Introduction
My family’s narrative begins in the South. Beginning with my 92 year old grandmother’s narrative beginning in a small town in Louisiana, ultimately relocating to Houston, Texas as an adolescent, eventually making her way to New York City during the era of the Great Migration, and my father’s narrative of being a Black kid, raised in Spanish Harlem. In this paper, I will discuss their migratory experiences that ultimately led me to arrive to the Big Apple.
Her Story Freddye Williams’ life story began in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Better known, to me as Granny, her narrative was one of, oftentimes, having to migrate to different states during her life time. With the early passing of her father, her first experience migration,
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When asked about her experience in Harlem, aside from her living conditions, her experience was a peaceful one. My grandfather ultimately decided to use his GI Bill to buy a house in Queens, NY. I asked her if my grandfather had a problem getting his GI Bill because most often, Black veterans would get dishonorable discharges so that they would be able to obtain a GI Bill simply because of their skin color (get old paper work to cite this info from Professor leon’s class). In their attempts to obtain a loan in an area that was presumably white neighborhood, they were successful, without any resistance from the bank, in obtaining a loan. She moved into a block where whites, some blacks, and a Japanese family resided. She never experienced discrimination from her White neighbors, however, as more Blacks moved into the neighborhood, the White families began to leave. Although my grandmother is from the South and grew up during an era where discrimination was prevalent, she never had to experience the hardships that other Blacks may have experienced. I found it very interesting that her memories were those of positive encounters and experiences wherever she landed.
His
I interviewed a beautiful and courageous woman, of African descent. Born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia on May 20, 1969. In addition, she has one biological brother and three step siblings. Currently she resides in Loganville, Georgia, where she lives with her two children. By the same token, she and her husband been married for twenty-one years to her loving high school sweetheart husband. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she lost her husband in the line of duty. Causing her to become a widow, continuing to survive life without her husband. When I conducted this interview, had one topic in mind that I wanted to learn more about her life as an immigrant and how did influence her life.
Education is the basic key to one’s life and the shift of time shows the process in one’s mind. Migration Portraiture by Nikkey Finney is a poem focuses on the importance of education to African Americans while they were in the South and the key will to learn growing through the movement to the South. This sense of education is seen through the transition of life for African Americans between their time in the South and then to the North. The poem goes through this shift of time to emphasize experiences. We get this feeling of the past (The South) and the future (The North) through the usage of specific words, imagery and repetition of North and South through every line breaking point in the poem.
How can you start from the bottom and rise to the top, but still not be on top? The strength of African Americans over the years is outstanding, but I will it ever be good enough. From discrimination, starvation, Jim Crow, the lack of the right to vote, and job deprivation, came The Great Migration. The Great Migration is one of the most historical periods in America. People, mainly African Americans, departed the southern region of the United States, to relocate in the Northern region of the United States for various reasons. To name a few, discrimination, racism, but mainly for employment. However, was relocating worth it? Was it really a difference ? We will find out. In Blood on the Forge,the author, William Attaway, introduces reader to three men, the Moss brothers. Attaway, emotionally connects with his characters, taking readers on a crusade through one of the most historical periods in United States history, The Great Migration. This journey sets off in the deep roots of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the early 1900 's. Tag along as we venture through the emotion and hardships of the Moss brothers story.
In The Southern Diaspora, James N. Gregory tells the story of migration between the whites and blacks of the south. He focuses on how the whites and blacks moved from the south to the north. Gregory illustrates how two completely different races come together to uplift the American society. Not only does he illustrate the unity of blacks and whites, he also focuses on how the two races had to adapt to a new way of living. Gregory concentrates on how this particular migration recreated the social and political perspective of America.
Unknown and inexistent to the eyes of the middle and upper class, the deplorable conditions that the poor had been living in remained prevalent throughout the streets of New York City. Unsanitary and overcrowded tenements, massive numbers of children left out on the streets, brothels, and gambling dens (Oxford University Press 640) were just a few of the inhumane and dire aspects of New York City’s underworld that were in need of reform. After the start of the Civil War, New York city received great amounts of African Americans from the South. With the hopes of freedom and equal opportunities for all races in the North, many African Americans jumped at the opportunity to come to cities like New York, but when their expectations came face-to-face with reality, their dreams no longer ceased to exist. When it
Passed down from generation to generation, oral tradition predominates as one of the most significant sources in discovering the history of the African diaspora. Plagued by illiteracy, the tangible text of the past remain useless for both the freed man and slave, this heightens the use of spoken word to elicit the events of themselves and their ancestors. Through the American Folklore Center, the stories that George Johnson convey, take form. Interviewed in 1940, George Johnson, a former slave from Brierfield, Virginia, recalls the tales of his own enslavement as well as the stories he passed down from his father and grandfather. However, his strictly progressive rendition of his place in North American slavery not only question the accuracy
I was 16 years old when i moved to Cleveland. I had moved from California, a place that everyone thinks of as a area of movie making, opportunities, rich people with fancy lamborghinis and ferraris, well it's nothing like that where i come from. Compton california, the place that you can see 14 year old gang members with guns, get shot just for wearing the wrong color, or just walking down the street like my mom. I never really meet my dad he got locked up when i was 3 on an assault charge so i had to move in with my grandparents in Cleveland.
