exploitation and white violence. The migration sparked the Harlem Renaissance which coincided with the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, and the Lost Generation, leaving an impact that was keenly felt not only on a collective level but also on an individual level within the African-American communities. This impact affected America's robust cultural industries, music, film, theater all of which fully benefited from the creativities contributions of African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance continues to be the period we attribute to the