The Great Migration

The Great American Migration was the movement of approximately 7 million African Americans from the Southern United States to the North, Midwest, and California from 1910 to 1970. Black southerners moved to escape racism, find employment, and to get a better education for their children. Some historians separate the period of 1910-1940 as the Great Migration and call the time frame from 1940-1970 as the second Great Migration. In the first migration, it is estimated that 1.6million people migrated and 5million people migrated in the second migration.

How It Began

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863. At that time less than 8% of Blacks lived in the North and Midwest. In 1900, approximately 90% resided in former slave holding states. Most African Americans migrated to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.

Chicago got the most African Americans of all cities from 1940-1960. The Black population went from 278,000 to 813,000. The south side of Chicago became know as the Black Capital of America. Detroit, New York, and Cleveland saw major increases as well.

Reasons for Migrating

WWI created jobs as white men went to war leaving factory jobs open. Whites who were in the service industry took the factory jobs leaving all other occupations available for Blacks. The boll weevil, an insect in the beetle family, infestation of 1910 killed cotton fields leaving sharecroppers and laborers jobless. Jim Crow laws and terrorism from the Ku Klux Klan left African Americans no option other than escape. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 left hundreds displaced. In the North, African American men had the right to vote and help decide the future for their families. Once again, the onslaught of WWII left Blacks behind to fill jobs that white men abandoned to fight in the war. This time, African Americans were allowed in the factories of Detroit and the steel mills of Cleveland, just to name a few.

With big companies, including the railroads, sending recruiters from the North to encourage Blacks to leave and fill jobs, moving was not a second thought or hesitation.

Birth of Neighborhoods

With The Great Migration came the first large urban Black neighborhoods in the North. African American "chased out" whites and fought for housing with European immigrants coming the United States seeking the same opportunities as those who migrated from the south. As immigrants and migrants rose in population, whites dispersed and spread from the inner city and created the suburbs. Mortgage discrimination and "redlining" in inner city areas made sure African American migrants would not have access to newer housing in the suburbs.

The streams of migrants continued until the Great Depression and WWII caused the northern demand for workers to slacken. The second migration was credited to the revival of the KKK and the birth of Civil Rights.

Racial Differences

As Blacks continued to migrate they became integrated into the new society. Both races, Blacks and whites, existed closely together and the divide between them became greater and more apparent. African Americans had to adjust to the more urban living than the rural farm life they were accustomed too.

Since most Blacks held onto their Southern culture and dialect, this created and added to the separation and discrimination of the new northerners. Stereotypes of African Americans developed during this period as migrants arrived to reside next to those who were originally from the North. Whites were often opposed to their new neighbors and reacted violently with mass riots, bombings and even murder.

The New Migration

The New Migration, as current data shows, has had the reverse affect on the nation. From 1995 to the year 2000, African Americans are moving back to the south as the Midwest and North experience de-industrialization. Factories and plants close and jobs are moved overseas. The growth of high quality jobs in the south and family ties make the south the modern day better option.

Georgia, Texas, and Maryland were the states that acquired the most African American college graduates during this time period. California who for decades was a net gaining state for Black migrants actually lost more African Americans than it acquired in the late 1990's.

The New Migration is still in progress as the North once known as "the Promised Land" continues to decline. "The North" has the highest rate of foreclosures, unemployment, and economic suppression. The meltdown of the mortgage industry and the closing of a major US bank no longer makes the North and Midwest "the Promised Land" of America.

Sources were derived from;

www.wikipedia.org....The Great American Migration and The New Migration
www.loc.gov.....Migrations
www.pbs.org.....The Great Migration