Many people move around to different states throughout their life, and I have had the opportunity to live in what feels like two different worlds. I have spent most of my life in Bradenton, Florida, but at the age of ten I moved to the small town of Cleveland in the north east Georgia mountains. The two towns are completely different in my opinion and only someone who has lived there would completely understand what I mean when I say two different worlds. The weather, the people, and the different opportunities are just a few of the differences between the two towns.
For years immigrants have come from distant nations to start their lives over in America. People from all over the world leave their home countries in pursuit of something better, and many find themselves on Long island. My family was among many of the refugees who fled the Soviet Union in the 80s and early 90s. Coming to America for them was a whole new world where opportunities and possibilities were endless. My mother chose to come to Long Island because of all it had to offer as far as education and jobs. Being a very diverse residential area made it the ideal place to move to. Knowing minimal English and having little money, my mother struggled for many years to build a new life. She was able to get a job, become fluent in English, finish
In general, if I was African American sharecropper arriving in Chicago, I would have been surprised to see the number of sharecroppers from the South arriving in Chicago with me. During the Great Migration from 1916 to 1918, it was estimated about a half million African Americans moved from the Southern to Northern states and 30,000 arrived in Chicago for various reasons. In this assignment, I’ll discuss some things I would encounter (Mullane, 1993, p. 455).
New York metropolis, is the tale of the advent of African American urban society and way of life. Even though only one of the many examples of predominantly black neighborhoods in American towns, Harlem is unique in many approaches, most importantly due to the fact historically it has been perceived as the center of African American culture. Simultaneously, at precise ranges of its development, it had a reputation of a black ghetto with residing situations incomparably worse than the ones in different components of the metropolis.
interviews of people who have or know people who have experienced historical events of the past. For this essay, I chose to take an oral history of the civil rights movement and the great migration. Preserving the memories of the individuals that lived during these historical events allows for many things in addressing the silence of African American experiences within U.S. History. First, memories and recollections taken from oral histories may differ from the perspectives of those who have appear on historical records or may be completely absent from any other documentations. Also, because cameras and video cameras were not as easily accessible as they are today, the majority of history is documented from peoples’ memories through letters, diaries, and oral history interviews. In addition, taking an oral history allows me to ask specific questions towards what I am are interested in documenting about the civil rights movement and the great migration. Lastly, oral histories are somewhat viewed as a “revisionist” to the study of both the civil rights movement and the great migration because it takes firsthand accounts of those participating on campaigns and protests and also of those were watching from afar and allows readers to understand each individual part of what made the movement as a whole.
With the large scale exodus of African Americans from the south during the period (1916-1920), this report by U.S Department of Labor, Division of Negro Economics works to find the potential cause of this large scale exodus. Upon discussing this topic with an “educated, professional” black, they believe that a prominent reason good be the high wages in the north. Further research regarding the topic, bring them to the conclusion that search of adventure, high wages and better social standing are the prominent reasons for this exodus. I intend to use this excerpt to illustrate the distinguished reasons for great migrations, which was an influential reason for the large number of black population in Harlem, New York.
Trotter, Joe William Jr., ed. The Great Migration in Historical Perspective: New Dimensions of Race, Class, and Gender. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. A collection of essays examining the role of black social networks in spurring the exodus from the South.
To put things in retrospect, Walley begins her ethnography with the story of her great-grandparents’ generation immigrating to the United States during the post-World War II era—America’s pinnacle for middle-class growth—to start a new life in Southeast Chicago. Walley illustrates the struggles of her Swedish family by introducing her immigrant great-grandfather’s memoir, Big Grandpa, an immigrant from Sweden. To exemplify his progress and hindrances, Walley incorporates anecdotes about childhood, pictures of her family, and conversations with her family. Although Walley’s family grappled with despair