Great Migration

The Great Migration was the largest internal mass movement of a racial or ethnic group in U.S. history. Migration has been a central dimension of the black experience in the United States. In the wake of the Civil War, thousands of former slaves tested the meaning of their freedom by leaving rural plantations for southern cities. By the 20th century, black migration had become national in scope. The most significant waves of African American migration in the 20th century have occurred in times of war. The years encompassing and immediately following World War I marked the beginnings of the Great Migration. The social, political, and economic dynamics of war both induced and facilitated relocating in search of better jobs, to escape segregation in the South, or to join relatives. Between 1910 and 1970 the demographics of African Americans shifted from being overwhelmingly southern and rural to largely northern and urban. During this period, more than six million African Americans abandoned the South in search of greater opportunity in the North, Midwest, and the West Coast.

Black migration during World War I was not solely from North to South—large numbers of rural African Americans relocated to nearby and steadily expanding southern cities. Nevertheless, major cities in the Northeast and Midwest offered the best potential for increased social, economic, and political opportunity and thus experienced the most significant increases in their black populations. Upwards of one million black Southerners left in search of a better life in the North during the war and throughout the 1920s. The most prominent migration streams flowed from rural areas of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. The African American population of Chicago, one of the most popular migratory centers, increased by 50,000 to 75,000; Detroit's black community exploded from 6,000 in 1920 to 120,000 by 1930.

[Page 328]

A comparison of the African American population in 1910 and 1960 shows a general shift northward and into urban areas.

Twentieth-century migration and its causes are traditionally analyzed in terms of “push-pull” factors; during the World War I era, economic and social conditions in the rural South pushed African Americans to actively seek out opportunities in northern urban areas. A depressed cotton market, compounded by the effects of successive boll weevil infestations further marginalized black sharecroppers. The social and political manifestations of white supremacy functioned as an even more potent force in the decision of African Americans to abandon the rural South. Black migrants actively searched for alternatives to the daily humiliations of Jim Crow and the everlooming threat of violence that undergirded the southern power structure.

In addition, wartime employment opportunities pulled African Americans from their southern roots to major northern cities. African Americans eagerly filled industrial jobs left vacant because of the interruption of European immigration. Increased production demands brought about by the war made black people a vital source of labor for jobs normally considered off-limits. White agents often recruited southern African Americans for industrial employment and facilitated their arrival to a city.

Although shaped by the political economy of war, the Great Migration was fundamentally a grassroots movement propelled by the intrinsic desire for individual and familial safety, social dignity, political agency, and economic viability. African Americans did not need white labor agents to enlighten them about the benefits of leaving the South. Families carefully planned and strategized their departures. Migration often occurred in stages, with an individual family member leaving to scout housing and employment opportunities in advance of [Page 329]his or her remaining kin. They were further aided by social networks, including previous migrants, family members, railroad workers, and communal organizations that informed potential “exodusters” of the prospects for a better life in the city and provided both tangible and intangible assistance to them in their transition. The Chicago Defender, for example, played an extremely important role. As the nation's largest-circulation black newspaper, the Defender encouraged the steady flow of African American Southerners by extolling the social and economic benefits of migration to Chicago, within the context of a stinging critique of southern white supremacy.

...