The Great Migration

The progression of people into and within the United States has had an essential impact on the nation, both intentionally and unintentionally. Progressions such as The Great Migration and the Second Great Migration are examples of movements that impacted the United States greatly. During these movements, African Americans migrated to flee racism and prejudice in the South, as well as to inquire jobs in industrial cities. They were unable to escape racism, but they were able to infuse their culture into American society. During the twentieth century, economic and political problems led to movements such as The Great Migration and The Second Great Migration which impacted the United States significantly.

The Great Migration was a massive movement of African Americans from the South to the North from 1863 to 1960. The largest spike in this migration occurred from about 1910 to 1920.

The migration of European settlers and culture to North America is an often examined area. One aspect of this, however, is worthy of deeper analysis. The conquest of North America by Europeans and American settlers from the 16th to 19th centuries had a profound effect on the indigenous political landscape by defining a new relationship dynamic between natives and settlers, by upsetting existing native political, economic and military structures, and by establishing a paradigm where the indigenous peoples felt they had to resist the European and American incursions. The engaging and brilliant works of Andres Rensendez and Steve Inskeep, entitled respectively “A Land So Strange” and “Jacksonland”, provide excellent insights and aide to this analysis.

African Americans participated in the Great migration because they were terrorized and looked down upon in the South. They were lynched, housing situations were terrible, there were no jobs or education accessible to them. Economic inequality was a huge issue, African Americans worked unfair labor practices which made it easy when jobs became available in the North. Floods in Alabama and Mississippi pushed African Americans out of the area, as well as the impact that the boll weevil had on the crops, it took out cotton, the key cash crop (pg. 46-47). The segregation laws in the South were redundant and they led to a great deal of mob violence, particularly in Georgia and South Carolina (pg. 52).

In this paper I will use a variety of sources, mainly secondary sources, to explain my point on the Great Migration being beneficial. The primary source that I do use in this paper is an interview of an individual who participated in the Great Migration. His name is James Green, as I have mentioned him before. The interview he participated in was conducted for a Black Migration project. Because he has been a part of this mass movement of African Americans, it makes him a reliable source. Now I will explain a few of my other sources. A secondary source I used is from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture which comes from the New York Public Library. This site known as In Motion: The African American Migration Experience, gives background information about what the Great Migration was, it’s causes, and what life was like in the North. It also provides resources such as images, maps, and texts relating to the migration. One of the research papers I use for this paper came from a student from Boston University, but Harvard University owns a copy of it. This paper titled "The Great Migration's Impact On the Education of Southern-born African Americans" explains the effects on education in the North of Southern born African Americans who came to the North during The Great Migration. Another source displayed in this paper is an

After the post-Civil War reconstruction era in 1879, white supremacy was at an all-time high. There was economic deprivation as the boll weevil and flooding exterminated cash crops like cotton, resulting in poor crop yields and an uncertain economy(Clark); threats from the supposedly subdued Ku Klux Klan, the need for better jobs, and segregation due to the Jim Crow Laws were some reasons why African Americans decided to flee the South. By 1919, one million African Americans had left the South by train, boat, bus, cars, and even horse drawn carts (Great Migration). This massive migration with little space in the North led the African Americans to make their own city with their own cultures.

World War 1 had a big effect on the life of blacks. McWhirter says that “the war’s end the previous November had opened a broader marked for cotton; mills across the world need[ed] it for civilian clothes.” African Americans were moving in large numbers from the South to the North and Midwest in what is part of the Great Migration. Blacks wanted to escape the racism of the South. They were trying to run away from poverty, physical violence, and segregation. The war brought many job openings in the North, a great opportunity for the blacks to start a new life. Mcwhirter states that this led to “returning veterans had trouble finding jobs, since few factories were hiring and southern black migrants had filled many jobs.” So as African Americans migrated to the North, they began to fill empty jobs in the factory and railroad industries. White supremacists saw the increased competition for jobs, and resented the blacks for taking them. In fact, white

Spencer R. Crew wanted the readers to understand why the Great Migration happened. Also what the migrants faced in terms of discrimination in south and in the north. He states that “Without the increase in job opportunities caused by World War 1, the Great migration might never have occurred”. Better job opportunities was a big part of why so many migrated to the north along with the freedom that Jim Crow had denied them their whole lives. Though many found jobs in the north they were typically unskilled and least desirable jobs, like in the meat packing companies, on railroads, servants, and janitors. Those jobs paid more than they could get in the south but was offset by the higher cost of living in the north they had to pay higher prices

Thomas Jefferson believed that expanding westward was the key to a healthy nation. Forty percent of the population lived in trans -Appalachian west. Most people had left their homes from the East for a economic opportunity.

In the years 1910-1970 our country saw one of the largest population shifts in history. More than 6 million African Americans trying to escape segregation laws and poor economic opportunities fled the South in hopes of finding a better way of life in the North, Midwest, and West. This would later been called The Great Migration.

WWII united everyone be it black, white, male, female, Mexican, Japanese (well not really the japanese) but like I said the nation was sweeping with unity and they just wanted to destroy the opposing force and keep peace in the world. Millions of men were drafted in the army so women had no other choice but to go work in heavy industry.They worked in the factories, shipyards, mines, building airplanes, tanks, weapons, ships, and many more. Woman had just as important role in the war as men. 300,000 women would work in airplane factories alone. Women became so important to American society they were given a symbolic representation “ Rosie the Riveter” and “Wendy the Welder”. The jump in gender equality cause more and more ethnic distributions around the world. Especially since people were migrating North and West to work in the defense industry which caused even more ethnic distributions. These ethnic distributions sparked movements like the Civil Rights and riots like the Detroit Riot of 1943 which caused two million dollars in damage. Another part of the racial change that WWII caused was the Japanese and the Japanese Americans or the “issei and nisei”. Issei is the Japanese people who were born in Japan but immigrated the nisei were born in America but from Japanese descent. When Japan bombed Hawaii, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order #9066 to allow military personnel to

The Great Migration brought about changes that would bring prosperity to most, but little did they know, it would come with a price. That price was endured through various social, economic, and political challenges that occurred during this harsh time in black history. Many opportunities were available for families that would travel far to take advantage of opportunities that would start a new beginning. The Great Migration was a movement of hope that there is a land that is free of oppression and strife. However, black families in the north faced issues that were troubling and contradicting to their belief of the north. Their thoughts of living racism free and gaining economic power was far fetch when they experienced the challenges of the north. The challenges blacks faced during the Great Migration paved the way for numerous opportunities and breakthroughs we have experienced and have not experienced today.

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.

When the Great Migration began to sweep across America, Mississippi was one of the states that suffered the most losses of black citizens. The economy, while no longer being based off of slavery, still ran on the cheap labor of black people and the financial benefits that came with treating a large portion of the population as second-class citizens. For this reason, the government of Mississippi struggled to prevent African Americans from leaving the state, both by brute force and by law.

Historians that focus on migration often recognize an 'age of mass migration', around or between 1840 -1914 and 1940 in which long distance migration arose at an unmatched and remarkably high scale. It’s no secret that America is known as the melting pot. This is clearly a metaphor which basically means that America is a place where there are many ethnic groups, races and nationalities. (The way it should be). Many say that America is the land of opportunity. That statement is true only in some cases. For the families migrated out to America there must be a lot of excitement in the air but little they know that there are hundreds of more families coming to America and that means , less jobs ,less money ,less housing for them and their family